We’ve been working on the idea of continuous peng in all directions whilst maintaining continuous spiraling motion in the form.
One of the ways we’ve been practicing this idea is with 4 people gently pulling or pushing the form practitioner in all directions making him find his feet and spiral into them, maintaining peng and taking the ‘opponents’ just out of their feet with the first couple of millimetres of movement so that they are still attached, weakened, but not really aware of it.
The skill is in utilising the right-brained ‘spatial’ mind that has the ability to treat all four opponents as one and as one ‘balancing point’ instead of trying to deal with 4 separate people and 4 separate balance points. This is easier than it reads and it’s the sensitivity that’s the real skill.
The idea of the ‘pinball’ is that it’s the strike that comes from the spiral AFTER the weakening of the opponent and into them on the curve. This means that it continues to move on the curve and into the spiral from the strike. The pinball effect also means that the ‘fajing’ can travel quickly from point to point in the body and hit again and again into the weakened opponents with a ‘pinball’ effect.
Bear in mind that many people can’t get their balance in the first place or lose it as soon as they start moving and are therefore vulnerable all of the time.
In Tai Chi the hands are only one option for hitting, more often than not it will be the spiraling, curving forearms or any other part of the body, Dao (broadsword) training helps to understand the spiraling forearm ‘cutting strikes’ to the vulnerable points, breaking the opponent’s structure.
The use of the syncromeshed multi spiraling 'peng' provides the rooted, waist manipulated, spiraling emission of energy that can be powered through the hands with little or no arm extension whilst either first or simultaneously displacing the opponents structure with the other hand or by pulling, pushing, 'nudging' with forearm, shoulder etc.. So this is best practiced on another person with minimum or no padding and either pushing the strike in (to lessen impact) or controlling it, as a hit on a weakened structure is different to hitting a rooted and aligned one. Finding angles through a human body to de-structure joints, hitting vital points, shortening tendons, separating muscle and fascia whilst the body is moving are all hitting skills worthy of a lot of study. As the hit itself is on a curve and therefore will continue in momentum and not lose structure, hitting bags and pads is not always particularly useful.
In summary…. Grasping the ideas of working subliminally, utilizing peng, spiraling from the feet in continuous motion, breaking the opponent’s structure and hitting from the spiral, on a curve, in continuous movement and using the pinball effect of fajin will give us the skills we’re after!