Mr. Doug

Hi Everyone:

I wrote what follows in response to an email exchange with a practitioner named Brian in the U.K. It was written about 8 years ago.

Who Am I?  If you know my history with Mr. Moy, please skip this section.

My name is Doug Nettleton.  I was introduced to Mr. Moy and the tai chi he was teaching, by a colleague, in 1975 as a shortcut to the black belt grading in Judo.  After two months, I gave up practicing Judo.  I, not too wisely, quit practising taichi in 1977.  I returned to my taichi practice, underweight and sickly in 1983, when the best advice of modern medicine was: "Your heart murmur is positively correlated with less connective tissue.  You'll always be underweight, just learn to live with it."

Vanity precluded me going to see Mr. Moy until I could walk through the set without looking like I was going to die.  In late December, I was re-introduced to Mr. Moy at a banquet.  When I left the banquet, I could not do up my pants.  Mr. Moy invited me back to the club to practice.  The first correction he gave me that night, was the last correction he had given me in the 70's.  After about two hours of practising under Doug Overholt's supervision I was ready to eat again.  Before I left, Mr. Moy said: "Come on Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon, and I will help you."

I practised regularly with him until just before he passed away. His second last correction - in don-yu: "Ah Du(k), sit low!"  His final correction again in don-yu: "Ah Du(k), too low!"  "Ah Du(k)" is how he called me.  I'm happy to say that my health today is far better than when I returned to taichi in 1983.

I was a founding member of the CTCA Board of Directors, on which I served an initial 2 year term and was re-elected to a 3 year term.  I was involved in founding the IATLA and served on its board for one year.  I left both boards after a discussion with a CTCA member, who had been taught personally by Mr. Moy.  I asked: "What would possess you to change stuff you were personally taught by Mr. Moy?"  A puzzled look was followed by: "What do you mean?  I thought these changes were agreed to by you and the other senior founding members and instructors."

Introduction

I offer the following as my current understanding.  I say that, because if I had been asked to demonstrate "Cross Hands" in the tai chi set to a non-beginner one month ago, it would have been quite different from what I would show after recent practice sessions with Doug Overholt.  I invite him - Doug Overholt - to weigh in on any of the following that he feels is imprecise or incorrect. 

I encourage anyone reading the following - particularly those who want to describe what they're currently practising as "experimental and / or more advanced than what Mr. Moy taught" to actually try the exercises and experiments I will describe below.

I also want to thank Brian again for his e-mail that finally motivated me to put what follows down in writing.  Darren Pryke had also encouraged me to record these ideas and information during his recent visit to Canada.

Our Form and Related Practices - Origins, Content and Uses

Again, I don't mean to disrespect Brian's ideas.  But I consider almost everything in the following except from his e-mail to be incorrect ... 

"What defines Moy Style starts with the premise that the structure of the form is designed purely for health benefits. To achieve this he took the Yang style long form and - while keeping the sequence - modified the moves by introducing..for example....

 - extending the limbs to their full extent....stretching

 - rising and sitting

 - a narrow stance when stepping

 - exposing the chest when stretching the upper body ..eg as in brush knee.

none of these are found in any other form of Tai Chi and would, in the view of many fundamentalists disqualify our practice from being call Tai chi at all because they disable it as a martial art.

He also introduced Donyus and Toryus which are unique to our style."

We have video records of Mr. Moy performing our complete form from the 80's and 90's and video of an almost complete form from the 70's.  The form demonstrated is essentially the same in each decade.  He was clearly teaching martial arts in the 70's.  One of his "hooks" at the time to entice students to join him was: "Give me five years and fear no man!".  In the mid-80's I personally attended a three day workshop entitled: "Martial Arts Applications of Taoist Tai Chi" and several Friday evening practice sessions where martial arts applications were shown.  I also had the "privilege" of being the "practice dummy" while Mr. Moy taught Doug Overholt to throw me across the room.  It is true that Mr. Moy later lessened this emphasis.  But even near the end of his life - when he was using an oxygen tank - he got up and invited two fairly substantial students to wrap themselves around him at the low posture of "Geese Fly In Pairs"  He stood up, extending his arms, sending them each flying across the room.  I therefore reject the original premise that the form is designed purely for health benefits

I agree that the form Mr. Moy started with was one of many variations of Yang family tai chi.  Eva Wong once asserted that Mr. Moy chose this as the vehicle into which to incorporate his life-time of learning because he had had experience teaching it as an assistant to Leung, Tze-Pang and various forms of tai chi were known in western society.  

In the transcript of an early week-long workshop, an early member recounts practising our form in a park in Hong Kong.  An older gentleman, sitting on a park bench, watched him intently.  When he finished his practice, the older gentleman said something like: "Your tai chi is very interesting.  It contains elements of Yang family taichi, bagua, xing-yi, lokhup, and taoist and buddhist qigong practices."  Unfortunately, most of us do not have enough knowledge to say which elements come from each.  And while you might be surprised about what I think about what comes from where, I certainly have no ability to distinguish between taoist and buddhist qigong elements.

If one looks closely at the video record from the 70's and that from the 80's, you will notice subtle changes that probably originated with his final teacher, Mr. Yeung.

It is true that Mr. Moy often "stepped outside the form" to "get an effect" and some of these practices would not be practical from a martial arts perspective.  See below for more information about his "stepping outside the form".

As far as the idea that don-yus and tor-yus are unique to our form and practice, Ben Chung recently found a book in a bookstore in China titled: "Don-yus, Tor-yus and Jam Zhong, The Three Treasures of Leung, Tze-Pang".  I have witnessed students of Tek, Siu - at the time living in Toronto, last I heard living in Victoria - demonstrating what were clearly don-yus and tor-yus and while they may have come from Mr. Moy, he did not credit Mr. Moy with being one of his teachers.  I have practiced with a guy who claims to have been raised at HuaShan - legendary home of the creation of Lok Hup Ba Fa - who taught us what anyone would recognize as a don-yu.  The video: "LiuHeBaFa Twelve Animals" by "master" Paul Dillon are all essentially different versions of tor-yu. Finally, Tibetan Vajrayana Master Wang, Zi-Shan teaches a form called "One Finger Zen QiGong -Standing Form" which he learned from the Abbot of Shaolin Temple in exchange for teaching the abbot various Tibetan practices.  This form is now incorporated into the Nyingma tradition and lineage of Master Wang's teacher Khenpo Munsel Rimpoche.  Embedded in this practice "routine" are nine don-yus.

If anything, our form deserves to be called Tai Chi more that what is practised by many of the so called fundamentalists.  Tai chi is all about the interplay of yin and yang - how could this be more manifest than expanding and contracting; rising and falling; opening and closing; blocking turning to striking: etc.  As far as the misguided notion some had that because we didn't have the word "chuan" in the English version of the name of the form or the organization, Mr. Moy had dropped its intention from what we were doing.  It was certainly in the Chinese and when Mr. Moy wanted us to practise the set, he would say "da kuen", i.e. "play the fist"  

It is my belief that the standard form of tai chi Mr. Moy taught is a powerful martial art.  When practised in conjunction with the attendant exercises, it is a very effective tool for health recovery and maintenance and he - Mr. Moy - asserted could be used for "spiritual cultivation".  I, personally, do not profess to be very far along that path.

The Five Principles

When I returned to tai chi in 1983, I began attending a beginner class - to refresh my familiarity with the form,.and, as I mentioned above to get to the point that I wouldn't look like I was going to die after walking through the set.  At that time, beginners were taught the set with an emphasis on:

1) Stepping a 45 degrees,

2) Straight line from the heel to the back of the head, and

3) Squaring the hips.

After the student could pretty much walk through the form, they were then re-taught all the moves with an emphasis on:

4) Equal and Opposite Forces

5) Rising and Falling

6) The principle of Roundness

When the "Five Principles" were formalized, that of "Roundness" was eliminated.  Probably, this was because it was the least important for beginners or because to Mr. Moy it was so obvious.  I include it, because Mr. Moy said to me so often: "Ah Du(k), turrn-ah, turn morrre!".

Before some of you dismiss what follows with: "There goes Doug, still living in the past." or "We've moved on to more advanced stuff.", I encourage you to try the exercises and experiments I describe below.  Barring an unexpected rapid shift in human evolution, what follows will be as true in 1,000 years as now.  This is part of Mr. Moy's gift to us.

1) Stepping at 45 degrees.  When I returned to taichi in 1983, my beginner instructor would say - almost like a mantra - "All full length steps are at 45 degrees, or in preparation for the next full length step at 45 degrees."  The corollary to this is "There are no full length 90 degree steps!"  It allows for some 67 1/2 degrees steps "in preparation for the next full length step at 45 degrees". E.g. step to "Left Grasp Bird's Tail" after "Fair Lady Works Shuttles".

Try the following: On a floor with 9 or 12 inch square tiles, stand with your left foot just inside the bottom right corner of one of the tiles.  Your right foot will be in the bottom left corner of the adjacent tile.  Imagine you're facing North - it doesn't matter what direction you're actually facing.  Turn your left foot out to 45 degrees.  It - your left foot will now be pointing Northwest.  "Release" your left knee, letting it bend, pointing in the same direction as your left foot is pointing.  Reach back and down with your tailbone like you would reach back to sit in a chair.  Step forward with your right foot staying immediately to the left edge of the line of tiles it - your right foot - was standing on.  Look down.  Imagine a line from the left most point on your left foot going straight forward parallel to the imaginary line running along the rightmost edge of your right foot.  The distance between these two lines is the "width of the base you're standing on"

Experiment with the stance as follows: a) turn the left foot forward through 40, 35, 30, 25 degrees from the line of the right foot.  Notice how the width of the base you're standing on shrinks.  b) return to the original 45 degree stance and step left lightly - instep slightly - then more.  As you "in-step" more, your "base" will shrink more.  c) combine these two, turn your left foot to 25 degrees to the right foot and "in-step" to the point that the right outside edge of your right foot is lined up with your left heel.  It will feel like you’re walking a tight-rope.

Now you may say: "well I can improve that, I'll turn my left foot out to 90 degrees and / or I'll step more to the right with my right foot - now my "base" is really wide.  While this is true, you'll find your stability seriously compromised if you're pulled Northwest or pushed Southeast.  Even if you don't "out-step" and you rotate you back foot as you shift to the front foot as many styles advocate, you risk injuring the tissues around the knee.  Be careful experimenting with 90 degree steps.

2) Straight line from the heel to the back of the head.  To demonstrate the efficiency and structural strength of our taichi we used to do the following at demos:  Pick a "senior" member - in  terms of age, not years of practice - usually a grandmother and stand her in the middle "Press" posture of "Grasp Bird's Tail"  Then invite six of the biggest guys in the audience to come up and line them up one behind each other - the front guys pushing on the tai chi player's forearms.  The physics of the posture simply directs the force of the six guys along the tai chi player's spine and down the back leg and into the floor or the ground.

Try the following with a partner: one partner adopt the position "Press" from "Grasp Bird's Tail".  Ensure that the line from the heel to the back of the head is straight "plus or minus body curves".  Ensure that the general direction of the force coming out from the "Pressing" arms is parallel to the ground.  It will work best if the "hips are square" limited meaning of the next principle and both the shoulders and hips are facing the same direction.  Have the other partner push gently on the first partner's forearms.  Experiment with releasing the back knee / rounding the back leg and / or bringing the torso perpendicular to the ground.  Be careful.  Note how much more muscular effort is required to deal with the incoming force.

Don't lean!  Rather, reach with your upper body.  How will you know if you're leaning?  If your partner gradually increases the force he / she's exerting and the suddenly stops pushing and you fall forward, you were leaning.  

The next level of ensuring you're not leaning requires the partner to shift from pushing to pulling.  But dealing with this requires more than the "Straight line from the heel to the back of the head".

3) Squaring the Hips.  Beyond the limited meaning of "squaring the hips" in the exercise above, "Squaring the Hips" generally means having the hips facing the same direction as the direction the foot is pointing that has your weight on it.  So when you "open up" - i.e. your body - and "sit back" in "Grasp Bird's Tail" or Tor-yu, your hips and shoulders are perpendicular to, i.e. square to, your back foot.  Of course the corollary to this, your hips, shoulders and torso are 45 degrees to your front foot. 

The above simple meaning of "Square the Hips" is extremely important for the health of your spine and your ability to deal with an "incoming force" and is closely related to the next principle, but you can try the following without worrying about the next principle.  Stand in the front position of a tor-yu and do any one of the following: a) don't square your hips, but have your shoulders perpendicular to the direction of the front foot; b) square your hips but "over turn" your shoulders, so say if your right foot is forward, and using our previous example pointing North, your shoulders are facing NorthNorthEast; c) square your hips but "under turn" your shoulders, so say if your right foot is forward, and using our previous example pointing North, your shoulders are facing NorthNorthWest.  Now have your partner run their fingers along your spine until they feel one or more "twisted" positions or "kinks".  

The main reason we want the shoulders and hips to face the same direction is so that when you stretch, the pads between the vertebrae will be stretched symmetrically.  In all exceptions to this general principle, where the shoulders turn "across" the direction the hips are facing, e.g. "Diagonal Single Whip" in tai chi and "Geese Fly in Pairs" and "Monkey Picks Fruit" in lokhup, you stand up to take the stress off the spine.

When "Squaring the Hips" does not mean what you might think: "Raise Hands and Step Up" and "Play the Pei-Pa".  Many people would ask Mr. Moy: "Do you square your hips in these moves?"  He would answer: "Yes."  Even if you did not have the good fortune to see Mr. Moy do these moves in person and on video, you can easily convince yourself, that he didn't mean to turn your hips to be perpendicular to the forward leg.  Simply try it in either move, carefully, since there will be quite a lot of torque in the area of the back knee.  Next have your partner hold your wrists and push in the direction of the hip of the front leg.  You'll be easily pushed over so be careful.  While I'm not aware of anyone interpreting that he meant to square the hips to the back leg, you can equally demonstrate that he couldn't have meant that by trying it and having your partner push along your forearms toward the hip of your back leg - not to mention how awkward you'll feel.

Final note on "Square".  Eva Wong one day told us how before she came to North America and met Mr. Moy, she used to practice with her uncle in the park in Hong Kong.  She had read in the literature about "the square inside the circle" in "Wave Hands Like Clouds".  She asked him - her uncle - about it.  He repeated the dogma: "Yes, there's a square in the circle".  She asked: "Where is this square?"  When pressed, he admitted that he didn't know, but told her the people they practised with in the park would know.  In the park the same scene played out.  They all "knew" there was a "square inside the circle", but when pressed none of them knew where it was.  When she asked Mr. Moy, he was amused.  He told her it's not a four sided square but rather a "carpenter's square" and it referred to the shape your hips rotate through. 

4)  Equal and Opposite Force.  Again this is a broad topic particularly if we want to look at it from the perspective of classical Newtonian physics and all the force vectors involved in even the simplest ta chi movement.  In general when someone observes a tai chi move and tries to duplicate it themselves, they invariably fall into the mistake of having more intention in the obviously striking hand or foot.  For our purposes here will just consider the end posture of three moves: "Brush Knee"; "Deflect, Parry and Punch" and "Fair Lady Works Shuttles" - and will describe the principle as "Aliveness in Each Hand".

What this means is that when you complete the "palm strike" in "Brush Knee", you should have a comparable amount of force "down and forward" with the other hand.  When you complete the "punch" in "Deflect Parry and Punch" there should a comparable force "down and forward" with the left hand.  And finally, when you complete the fourth "Fair Lady Works Shuttles" there should be as much force "up and forward" in the apparently "blocking arm" as the apparently "striking palm".

Why do we do this?  Simply, to more easily keep the shoulders aligned with the hips at the end, most expressive parts of the postures.  This facilitates symmetrical stretching along the spine as described above.  Again, I encourage you to try these moves with more, less, or equal intention in the respective arms.

5) Rising and Falling.  Mr. Moy particularly when he was "training your intention", would say: "Stand-up", then after a brief pause: "Sit" or "Sit low".  We won't concern ourselves with the more difficult advice to: "Stand-up, sit down, at the same time!"  Why do we "Rise and Fall"?  Why do we do don-yus?  After all, don-yus are the quintessential example of rising and falling - controlled falling.  I'll address other issues and benefits of don-yus below.  

From a health perspective any of the rising and falling in any of the forms Mr. Moy taught, create several "pumping" actions in the body. Unfortunately, I don't know of any way to feel the internal effect of these various pumping actions.  So I offer the following assertions:  a) Circulation of the lymph is improved; b) Circulation of the blood is improved - in particular back to the heart through the veins; c) Circulation of the cerebrospinal fluid is improved; d) Circulation of the gastro-intestinal fluid is improved.- probably greater improvement results from "turning around the spine".

Some people believe, that standing up fully invalidates what we do as a martial art and therefore recommend in moves like "Golden Cock Stands On One Leg" and the various kicks, that you keep a crease in the hip, the knee flexed and the ankle relaxed of the leg you're standing on.  I encourage you to try that with a partner in "Golden Cock Stands On One Leg".  The partner should hold your hand that is reaching "up and out - forward" between his or her palms.  Now make the following adjustments: a) straighten the leg you're standing on as much as possible without "locking the knee"; b) reach back and down with your tailbone; c) turn the hip of the leg you're standing on toward the raised knee until the inside edge of the knee is lined-up with the navel; d) lift the sternum and reach up from the hundred gathering points.  Make sure you don't lean on your partner to deal with the force - rather reach.  Try all of the above on the "Separations".  Have your partner push on your palm. Everyone I've ever shown the foregoing to has been able to feel how much stronger the fully standing up posture is.  That said there are still some types of structural strength that we're supposed to be able to achieve that I cannot yet.

6) The Principle of Roundness.  Although not one of the formal "Five Principles", the principle of roundness is fundamental to every move.  The most obvious roundness is in the arms.  It was once asserted to me that each arm should appear as if it lies along a segment of some size of circle.  Even if your arm is straight as long as your elbow is not locked, you could argue that your arm lies along a very short segment of an infinite circumference circle - perhaps a bit of a stretch.  Recently, Doug Overholt teaching Darren Pryke "Roll-back" in "Grasp Bird's Tail" was trying to get Darren to improve the roundness of his arms.  He pointed down from Darren's right shoulder to his elbow and up to his hand and said: "Make it a big circle."  Then he rounded out the left arm with the palm facing the heart and said: "There are circles, everywhere."  I encourage you to look for them in your practice.

To understand why this principle is important, get the following items: a) a small ball or marble, b) a child's toy top; c) a beach ball; d) a garden hose and perform the following exercises and experiments.

Start the top spinning on a flat surface and roll the marble toward it.  The marble will deflect off tangentially to the top. Imagine that you're the top.  The inside surface of your spine is the centre of the top in "Roll-back" and the back of your left wrist is the outer edge of the top.

Take the beach ball and wrap your arms around it - as if you have no hands.  If the beach ball is small enough that you can actually touch your wrists at the far side, try to wrap your arms in such a way that the shape of the ball is not disturbed.  See: "Where's the Ball" below.

Finally, take the garden hose, connect it to the tap and turn on the water.  Now fold the hose slowly until the water passing through is a trickle or stops altogether.  Now slowly "round out" the "kink" in the hose.  Think of your arm as the hose.  Leaving aside the somewhat nebulous concept of "qi", the water passing through the hose is analogous to your blood and lymph.

Ideas From the Tai Chi Literature - At Odds With What Mr. Moy Taught

The gentleman that brought me to tai chi had only recently joined Mr. Moy and the then Toronto Tai Chi Association.  I will refer to him by the initials of his Chinese name - N.Z.M.  He had practised at least three other styles of tai chi for more than 10 years at the time.  He recounted to me the following exchange of dialog with Mr. Moy the night they met - I'm paraphrasing

Mr. Moy: "So what did you think of what just witnessed?"

N.Z.M.: "What I just saw, was completely wrong as far as everything I have read in the 'tai chi classics'."

Mr. Moy: "Tell me about your leg."

A brief discussion ensued about N.Z.M.'s health issues in particular a recent biopsy on a growth on his leg.

Mr. Moy: "Perhaps, it's not what you saw here tonight that's all wrong. Perhaps, it's your understanding of what you've read."

Subsequent to this encounter with Mr. Moy, N.Z.M. became an extremely devoted student of Mr. Moy taking a personal oath not to practice or even show any of the tai chi he had done previously.  He would practice late into the night and often fall asleep at work.

1) Tuck the tail bone under and straighten the spine

I recently asked Doug Overholt, if he was aware of Mr. Moy ever being asked about the advice from the literature to "tuck the tail bone under"  He said he had been asked in the 70's and his answer was something like: "It might happen, but don't try to make it happen."  Even if this had not been the case, you can easily demonstrate for yourself why you wouldn't want to do this.

a) From a health perspective, just stand with your feet shoulder width apart, tuck your tail bone under and feel your organs in your lower abdomen crushed.  Even I can feel that and I don't feel too much inside.

b) From a martial arts perspective, adopt either of the postures: "Play The Pei-Pa" or "Raise Hands And Step Up".  Then tuck your tail bone under, straightening out your spine.  Any partner with a even a small amount of skill will be able to push you over much more easily than if you reached back and down.  This is because you have effectively made your whole spine a largely immobile handle.  And by immobilizing the spine this way, it can't absorb force into its structure.  

Women should particularly not do this.  See: "Differences Between Men and Women" below.

If you look at a picture of or a model of a spine, you will see that the coccyx already points down and slightly forward.  Therefore it is not surprising that as your body loosens up from practising - in particular the sacro-illiac joint and your "internal sit" deepens, the coccyx will continue along the line it's pointing - i.e. forward.  I was pointing this out to a student one day and another literate Chinese student came up to me and said simply: "They're confusing the result and the action"

2) Hollow the chest and round the back

Most people reading these words in English would interpret that they mean to make the chest concave.  I don't know if the original Chinese conveys the same meaning, but the lineage holder on Chen family tai chi being interviewed in one of the martial arts magazines in the 80's asserted this is the meaing.  Mr. Moy taught the opposite that "hollow the chest" referred to the inside being hollow like a barrel - so the lungs could expand and to take pressure off the heart.  As far as "round the back", he was more interested in "drop elbows" which relaxes and rounds the shoulders and upper back down to the sides.

One Saturday morning, there were only two of us and Mr. Moy.  I won't describe the first part of what happened, because it's not relevant to this issue - though for me personally, it was the more interesting and humbling.  I didn't know the other student.  The other student was practising lokhup by himself, I was watching.  Mr. Moy returned from the other room, took one look at the guy practising and said: "Ah Du(k), you talk to him. No good!".  Not being too perceptive, I thought the other student was either congenitally malformed or had suffered from some disease that left him with "sunken" chest and a messed up back.  I tried to gently encourage him to "stand up" and "open his chest".  Mr. Moy watched my lame, futile efforts and then came over, grabbed the lower of his arms, pulling it out straight.  Then he grabbed the upper arm and pulled it up and out, i.e. forward.  The student's back straightened out and his chest "opened up".  His body was perfectly normal.  I then realized that he had been trying to follow what he understood of the advice from the classics: "Hollow your chest and round the back."

Similarly, there is a move in xing-yi, where traditionally, you block down across your body with the left hand protecting the right knee, and up across the body with the right hand protecting the left arm-pit area.  This is the way Mr. Sun originally taught Mrs. Kwan.  She told us that Mr. Moy changed it to simply cross the hands and press down below the navel.  The following year when she was teaching me she lapsed back to what Mr. Sun had originally taught her.  Mr. Moy had just come up from having lunch and was watching her teach me.  He said: "Hey!" and when we looked over he had his hands crossed at the wrists, pressing down.  He explained that the whole body should be "open" inside so the organs can drop.

Basic Skills of Don-Yu's And Tor-Yu's

There is quite a lot to learn and accomplish in doing the practices of don-yu's and tor-yu's.  As I mentioned above, Ben found an entire book devoted to "Don-yu's, Tor-yu's and Standing Practice" in a bookstore in China.  Therefore, not surprisingly, a thorough treatment of these topics is beyond the scope of this document. 

Don-Yu's

The first time Doug Overholt attended a class at the Mississauga location of CTCA, I turned to him and said: "Teach them something."  He began with: "Don-yu's are drop dead simple."  He later asked if he had actually said that out loud.  During that presentation, he focused on pressing down and lifting up - in a straight line.  He also gave advice about exactly how to reach back - from between L4 and L5.  Kind of amusing to be taught how to sit on a chair.  Most of us have been doing this for a very long time.  

He also stressed moving the arms relative to the body.  And he talked about this more recently asking those present to do the move imagining they had no forearms.  If you are doing it this way, i.e. without forearms, and you're moving the segment of your shoulders to your elbows up and down relative to your body, you are forced to engage more of the connective tissue and fascia along the sides of your body and across the back.

When I teach don-yu's I first insist the student cultivate the two skills of:

a) Come down on top of your hands

If you do this the weight of your body will be pressing down.  Chris Young once explained to me that a properly executed don-yu was a defence against every throw in judo.  

b) Come up under your hands

If you do this you will be lifting with the entire strength of your legs.  If not, to the extent that you are lifting at all, you will be using a small band of muscle in the arms - the triceps.

Don-yu's are a tremendously powerful exercise having a wide range of effects and as someone pointed out to me once, they are a "self-optimizing" exercise in that they always "work on the weakest part".  This can also be kind of frustrating as you sometimes wonder whether you're getting any better at them.  Some of the more obvious benefits include: strengthening the legs; increasing the flexibility of the pelvis, knees and ankles; "loosening" the sacro-illiac joints; stretching the spine - particularly a few inches above and below the belt; improving the circulation of the lymph, blood and cerebro-spinal fluid; lessening the work of the heart; deepening the breathing; and massaging the internal organs.

Whether a man or a woman, seek to feel that you're moving up and down like a piston in a stationary cylinder, i.e. your centre of gravity should not move forward or back or side to side.  Don't worry about the outer appearance.

Try with different width stances - varying your stance narrower or wider than your normal stance by at most the width of your foot - either way.  In general as you narrow the stance there will be more stress on the knees and as you widen there will be more stress on the large tendons on  the inside of the thighs.  Listen to your body.

In the fairly unlikely event that they seem effortless, try some of  the following to increase the amount of benefit for the amount of time invested: try to ensure that you're not stopping at the top or the bottom; while maintaining a consistent pace go up and down more slowly. 

Tor-Yu's

Tor-yu's are basically an "in place" opportunity to practise all the "full-length forward step" moves that are done at 45 degrees.  See The Five Principles above. They give you the opportunity to practise whatever principles you're working on without having to be concerned with such mundane matters as falling over and the finer points of where are your hands and feet.  Your feet stay in place and the hand movements are relatively simplified from most moves in the set.  

The basic architecture in either the back position or the front position is very simple. Assuming you've taken a "full-length 45 degree step" as described above try each of the front and back positions as described below ...

At the back position: your back knee is pointing in the same direction as the back foot; your hips and shoulders are facing the direction the back foot is pointing; your palms are facing down and crossed generally in front of the navel; your front knee is generally pointing straight ahead, i.e. in the direction your front foot is pointing; your front leg is generally straight but not locked; your torso is generally upright - sitting in the "bowl / basin of your pelvis".

At the front position: your back leg is straight - but not locked - still pointing in the direction of the back foot; your hips and shoulders are facing the direction the front foot is facing; your palms are generally facing down and forward, shoulder-width apart, with your arms parallel to the ground; your spine as at an incline that extends from the back leg producing a straight line from the heel to the back of the head - plus or minus body curves; your front knee is aligned over your front foot and pointing forward in such a way that from the ankle to the knee is generally perpendicular to the ground both front to back and side to side; the torso while generally up-right and at an incline should not be leaning; the centre of gravity should be no further forward than the bubbling spring.  A consequence, of knee to ankle being perpendicular to the ground and the fact that everyone's hips are wider that their knees, the line from the outside of the forward hip to the forward knee will be "forward, down and in"  The "in" will be more pronounced for women.

Now of course since tor-yu's are dynamic the challenge is all the weird and wonderful ways you can move between these positions and then all the equally weird and wonderful ways, you can step outside the form even at the end positions for different effects.

On February 12, 2011 Doug Overhold led workshop at the head office of CTCA.  After he had shown five different levels of how to do toy-yu's, he looked over at me and decided not to show additional levels.  Those he showed were all within the standard structure above.  Ben Chung has documented at least seven different types of tor-yu's that Mr. Moy taught - at least one of these was quite far outside the standard form.  On the first "western road-trip" Mr. Moy made to four cities in western Canada - with Raymond Mui in tow as his translator - Mr. Moy showed tor-yu's differently in each city.  At the end Raymond asked: "Mr. Moy, you taught tor-yu's differently in each city.  Which one should I practise?"  Mr. Moy replied: "How will you know, until you have tried them all?"

I offer the foregoing to provide insight as to how varied a practice tor-yu's are.  That said, I encourage students to acquire three basic skills within the constraints of the standard structure above:

a) from the forward position, if a partner grabs your two outstretched wrists, you should be able to pull the partner toward you.

b) from the forward position, if a partner stands behind you with his fist pushing forward on your tailbone, you should be able to push the partner back until you are comfortably in the back position.

c) from the back position, after you spread your hands, if a partner pushes toward you on your palms, you should be able to push the partner away, as you move effortlessly to the forward position.

Hints:

a) drop your elbows

b) reach back and down with your tailbone

c) lead with your hands

Leaving aside the many different levels of understanding of a tor-yu and various ways, you can use them both within in the standard form and by stepping outside the form, I suggest there are at least three different types of tor-yu's in the taichi set:

i) Brush Knee / Parting Wild Horses Mane tor-yu's

ii) Grasp Bird's Tail / Carry Tiger To Mountain tor-yu's

iii) Hit Tiger At Left and Right / Strike Ears With Fists tor-yu's

Think about how these moves are qualitatively different from each other. 

Where's the Ball?

The ball is imaginary and is generally located in such a place that if you had no hands and you tried to "hug" a ball with your entire arms just touching at the wrist, some of the ball would actually be inside your torso.  Of course the exact position of the ball is a function of the move in question.  The ball is not in the same place in "Cross Hands" as the transition from "Left Grasp Bird's Tail" to "Grasp Bird's Tail".

The ball is not between the palms - like in some other styles.  Although, I too have read about and seen pictures and videos of other styles where it is in fact there.

You're squeezing the ball in three dimensions.  In moves like the transition between "Parting Wild Horses Mane" - until a couple of years ago, I had more intention in the squeezing together of the arms in the "up - down" direction - than the "reaching around - hugging" direction.  This is because, I was too attached to the martial arts application of intercepting a fist flying towards my mid-section.  Ben Chung, pointed this out to me when I dropped-in one morning of the 2009 Winter Tai Chi week.  I said: "Really?" and showed him my understanding.  That afternoon, he taught "my understanding" and I went home practised what he had shown me and watched the 80's video of Mr. Moy - who was very clearly reaching around more than I had been.

Some of Mr. Moy's last advise: "Learn from everybody", but "Consider the heart of those from whom you learn."

Differences Between Men and Women

The most obvious difference between men and women is that women can become pregnant and as a consequence of having to be able to "drop a child" out of their pelvis, their hips, pelvis and lower spine have greater flexibility and looseness and a different shape.  The hips are broader.  The pelvis is shallower and opens differently.  The degree of curvature of the spine is greater.

This looseness or "openness" is naturally increased by hormonal changes during pregnancy.  Mr. Moy's advice on how women should practise and what they should and shouldn't do at various stages of their pregnancy is beyond the scope of this document.

Because of generally broader hips for their size, the angle of the upper and lower legs are slightly different at the knees.  

In addition, woman's centre of gravity is lower than a man's relative to their overall height.  

Generally, men's arms are straighter than women's - the "carrying arm".  Stand facing in front of a mirror, feet together, arms hanging naturally at your sides.  Turn your palms to face the mirror.  If you are a women, from your shoulder to your elbow will generally hang straight down and from your elbow to your wrist will veer out so that if you were carrying something, clutched in your fist, it will not bang into your generally broader hips.  If you are a man, your arms will generally hang down straight from shoulder to wrist. 

Generally, a woman's lower abdomen from the navel to the top of the pubic bone is rounder and fuller than a man's.  This is because a woman's reproductive organs are exclusively on the inside and located here.  And what reproductive related organs a man has "on the inside" are smaller.

Because of all the differences in appearance between men and women, Mr. Moy's first choice was always that women should correct women and men should correct men.  This might not always be possible depending on the level of the skill of the instructors available and the level of need of the student in question.  One day an instructor brought one of her students to Mr. Moy.  The student had had a recurrence of her cervical cancer.  Her doctors now wanted to perform a radical hysterectomy.  Mr. Moy asked her how old she was and when she answered 24, he looked very sad and said: "too young".  He asked her instructor to teach her don-yu's.  He was not satisfied with the result and turned to one of the most experienced male instructors present and asked him to teach her don-yu's.  Still not satisfied with the result, he taught her himself.  After she had practised for a while he asked how she felt.  She said she felt like her reproductive organs were on fire.  He said: "Good. Do more!"  The last I heard, her doctors were saying either she was misdiagnosed or had had a spontaneous remission.

The main point of all the foregoing is that women should not strive to look like their male instructors and vice versa.  As mentioned above women should not seek to "take the natural curvature out of their spine".  Your tai chi practice with its roots in Taoism should strive to follow the way of nature not undo or "improve" upon it.  

The general principles are the same for men and women. Notice I refer above to "plus or minus body curves".  For men and women the degree of those curves will be different and hence the overall shape.  When you do moves like "Turn to Sweep the Lotus" the path of your hands and arms relative to your body, will be a  function how high or low your centre of gravity is.  When you do for example "Parting Wild Horses Mane" if your hand is in the same place relative to your body, but your arm is a different shape from the person you're learning from, you cannot change that nor should you try.

When a woman does don-yu, the same up and down intention of the torso described above and feeling will not appear the same as her generally straighter-backed male practitioner.  

Consider for yourselves how the various differences described above will manifest as different external appearance of the moves.  Spend your time on these considerations when practising individual moves.  Watch other people.  But when you're doing a set let go and don't think about these things.

Stepping Outside the Form - When, Where and Why

Mr. Moy often "stepped outside the form".  He did this with me on several occasions and of course with many others.  The first time he did it with me was in the 70's as I alluded above.  The next day in my regular class, I was struggling with what he had taught me in tor-yu's.  The entire class was lined up doing tor-yu's and the instructor was moving down the line correcting each of us in turn.  I was wondering how I was going to respond when he got to me as what I was doing was different from everyone else in the class and different from what I'd seen anyone do in a tor-yu up to that point and was clearly "outside the form".  At that moment Mr. Moy entered the room, called the instructor's name and said: "It's o.k."  My instructor looked at me, looked back at Mr. Moy perplexed and moved to the next student.  

The next time he "stepped outside the form" with me, we were all lucky that he explained the concept of a personal correction - just for the student receiving it - and in this case explicitly said "not to be practised by other people watching". Without this experience I may have gotten wrapped up in the goofy notion that Mr. Moy was always "changing the form".

From my observations, he was guided by the following two principles: 1) the further he was from Toronto, the simpler and cleaner he kept the form and 2) the more often and consistently he saw a student, the more often and further he was willing to "step outside the form".  This explains why the form was more normal the further you went from Toronto. 

Sometimes it wasn't that Mr. Moy stepped outside the form but the student misunderstanding, then improving upon what he was shown and / or told.  Given that Mr. Moy could be somewhat mischievous and playful, the results were sometimes quite amusing.  I watched the following play out - with another student - also named Doug.  At the end posture of "Diagonal Single Whip", Mr. Moy said: "Stretch!"  The student leaned forward - perhaps slightly stretching his achillie's tendon.  Of course, I don't know what Mr. Moy was thinking, but it was like he was thinking: "I wonder what he'll do next?"  He said: "Stretch more."  The student leaned further forward.  Mr. Moy said: "Stretch more".  The student leaned further forward.  Mr. Moy said: "Stretch more."  Finally, unable to lean any further without falling over, the student finally stretched out, beautifully. Mr. Moy said: "That's it!"  Over the next week the student made the following "enhancements" - he lengthened the step and moved the hands into a "Fair Lady Works Shuttles" -like position.  When I suggested to him that it was a half-step, he said: "No, Mr. Moy just taught me this."   Even, with Mr. Moy sitting about six feet - less than two meters - away, saying: "Half Step", he still wouldn't change.  Someone, eventually convinced him to return to the "normal form" - with the stretch intact.

One time, one of Mr. Moy's regular students was attending a workshop about three hours from Toronto.  During a session, working on don-yu's Mr. Moy held the student's hands up above the student's head as the student started to sink - so he could get the idea of the sink starting while the rise was still continuing.  Over the next three weeks the student practised diligently - keeping his hands way above his head - half-way down in the don-yu.  Finally, Mr. Moy asked: "Who taught you that?"  For those of you not familiar with the traditional "teacher - student" relationship in these arts, a good response would not have been: "You did."  The student responded: "Perhaps I didn't understand what you were showing me three weeks ago."  Mr. Moy explained he had held the students arms up so he - the student - could "get the feeling" - then return to the normal form.

Final note on "seeking after feelings" and why you shouldn't do it - even if Mr. Moy and your instructor might often say: "How do you feel?"  I believe Mr. Moy asked this question to cause the student to turn his attention inward to be able to re-create whatever was being taught.  After you can re-create what is being taught, you should let go of the feeling.  As you do any particular practice and your body gets used to whatever it is that's different, the feeling(s) will lessen.  If you continue to seek after the feeling, you'll need to distort what you're doing more and more to "keep the feeling".  I was very lucky in the following sense... I could mostly only distinguish different kinds of pain.  Most of the corrections that Mr. Moy gave me were quite painful.  Fortunately, as I practised, my body changed and the pain lessened, I never had to worry about seeking after the pain, because the next correction would provide me with a new kind of pain :)

Criticism of Our Form and Practices

I've heard various criticisms of our form and practices over the years and will deal with three of them here:

1) You - people practising the tai chi Mr. Moy taught - push the knee too far forward.

It's true some of us do - at least some of the time.  Perhaps, because our instructor has "stepped outside the form" to get an effect.  Of course, instructors need be very cautious with these kind of instructions - especially where they are exposing the student to possible injury.  All students should be told repeatedly: "Listen to your body."  In my case, I would have tried whatever Mr. Moy told me to try, because in addition to my trust in him, I had even greater confidence, that "if he broke me, he could fix me!"  We - at least in my case - don't have that level of skill.

2) You hyper-extend the spine

In the system Mr. Moy and Mui, Ming-do taught, the ming-men - gate of life - is a real physical thing that needs to be physically "opened" - by stretching.  To my knowledge, most other systems advocate "opening" this area through a kind of "mental masturbation".  Mui, Ming-do explicitly advised against the "visualization techniques" other styles and systems employ to this end.

3) It's Brush Knee - not Brush Chest"

This is clearly Liang, Shou-yu slagging Mr. Moy's students, but it may be a correct observation in some cases.  As Doug Overholt has pointed out, on at least a couple of occasions, students usually see the hands or the extremities.  Since, as you do Brush Knee, your body is moving toward the forward hand - it is a fairly common mistake to bring the forward hand back toward the body.  If you are making this mistake, push down and forward continuously with the front hand - see "Equal and Opposite Forces", above.

Conclusion

I hope at least some of you found some of the foregoing useful.  If you know anyone who is not a participant in the lok hup review, that you feel might benefit from some or all of the foregoing, please feel free to forward it to them.  

~ Doug Nettleton