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28.09.2008: Yang Taiji seminar for instructors in Sofia.

The seminar was lead by shifu Krassimir Dimitrov and shifu Stanislav Bagalev. The host for the event was the newly joined member of the Association – Silivi Velev, an instructor from the Sofia school. The seminar was attended by instructors from Sofia, Plovdiv, Burgas, Lovech and Stara Zagora.

The stress of the class was the application of the basic principles of Taijiquan in the form and in tuishou. In the beginning the focus was on the importance of the right jibengong (exercising basic techniques often used as warm up before the actual classes) for conditioning the body for proper movements and static positions. The transition movements between forms were once again showed as a needed prerequisite for the correct performance of the form and for the correct martial application.

The seminar ended with basic techniques for generating and receiving force in the tuishou routines, which led to many questions.

Everyone left content after the first event of this king in Sofia, which was also covered by the media.

Comments:

D. Mihaylov: I personally found that the seminar was very good. As always it became clear that even a transition movement to a danbian can have more than one or two martial applications. Frankly said I didn't see anything new but I unfortunately had to realize that I still have a lot of work on my form. We witnessed how even the slightest deviation from the principles can lead to sometimes painful consequences for example in tuishou. It was also good that we all gathered, so that we don't have any discrepancies in the teaching methodology.

M. Konstantinov: The seminar was very useful. The different methods of teaching of shifu Dimitrov and shifu Bagalev gave the opportunity to see the same technique from different sides. In the first instance the participant could see it in the spirit of the Chinese tradition and cosmogony, the emphasis is on the key moments and important details. The trainees have the opportunity to discover for themselves the correct way to connect all the details. And in the second case the techniques are presented simply and systematized in the manner of the western schools. Even if some details are ignored, this method allows the novices to work with easier already fixed patterns for the techniques, which can be later connected and perfected. For me the second method even if incomplete, very much facilitates the first one. From a methodological point of view the two give a complete set of teaching methods, which the instructor can choose from according to the capabilities and character of the trainee.

For me the set of basic exercises was very interesting. It demonstrated the levels of free movement of the joints and the whole balance of the body. In practice this I a very elegant way to study the anatomy of your own body without going into cumbersome medical terminology. Same goes for the balance and the dynamic of the movements, which very correctly can be described with terms of the physics as levers, centre of gravity, forces, momentums, etc. but not everyone has the theoretical backing to understand it.

I very much liked that we worked on separate aspects of the techniques in a way that easily allowed us to see if our performance is “working” or not.

My only regret is that we had little time for push hands, which didn't allow us to go deeper in the techniques until we felt them with our bodies, not just understood them with our minds.

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