Shadow Form.
DISCLAIMER:
These clips are for entertainment and general informational purposes only. We are not instructing you, or encouraging you to do or to believe anything, except to view, enjoy, and think. Never forget that martial arts, like any rigorous course of physical activity, presents the risk of injury, sometimes serious, disabling, or even fatal. Actual techniques should only be practiced in a controlled environment emphasizing safety, under the direct supervision of a Black Belt instructor (in whom you have trust and confidence), and only after you have been cleared by your personal physician.
As you can tell, the Shadow Form parallels the movement of Hooking Fist from start to finish. Notice its effortlessness. Still, the energy is there. Can you see the points of distinction between the forms? Can you confirm one is contained within the other? That's a start! Now look even closer, if your browser allows, run them both concurrently. What do you see? Where is the real action taking place? Which one is Yang? Which one is Yin?
Teaching "shadow" form became necessary when I observed students working on their "actual" forms, but moving in a fashion that was completely "external". In a way, it's like taking the cart to the market and leaving the horse at home. Or you might think of it as breathing, but breathing at the chest only, and not involving one point. They were acting out the form, and doing it quite convincingly, but their energy, and root could not compare to my own. If I instructed for them to observe me closely, and incorporate what I was doing into their own execution, they would become even more external, simply doing it harder, amping up their energy investment. Of course that didn't solve the problem, it left them out of breath and tired.
The objective was for my students to feel and move exactly as I did...not as they "saw" me doing. I realized the only right way to accomplish this was to create a duality where they could see both possibilities, and understand the distinction. That ultimately led to the concept of "shadow" form. Shadow Form represents the essential nature and underlying flow of the Actual Form.
If you've read the Tao De Ching, you'll be acquainted with the concept of void or formlessness. In Tai Chi Chuan, formlessness actualizes into movement as Yin & Yang, and from the subsequent iterations of movement, birth is given to the ten thousand (all things). The Shadow Form is not the void, or formlessness. You might think of it as the Tai Chi of the Actual Kata, the underlying core movement and flow, and breath of what is being manifest. It emerges from the void, as a transient form, but it could be what you will. When I perform the Shadow Form, I prepare by contemplating Cheng Man Ching's rules for practicing Tai Chi. More simple and to the point are Koichi Tohei's guidelines for KI development (Principles for integrating mind and body):
1. Keep the One Point;
2. Relax Completely;
3. Keep the Weight Underside;
4. Extend the Ki
Try it...that's it...you've got the idea. Remember, accomplishing any of the four guidelines, means that all are accomplished; failing any of the four, means that all are failed.
Really Grasshopper??? Hop along now...enough thinking for one day!
Used with Permission. Copyright 2000-2009, Mc Cabe and Associates, Tacoma, WA. All rights reserved.
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This is very graceful sir, well done!
GeneralArrow 7 months ago
nice hes old but maintaines the gracefull movement,congrats,how old is he anyway?
joepasteen 2 years ago