Tai Chi Chuan, how to make the intention not hard? There are more and more people practicing Tai Chi now. Tai Ji Chuan is a sport especially suitable for keeping in good health, especially popular with the elderly. You should pay attention to practicing Tai Ji Chuan. Here's how Tai Ji Chuan can do it effortlessly.

How to achieve the connotation of 1 intention without force in Taiji Chuan?

The intention is easy to understand. "Meaning" can be understood as ideals and ideas, rather than empty meaning. In fact, all sports and everything in life need conscious command, but Tai Ji Chuan emphasized the point of intention. It requires every movement and every set of roads to run from beginning to end under the command of "meaning". For example, the simple action of "getting up" must also be guided by consciousness, with arms raised horizontally, shoulders sinking, relaxed sinking, knees bent and waist relaxed, and then squatted down, and elbows falling to drive hands to press down gently. It can be said that apart from physical activities, the most important thing for Tai Ji Chuan is to do "conscious gymnastics" for her nervous system and get exercise. This is of greater significance to those who practice boxing only for fitness.

"Not working hard" is obviously a relative statement. There is no action without effort in the world. It is impossible to complete the action without muscle contraction, and it is impossible to punch or even support the body without exertion. It means: first, you don't need to be clumsy, and second, you need to use less energy. Actions that can be completed with 10% force will never use 1 1% force. As far as pushing hands and Sanda are concerned, not using force means to minimize the force when touching each other.

Tai Ji Chuan comes from life. It is Tai Ji Chuan's universal principle to use one's heart without exertion, and it is also a human instinct. We should not be mystifying, unilaterally pursuing "meaning" and "qi" and rejecting "force". Otherwise, the ideological activities will be separated, making people unfathomable and at a loss, thus turning science into metaphysics of the Chinese nation, which is very unfavorable to the promotion and development of Tai Ji Chuan.

A practice method with little intention.

I think intention is not hard, it is a means and method of practicing boxing, but it is by no means the purpose of practicing boxing. Just for the right way to practice boxing, relax physically and mentally, and send it out immediately when you need to exert your strength. Just like a spring, it is usually loose, but when it is tightened, it is very powerful. Another example is the whip, which is usually loose, but it is very powerful when thrown. In order to achieve this goal, we need to gradually achieve the intention of not using force. The method is as follows:

1, pay attention to calm down. When practicing boxing, no matter how simple or complicated the movements are, you should always keep quiet, concentrate, be serious and lively, and don't be absent-minded and unfocused, otherwise it will be difficult to achieve your goal without exertion.

2, relax, effortless. Beginners in Tai Ji Chuan often feel tense and stiff all over, so they should start with relaxation and softening. When the body is naturally active or stable, relax some muscles and joints that may be relaxed to the maximum extent, and avoid using clumsy and stiff strength during exercise. In addition to exerting strength as required, relax muscles in other parts as much as possible, so that all joints of the body can be relaxed and strive for round work. Pine, which can be said to be a special term in Tai Ji Chuan, has no limit. Pine should be gradually connected with heart, mind, qi and god.

3. skills. For Tai Ji Chuan, skill is very important. My teacher, Mr. Hong, a master of Tai Ji Chuan, once said, "When learning boxing, especially Chen-style boxing, you really need to use' meaning', and you can't use your poor strength. But it is not that strength is not good, but that strength and intelligence should be combined and cannot be neglected. " "Learning Tai Ji Chuan should conform to Tai Ji Chuan's logical thought, so as to command the limbs to learn and exercise according to Tai Ji Chuan's routine method, and can be mastered and used without self-help. And through persistent exercise, it produces reasonable ingenuity and strength. This is the power of silk, or internal strength. " Usually learning boxing requires correct posture, that is, to make the form of learning boxing, practicing boxing and using boxing match the time and direction well. For example, picking, pulling, and smoothing are all ways to introduce yourself to each other with each other's enthusiasm. Only by practicing the skills well can we achieve both rigidity and softness, and then we will not exert ourselves.

Intentional stage without effort

Like anything else, there are stages when the intention is not hard, and it is in terms of a certain stage and level.

Beginners should focus on what style to fight, whether the posture is correct, and how to take the route. They just want to fight well. Just like a beginner learning calligraphy. You can practice one horizontal and one vertical at first. There is no need to learn endlessly, and so is practicing boxing. Otherwise, haste makes waste. It should be said that most of the movements at this time are clumsy and stiff. If the intention is overemphasized without exertion, beginners will be at a loss. On the contrary, we should emphasize relaxation and nature.

After practicing boxing skillfully, he gradually turned to the use of strength and related imagination. If you are struggling, you must have the imagination to grasp a certain part of the human body; Push hard and push forward with imagination. Conceptual activity has changed from mechanical action to guiding action with ideas. With "familiarity" and gradual "erudition", Tai Ji Chuan's technology has gradually become proficient. At this time, the clumsy power has been removed, and the light changes, and the circle turns to itself, which is in line with the boxing method, so the small force wins the strong force. This stage can be called intentional failure to work hard.

How to cultivate to a higher level

At a higher level, it should be "inadvertently inserted willow into the shade." Imagine that the Taiji Chuan family, who are very inspirational in their gestures, immediately started to move, so it doesn't matter. "Boxing without boxing means unintentional, and unintentional is true." This is the "God" stage that boxing practitioners dream of.

1 "All intentions, not efforts"

Calligraphy pays attention to brushwork and boxing pays attention to strength. Calligraphy, on the other hand, emphasizes "the power of the pen, not the potential", while Tai Ji Chuan studies just emphasizes "the intention is not hard".

Yang Chengfu, a famous Tai Ji Chuan artist, once listed "the heart does not exert itself" as one of the "Ten Essentials" in "Ten Essentials of Tai Ji Chuan" and gave a detailed explanation. He said: "Tai Chi legend: It's all about heart, not exertion. When practicing Tai Chi, the whole body should be loose, and there should be no weakness. You should stay between the bones and muscles to bind yourself, and then gently turn around. " Some people think that the phrase "heart is not hard" was invented by Yang Chengfu, which is limited to health preservation. Actually, it is not. Yang Chengfu quoted "it's all about heart but no effort", referring to the "mood" in Li Yishe's five-word tactics in the Qing Dynasty. When you say you are calm, if you are not calm, you are not an expert. You have no direction before and after raising your hand. Be calm. At first, I couldn't help myself. We should rest our hearts and realize that we should bend and stretch as people move, instead of losing our minds or stretching ourselves. He is strong, I am strong, and I am ahead; He is powerless, I am powerless, and I am still unfinished. Always pay attention to where you are, where your heart is, and never lose your head for advice. Do it now, and it will be done in a year or so. It's all heart, not force. After a long time, people do it for me, and I don't do it for others. " Now, if we study the tactics of "Ten Commandments and Five Words" with a comparative method, we can understand that "meaning is not hard" is an inherent theory of Tai Ji Chuan, which was not created by Yang Chengfu, and it is by no means limited to the way of keeping in good health. The five-character formula quoted above is explained from the perspective of the application of Tai Chi pushing hands and Sanshou techniques. The so-called "understanding with rest" and "focusing on the present" both emphasize meaning, but in the theory of Taiji's biography of ancient and modern times, they all pay special attention to meaning.

Of course, Yang Chengfu's "Ten Essentials" developed on the basis of inheritance when explaining "no pains with your heart", especially using the meridian theory of traditional Chinese medicine to prove, for example, "How can you be strong if you doubt that you don't work hard?" There are meridians in the human body, just like there are ditches in the ground-ditches flow without blocking water, and air flows without closing meridians. If the whole body is stiff, the meridians are blocked, the qi and blood are stagnant, and the rotation is ineffective, then the whole body will make a move. Don't use force, get what you want, get what you want. If qi and blood flow, instill them day by day, circulate all over the body all the time, and practice for a long time, it is the real inner strength, that is, "extremely soft, and then extremely firm" in Taiji Zhuan. This analysis was undoubtedly quite innovative at that time. At the same time, it also shows that it was very common at that time to doubt that "no effort" could not achieve strength and victory. What's more, he didn't agree with what he said, for example, "Inadvertent efforts are the easiest to provoke, so they are not enough."

2. It's not difficult. Have to pretend to be forced.

However, many people confuse "not working hard" with "not working hard"; Some people say that "no effort" has no intention, thinking that since "no effort" is emphasized, how can there be "I am strong, I am strong, and I am strong first"? In their view, "not working hard" means that there is no strength and it becomes "soft". In fact, "intention is not difficult" means using consciousness to dominate action. Pushing hands means "where you are moved, where you need your heart", so that you can "move with people and bend and stretch with them", instead of unilaterally pouring your consciousness into your efforts. Because of the pouring and exertion of consciousness, the action is easy to stagnate. At this time, although the blunt force is large, the rotation is invalid. Not only is it difficult to give full play to Tai Ji Chuan's skill of "four-to-two-to-one" and "small wins big", but even if the health care effect is investigated and analyzed, it is not conducive to promoting qi and blood circulation. But the "not working hard" mentioned above refers to paying attention to the problem of consciousness, not to strength. Boxing proverb says: "If you are interested, you will be angry, and if you are angry, you will be full of energy." That is, you only need to "move your heart" and "transport your body with qi", regardless of your own efforts. Because strength is born with unique skills. Of course, this must be the product of work.

3. Soft and hard needles hidden in cotton

As for Tai Ji Chuan's strength, it can be summed up in sixteen words, that is, "giving priority to softness, being rigid outside and rigid inside, and combining rigidity with softness". There are many brilliant expositions on the strength of Tai Ji Chuan scholars in past dynasties. For example, Yang Chengfu said in "Tai Ji Chuan Practice Talk", "Tai Ji Chuan is a skill of combining rigidity with softness, hiding needles in cotton. . . . . . "； Another example is Tai Chi fingering, which says, "It is wrong to use force, it is wrong not to use force, and it is just right in cotton." (See Yang Chengfu's The Usage of Taiji Biography, page 85, Wenguang Publishing House, 193 1 version) But "effortless" here obviously means "soft but not rigid", so it is "wrong". This should be analyzed comprehensively from the upper and lower sentences, and cannot be taken out of context. In other words, the above-mentioned "intentional non-use of force" is correct, and it is also correct to point out that "non-use of force is wrong", and the two are not contradictory. So the former refers to the intention of conscious concentration, and the latter refers to the combination of rigidity and softness, which is not the same thing.

4, strong ten generals, clever break one thousand catties

Mr. Yang Chengfu also said in the chapter "Miscellaneous Words" in the book "Usage of Tai Ji Chuan": "It is good to say that one is strong and ten is good-reasonable, I say that one skill can break a thousand pounds!"

In recent years, some people often have serious problems such as coping and confrontation due to lack of training in Taiji Pushing Hands Competition. In the case of balance between the two forces, it is naturally the strong who wins. Such a powerful player has been in power for a period of time, and the saying of "winning ten games in one go" has attracted the attention of many Tai Chi enthusiasts. It's not that we don't want this "one strength", but that we attach relative importance to "one skill". At the same time, this kind of strength is vitality and internal strength, rather than "cow strength" and poor strength. ZaLun said, "Don't be afraid of Niu Li. If you can't beat your strength with skilled internal skills, why do you practice boxing? ! It's no use losing a thousand pounds! " This is enough to show that Tai Ji Chuan still advocates "cleverness but not strength". However, we can't think that Tai Ji Chuan didn't use force, otherwise the relative truth is absolute, and the truth immediately becomes a fallacy. As for the nature of strength, it is even more necessary to identify it, because what we want is the inner strength of Tai Chi, not the clumsy strength.

5. "The power of a pen is not power."

Finally, we can also find similar arguments from ancient theories. The ancients said, "Stones from other mountains can attack jade." Although calligraphy and boxing belong to both literature and martial arts, there are similarities in some basic principles between ancient techniques. Calligraphy with a long history is especially enlightening to the late school of boxing. In preface to stirrup, translated by Ru Lin said, "Zhao Lu said, translated by Lin said," I learn from my books, but I seek their strength. I don't know that the power of the pen is not power; Used for strength, the pen is dead! " Isn't this just in line with the proposition that "it's not difficult to use your heart" in Taiji Zhuan? !

Mi Fei, a famous calligrapher in the Song Dynasty, said, "People write a lot of big characters. If you try your best to grasp the pen, the characters will be less bony. A round pen will make people laugh just like steamed cakes! It's as small as fine print, ready to be placed in front, don't deliberately pretend! " The "muscle spirit" and "ready to go" mentioned here all reflect the inherent strength of nature, that is, "pen power" But it is by no means "holding the pen hard" or "deliberately pretending" to achieve it. Because the harder you work, the more dead the pen is; The more dead the pen, the weaker the writing ability, and the result is self-defeating!

How can Tai Ji Chuan not exert himself? How does he learn from Tai Ji Chuan?

1, relax and don't be clumsy.

Relaxation does not mean relaxation, but in the case of natural activity or stability of the body, relax some muscles and joints that may be relaxed to the maximum extent, and avoid clumsy and stiff exertion during action. Tai Chi requires the upper body to be straight and comfortable, the arms to be rounded, and the legs to be flexed to the required degree.

2. Distinguish between reality and reality, and stabilize the center of gravity.

After a preliminary understanding of Tai Ji Chuan's postures, we should pay more attention to the issues of excess and deficiency and the center of gravity of the body. From one posture to another, it involves the connection of postures, which runs through the change of footwork and the ubiquitous shift of center of gravity, from real to virtual, from virtual to real, that is, it must be clear and continuous.

3, up and down, whole body coordination

Go hand in hand, that is, the movements of lower limbs and upper limbs should be coordinated, not that the movements of lower limbs have been completed, but that of upper limbs have not been completed. Although beginners know theoretically that they should take the waist as the axis and the limbs are driven by the trunk to complete the action, they often can't cooperate closely. Therefore, they should first try to coordinate their limbs through simple exercises, and then gradually achieve the coordination and integrity of the whole body through coherent exercises of all movements, so that all parts of the body can be exercised and developed in a balanced way.

What are the characteristics of Tai Ji Chuan?

1, comprehensive exercise

Tai Ji Chuan's movements have several extremely important characteristics, such as softness, slowness, coherence, arc (that is, circular motion) and immobility, which can never be ignored in exercise. Here, we can only prove its comprehensive exercise function with the characteristics of immobility.

2. Strong interest

Tai Chi Chuan's movements are all circular or arc-shaped, so it's not easy to do circular movements when you just practice shelves, and of course it's not so interesting. But after practice, the more you practice, the more familiar you become; With the increase of roundness, there will be a strong interest. Finally, if we can take advantage of the changes of reality and excess and exercise pranayama in circular exercise, its interest will be more endless. A strong interest can improve exercise mood and promote health, which is one of the advantages of Tai Ji Chuan.

3. Everyone can practice

Tai Ji Chuan's movements are soft and slow, and the boxing style is not difficult to learn. Moreover, the movement can be more or less adapted to the different requirements of patients according to their characteristics (except patients with hemoptysis or bleeding), so it can help patients achieve remarkable results in restoring and enhancing functional activities.

Can you grow taller by practicing Tai Ji Chuan?

It has little effect on people in developmental stages.

Physical exercise can make people's metabolism vigorous, growth hormone secretion increase obviously, promote physical development, and make their bodies slightly taller. But this effect is very small, and Tai Ji Chuan has no advantage in many sports.

Will practicing Tai Ji Chuan hinder your growth?

No, Tai Ji Chuan will not affect physical development, and there are no factors that hinder growth. Tai Ji Chuan can achieve the purpose of physical exercise, so don't worry too much.