Jumping, Leaping Over, Sometimes Up, Sometimes Down窜奔跳躍,忽上忽下

Fist-25Chen Xin陳鑫 said in his book, “Jumping, leaping over, sometimes up, sometimes down.” This is quite right. The more we practise Taiji, our movements develop and change from slow to fast. Our bodies change from weak to be strong and become lighter. Then it is easier to move quickly and also jump and leap, go up and go down.
In Chen Taijiquan there is a second form called, Pao Chui砲捶. Other styles of Taijiquan do not have this. Chen it’s the oldest style. Taijiquan needs two energies, Yin and Yang. The first form focuses on Yin. This means it has slow and gentle movements. The second form focuses on speed and power. This is balance.
“Pao砲 “means “Cannon”.” Chui” means “Fist”. Pao Chui is Cannon Fist. This means it is a powerful form. It has a lot of fast movements, like Wind Blows the Plum Blossom風掃梅花, Continuing Fire Cannon連珠砲, White Snake Spits 白蛇吐信the Message, Wipe Elbow Red抹眉紅etc. You can see from these names that all of these movements require power, so we need to be strong with powerful legs. However, when we practise slowly and for long enough, the power will come, and then the jumping and leaping will come naturally. If we focus on power and jumping too early we can hurt our joints. So always remember we need to develop step by step.

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