Tai Chi Peng Question

So first what is Tai Chi Peng? When people talk about taiji peng they are talking about one of the 4 energies inside tai chi. You can generally see all of these energies throughout the Tai Chi Form. This video specifically talks about Peng.

• Peng (Ward Off)
• Liu (Roll Back)
• Ji (Press)
• An (Push)

Tai Chi Peng – Transcript

[Sije Jamie] Nicholas said sorry for harassing you with my question. You’re not harassing us brother. I’m not sure why you said that but he’s like I need some details about Push Hands On Tai Chi, especially the tai chi peng principal.

Can you help me with that or do they need to go to the US from France? No, you don’t need to go to the US, you know, [Sifu Phu] I want to see you. I like to meet you but it’ll be a two Perfect come and train if you can in person Nicholas, that would be awesome.

[Sije Jamie] So he wants to know about and Push Hands Tai Chi, especially about the tai chi peng principal expansion. He just wants some help with that. [Sifu Phu] If you can be more specific like are you overcommitting? Do you feel like you can’t expand it would help me if you have a certain question Focus you want me to answer but when you’re doing anything, okay, and I’ll explain the principle of Tai Chi anyways, but I’m gonna go based on what I think you’re asking me.

[Sifu Phu] Okay, when you push okay one. A common thing people push is they push with their backside and you don’t want to do that.

[Sifu Phu] You want to push from the base side. So I’ll push should never be like this a push should be like this. Yeah, a pushing me should be accompanied with a root and it must come from the base and then it must drive to the wrist and then the wrist must be able to turn the pressure a lot of times when people pushing if you’re talking about when you do Push Hands you find it’s hard to push someone it’s because you’re going directly into them.

[Sifu Phu] You cannot take a direct Force into someone who’s fighting back the wrist job is to turn energy while the Arms job is to drive energy. So You want to do it that way most people go from shoulder to hand and then they push from that and they go straight to a line and they tend to push from their body like this and they’re very mechanical and they wind up over committing they feel like always losing the weight.

[Sifu Phu] I mean losing the balance and if you ever find that you always like feeling like you’re going tippy toes a little bit. It means you top heavy it means that you put too much energy in your hand and you don’t have the base to get and create a Counter force.

[Sifu Phu] So you got to make sure that when you do any type of movement when you create expansion there’s this forward, but you have to have this compensation for that the back what’s now it can be certain places. It depends. It depends on how you want to do it. I can push my hands and sink into the ground.

[Sifu Phu] I can push my hands and drop the elbow to the ground. I can push my hand to extend out but sink my butt back a little bit again. That’s what you want to do It. The idea is to think of like a wind charm, you know, you have a stick and you have a string if I put a center and it’s perfectly centered it will stay but if I put a weight here, right and nothing here, I would have to move the fulcrum over to find the balance so or you could say well, can I put weight here?

[Sifu Phu] Yeah, you can, again that’s up to you, but you got to find balance in the end. I guess I could push with my body out. Oh, you can’t see my hips, but I can stick my butt out like this like maybe you can see here. But if I’m pushing this like say so if I’m going like this, I don’t want to push someone. Well, I feel like let’s say I throw my shoulders like this.

[Sifu Phu] Okay, I’m gonna over-commit and if they fight me back and they’re strong enough they can push me away or if they’re good enough. They can just dump me the idea is if I go like this so now I have this forward hand here, but I didn’t commit to the Forward energy.

[Sifu Phu] I do it so it stays stable. So when I hit all the power goes on my palm and that’s what’s really hitting him. I’m gonna get all my energy into the Palm when I hit I don’t try to get in my back to push into the hit think of it like this. A pencil is how you write with right the best controls from the tip if you had to sign your name, you could sign a name from the tip now imagine.

[Sifu Phu] That pencil was 10 feet long. If you hold a tip you can still sign it because you could put the pressure there and you can focus the energy there. Now imagine that 10-foot pencil. You have to hold it by the Eraser and I said sign your name, you’re gonna find it’s very very hard because the transfer between the race of the tip it’s hard to control because of all that distance, right?

[Sifu Phu] That’s the same when you’re hitting if you do it from the backlit the energy is not here. It’s all back here and you got to push it there. There’s a lot of loss of control and so you don’t want to let that happen. You got to get into the wrist. And so when I hit okay, I want to get it. So I want to get into my Palms in order to get the Palm you have to drive in order to have the drive you have to have the base.

[Sifu Phu] in order to have the base you have the root. So that’s how you want to do it. Oh, and you’re doing any type of move or whatever the move. I tell people to find it drop your height a little bit drop one of two inches and the reason why you want to do that is that we get forward energy you want to two ways we get by leaning or we get by rooting.

[Sifu Phu] If you don’t root you will lean if I’m taking the energy and I try to bring this and I don’t go through. I will try to get energy by the lead and do it to the root and you won’t feel like you have to commit you won’t feel using your size. You can use the Earth. I always like to say who do you know that’s bigger than the earth? Right? No one is right because that person is bigger than the earth.

[Sifu Phu] We probably living on them. So make sure that you base out find the root base out and get it to your hands again. So no matter how I’m moving my hands it’s over my body. It feels like I’m sticking and again, I’m getting it out to the wrist.

[Sifu Phu] Through the base through the drive through here. So when I create any type of pushing motion it comes out because it’s a solid point and I’m just focusing that point on the wrist in the end. Remember you need three elements to have very good power.

[Sifu Phu] You have to have mass you have to focus you have to force if you’re doing what you’re doing like this. Your mass is not really behind your hand. It’s actually slightly above your hips didn’t follow you’re leaning into it. But when you sink it you usually have the whole body.

[Sifu Phu]Okay, that’s why you want your mask behind it. Obviously, your force is whatever you bring out now if I go like this am I really bringing the force forward, yes, but Is that Force Focus which is the third part is that Focus or is it slightly above slightly dropped versus going right to the wrist in which I hit now if I use my forearms like this again, I turn my wrist to the point of contact. I have my base.

[Sifu Phu]So now I create a good hit. And again, this is how we learn how to move everything. So if I’m cutting my hands like it I’m doing like this. I get it in the hand so I can get my strike if I’m gonna go like this like and I go like this then I’m not using the power I’m using my size and it can work.

[Sifu Phu]I was like you want to use the size you want to drink too. It works if you fight someone half your size. It’ll work great fight. Someone twice your size. You can see it’s not gonna work so great. And so you’re trying to deal with the pressure that’s great in you anyone can be anyone who’s got less pressure than you that’s not skill.

[Sifu Phu]That’s just overpowering them because you’re bigger and stronger. You have to always test it against someone twice your size twice the resistance twice the force not twice the skill because he’s twice the skill that he’s gonna outmaneuver over you because he’s better than you but you are someone who’s twice your size.

[Sifu Phu]Sorry, and now every time you feel strength coming back to you if you what we call feedback you feel anything come out. I call feedback any feedback you feel means that there’s a force back that means you were fighting back. There was a fight back. I would say if you don’t feel feedback. There’s a fight back you were fighting him. That’s why he felt it if you turn the energy you won’t feel it.

[Sifu Phu]And that’s our goal. Our goal is always to learn how to convert energy while creating pressure not Push against pressure while trying to overcome the pressure that’s where the mistakes people make you and so I don’t know that helps you with that. That’s what you’re asking. But that’s really the concept of how all energy works whether it’s Tai Chi or Kung Fu of any kind or boxing or it’s all the same energy and movement.

[Sifu Phu]I don’t care what you call it is how I care what how you do it. You can call it what you want you can call spider fist, or you call a monkey fish. You can call whatever in the end. Is it effective? No, and then the energy is not good. You know, that’s what matters.