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Old 04-30-2010, 08:59 PM   #1
David Orange
Dojo: Aozora Dojo
Location: Birmingham, AL
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Tai Chi Ruler

About thirty years ago, I did a lot of an exercise called tai chi ruler, which involves "rocking" from back foot to front foot and back while making a vertical circle with the hands, palms facing inward, in front of your body. It's a simple movement with a number of important points to keep it true: the movement of the weight from foot to foot specifically massages two major pressure points in each foot, sending streams of nerve energy up the legs and spine to the head. The movement is done slowly and continuously, like tai chi, with natural breathing. You should actually be holding a "tai chi ruler" between your palms, as well, but you can do it empty-handed.

The pattern is simple: with the right foot forward, you rock back and forth and circle the hands 18 times, with the hands at waist level. Then you do it 18 times on the left. Then you put the right foot forward again and repeat 18 times with the hands at sternum level. Then you do the left side 18 times, sternum level. Then on the right, you do it 18 times with the hands at face level, making vertical circles as you rock back and forth. Then 18 times on the left. That's 108 repetitions. It takes several minutes to do a full set.

Once you've gotten used to the basic exercise, you can hold an object, such as a bowling ball, and use heavier ones as you get used to it.

RESULTS

After doing tai chi ruler several times a week for several weeks, working through heavier bowling balls, I noticed that my body felt very much of a single piece and I compared it to being made of very firm rubber. Yet, I was softer and more supple than I ever had been. I could bend forward with straight legs and put my face on my knees without effort. And my legs were very strong.

THE PRESENT

I don't know why I quit doing it. I did go back to it several times over the years, but I never did it so regularly over several months as I did in the early '80s.

I was struck a couple of years ago by comments Dan Harden made about IS training creating an effect as if your body were a hard rubber statue rooted in the earth. It reminded me of my tai chi ruler experience, and I started thinking about it again.

Some pieces fell into place over a couple of years: I saw parts of one of Mike Sigman's Internal Strength videos--in particular, the four directions of power: up, out, down and in.

When I did tai chi ruler long ago, I brought the hands down with the rocking back, pushed them forward and brought them up as I moved forward, then brought them in and down as I rocked back.

In later investigations, I got the idea that I had maybe been doing the hand circle in the wrong direction. Some sources indicated that the movement should be up, away, down and in. So I started doing that way and when I saw Mike's videos, it made sense to do it that way. I actually met Minoru Akuzawa and Dan Harden and saw their various methods and remembered Dan's specific discussions on rolling the hara as the source of movement. So I started working on rolling the hara to create the movement for tai chi ruler. And specifically, I used the tai chi ruler movement to search for the elusive "raising the arms using only jin". In other words, I could move the hands forward and back using only the back and forth movement of the hips. The circle would be achieved simply by raising the arms up and letting them drop with the weight. So the only thing I had to do with my arms was lift them, but could I do that without using the shoulders at all?

Well, I only had to lift them the distance of the forward and backward movement, which is maybe ten inches or twelve. So I did the rocking movement and as I moved to the rear foot, I was searching for any impulse that could lift the arms. Since I'd gotten my first direct introduction to jin force from Jang Choe, I thought of taking a weight on my arms, as in two-hand-grasping two-hand, drawing the arms back as I shifted my hips back and feeling the load reach a limit and tipping point at which it was easy to bring my arms up with the breath and visualizing bringing the lower abdomen in and under, and pushing upward along the front of the spine. As I moved forward, I imagined the roll of the hara continuing over the top and down the front, the hands descending at the same time , drawing back as the body shifted back.

So I did that 108 times and when I was finished, I had the most impressive tingling in my hands, a powerful feeling almost like electrification that I attributed to the stimulated awareness of the direct connection of the fascial tissues of my hands to the fascial mass of my hara. And the hands felt heavy and directly connected to the hara. This accorded with so many things Mike and Dan had both discussed that I felt it must be on the right track, and then I read Haruo Matsuoka's article on Aikido Journal and was struck by his comments about learning to connect his fingertips to his hara. The new way of doing tai chi ruler had electrified my hands to the fingertips. And that's the old definition of jin--it comes from the soles of the feet, is directed by the center and manifested in the fingertips. When I showed a practice partner what I was doing, I was able to pin him in place on his feet, double-weighted just by bringing my hands forward and down as he gripped them. I was able to lock him down. He couldn't let go my hands or he'd fall backward, but he couldn't come forward, either, and he couldn't rise. And that was from his grip on me. So that was fun and it seemed like I might be starting to get some of the idea. Static demonstration, of course, but there were some dynamics there, too.

Well,so after that, I started thinking about pole-shaking and thought maybe that was the same thing--to move the far end of the pole by moving the center and sending the force down the pole. So I got some long bamboo canes that I'd recently cut and tried to shake them by using only my hara movement. Now, when I say "shake," I was looking for something like a spiraling whip movement while standing in a sort of back stance, like I'd learned at Ark's seminar. This was the stance Ark had used to slam me back 25 feet across the Roswell Budokan mats while I was in the same stance, holding the other end of the bo. It only took a few tries to suddenly understand how Ark had blasted me back 25 feet. I will try to explain.

First, concerning the bo from that stance, I've trained with it a bit since Ark's seminar, getting most of my advances through Jang Choe. Recently, I had an interesting encounter with a fellow who's seen my progress in IS development over a couple of years. He asked how that was coming along and I did Ark's push-out with him, and could completely control him. I could hold him back, allow him to come out, stop him and press him back at will. There were a few times when he made it hard for me to come out of the full back position, but when I managed to do it, if he resisted, it would send him back a bit. So then I had him get in the back stance and hold the bo while I stood on the other side in the same stance and pushed him back at will. And then I was able to push him off his stance using only my rear-side thumb on the end of the bo to push it forward. So I was using only the tip of my thumb to send this man, my own size and an extensively-trained martial artist off his stance.

So with that in mind, when I tried the pole-shaking by using only my hara movement, I suddenly felt that this was the secret ingredient Ark had used to slam me not off my stance but 25 feet back, several feet of it in the air. If you can use jin to push a grown man back with your thumb, say you suddenly added a pulse of that spiral energy and a forward shove? I was suddenly convinced that that was exactly what Ark had done to blast me back. I could feel it happening to me as I just whipped that pole around with hara movement. It hit me like wall of compressed air and blasted me back. Shaking the 16-foot bamboo, I felt that this added element to a forward push could account for that, and I recognized what Ark had been trying to tell me when he illustrated a spiral around his lower leg, from the ground up the leg and into the hip, in front of which was the pushing hand. He said to transfer the spiral from the ground through the leg and into the hand. And I thought that pole shaking could add the extra element--IF you used the hara movement to do it.

Now, keep in mind that these are preliminary insights that have not been extensively tested or proven, especially against people with refined internal skills. Next, what skills I have developed are just a foot in the door past pure external technical operation and the direct connection from the hara to the hands is only now becoming clear to me as something more than a platitude. Third, these insights came from recognizing the connection of the hara to the hands through a new approach to doing an exercise I learned a long time ago: tai chi ruler. It's a simple movement, but with influence from able people, you can find a lot inside it.

Best to all.

David

"That which has no substance can enter where there is no room."
Lao Tzu

"Eternity forever!"

www.esotericorange.com
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Old 05-01-2010, 07:43 AM   #2
Rabih Shanshiry
 
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Re: Tai Chi Ruler

Sounds like a great exercise - thank you for sharing. Do you have the means and inclination to post a video as illustration?

...rab
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Old 05-02-2010, 11:11 AM   #3
gromph
 
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Re: Tai Chi Ruler

Quote:
Rabih Shanshiry wrote: View Post
Sounds like a great exercise - thank you for sharing. Do you have the means and inclination to post a video as illustration?

...rab
Is it anything like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXs6h3QSsDs

Cheers,

Mike
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Old 05-02-2010, 07:49 PM   #4
David Orange
Dojo: Aozora Dojo
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Re: Tai Chi Ruler

Quote:
Rabih Shanshiry wrote: View Post
Sounds like a great exercise - thank you for sharing. Do you have the means and inclination to post a video as illustration?

...rab
Yes, I do...but...I don't know when it's likely to happen. I did want to follow up with a couple of points.

First, what I've felt through tai chi ruler can only be good but I'm careful not to obsess on it or put too much effort into it or breath work until I can understand it better. I don't want to do a lot of it wrong.

And what I've recently seen through tai chi ruler is just a glimpse of what the hara/hand linkage can do for power: my actual practice of it is nothing near that, still very general and crude. Imagine what can be done by someone who has actually perfected that connection--foot to center to hand and can actually use subtle movement of the hara to produce a big shake in a 12-foot pole. And if they've already gotten a jin grounding of the person on the other end of the pole, to shove/shake them back wouldn't require much effort. And it describes a spiral movement from ground through one's own body through the pole to the other person.

And that makes sense in light of a lot of discussions about spiral energy in the IS threads, so it seems like I might be on the right track. The more I think about it, the more certain I am that it explains how Ark Akuzawa blasted me back so hard. But I may be wrong and I don't want to get too good at doing such things the wrong way...

Another point is that I've also been thinking of the relation of tai chi ruler to other practices, such as reeling silk. Instead of "rocking" forward/back, you pivot left/right. And instead of making a vertical circle in front of the body the hands go into a sort of horizontal circling...as one shifts and pivots side-to-side. It is also vertical, but sideways...

So is reeling silk maybe a morphing of tai chi ruler? Since I had that idea, I've seen that there are a lot of variant forms of tai chi ruler and I don't know how useful each of those might be. But it does seem to me that reeling silk is like a four-dimensional expansion of the very simple forward/back vertical circling.

Whether that's correct or not, it seems as if practice of tai chi ruler could be a good way to begin the body development to support development of internal strength.

Thanks.

David

"That which has no substance can enter where there is no room."
Lao Tzu

"Eternity forever!"

www.esotericorange.com
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Old 05-03-2010, 01:21 AM   #5
Kwizxi
Dojo: Northampton Kai Shin Kai
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Re: Tai Chi Ruler

I found quite a few videos named Tai Chi Ruler on Youtube... I wont link to any here as I don't know which best represent what has been described, but it's worth a rummage
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Old 05-03-2010, 06:47 AM   #6
phitruong
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Re: Tai Chi Ruler

try this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96_J93fdE9I

watch middle and lower. arms not important.
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Old 05-03-2010, 12:04 PM   #7
JangChoe
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Re: Tai Chi Ruler

Quote:
David Orange wrote: View Post
So with that in mind, when I tried the pole-shaking by using only my hara movement, I suddenly felt that this was the secret ingredient Ark had used to slam me not off my stance but 25 feet back, several feet of it in the air. If you can use jin to push a grown man back with your thumb, say you suddenly added a pulse of that spiral energy and a forward shove? I was suddenly convinced that that was exactly what Ark had done to blast me back. I could feel it happening to me as I just whipped that pole around with hara movement. It hit me like wall of compressed air and blasted me back. Shaking the 16-foot bamboo, I felt that this added element to a forward push could account for that, and I recognized what Ark had been trying to tell me when he illustrated a spiral around his lower leg, from the ground up the leg and into the hip, in front of which was the pushing hand. He said to transfer the spiral from the ground through the leg and into the hand. And I thought that pole shaking could add the extra element--IF you used the hara movement to do it.
Ark could've done that. But I think there was a bit more to it than just a sudden spiral pulse forward. But I'm sure what you wrote is a part of it, but not the whole part.

Ark did mention that he won't be able to launch a girl that far since they weren't as strong as you. So there was a lot of borrowing jin going on as well. He pretty much borrowed your force, reflected it, and returned your force back to you with a lot of interest which caused you to be launched back.
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Old 05-03-2010, 01:23 PM   #8
David Orange
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Re: Tai Chi Ruler

Quote:
Jang Choe wrote: View Post
Ark could've done that. But I think there was a bit more to it than just a sudden spiral pulse forward. But I'm sure what you wrote is a part of it, but not the whole part.
Absolutely. What I got was just a hint of the sun coming toward the horizon--not even enough to call it "light" yet.

What happened was, after I started feeling the hands so strongly, I started doing some spear thrusting (as I remembered Rob doing it in clips). I was trying to thrust the spear with jin and I noticed that when you bring the rear hand up over the head, that's a half-arc and that the spear tip makes a smaller complementary half-arc. And the tip also goes from pointing up to pointing down through a lengthwise arc. So I suddenly realized that I was projecting a spiral and remembered Ark showing that spiral coming up his lower leg from the heel (for the bo-pushing exercise). And then I realized that pole-shaking was this kind of thing but done sort of "in place," and that the main point was to use the hara to create the shaking.

Quote:
Jang Choe wrote: View Post
Ark did mention that he won't be able to launch a girl that far since they weren't as strong as you.
I'm much stronger that a girl!

A small one, anyway. Except for Nori...or Jill...

I ran into an old high school acquaintance at a reunion and asked him what he's doing. He said he's into Chicken Fighting.

I said, "OK, I'm interested in that because, see, I know I can beat a chicken!"

Quote:
Jang Choe wrote: View Post
So there was a lot of borrowing jin going on as well. He pretty much borrowed your force, reflected it, and returned your force back to you with a lot of interest which caused you to be launched back.
Of course, everything he did was completely connected and I'm also very unsure of the ideas of hara manipulation I have been examining. So I'm not working that too hard. And tai chi ruler is simple and soft enough that I think I can explore within it without so much risk.

Hope we can all meet up soon.

Thanks.

David

Last edited by David Orange : 05-03-2010 at 01:35 PM.

"That which has no substance can enter where there is no room."
Lao Tzu

"Eternity forever!"

www.esotericorange.com
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