addition to Henry's book

My introduction to Henry Wang, my Surfu, occurred shortly after I turned 45.
During the summer of 1987, I seriously injured my back and discovered that I was unable to continue my daily fitness program of jogging. Fortunately for me, Surfu had recently started teaching tai chi at the Courtenay Recreation Centre.  I soon discovered daily tai chi practice enabled me to de-stress enough to enjoy guiding my 50 or so ‘At Risk’ students at a local high school as well as coach a newly created girls rugby team for the next ten years.
 
Surfu introduced me to an interesting journey of self discover. Having ignored my broken body for as long as possible, I was ready to participate in a new activity which I could share with others in the same way I had shared rugby.  Practice and teaching tai chi has been the perfect fit for me. 
 
I am honoured to be asked to write about some my experiences with Surfu Wang.
 
As a rugby player and coach for thirty years, I  thrived on aggressive body contact.  Push Hands, a Chinese martial art, was an ideal activity to satisfy my need for physical contact.  I looked forward to each Sunday session at Comox Elementary School.  Many of Surfu’s students met weekly there to practice Push Hands or as Surfu called it, Search Centre.  Initially, senior students complained that I was physically hard and too aggressive.  Softness was alien to me. How could anyone push without applying physical force? Henry often scolded us, “No, you’re being too physical, Search Centre should never result in a hard push!”  We felt obligated to comply to his instruction, but soon lost interest trying to understand his directions and returned to Push Hands practice.  Now after 25 years of form and Search Centre practice, I am honoured to be complimented on my ‘softness’, especially by Surfu.
 
Senior students were always eager to join Surfu when he conducted Search Centre demonstrations at workshops in Comox and Vancouver.   I discovered the more aggressive I was while attacking him, the more explosively I was projected across the room by Surfu. This phenomenon left all of us puzzled but eager to experience it again. One example of his soft use of explosive power occurred during a demonstration to group of Investment Brokers in Vancouver.   Surfu remained seated while his student Peter was standing next to him loosely clasping their right hands together. I approached Peter with my two arms extended to push Peter’s arm which offered no resistance. Peter was merely offering his arm as a prop for me to hold and push.   On the second approach, as I made contact with the relaxed arm, both of my feet lifted off the floor and my body was propelled backward through the air. While airborne, I was able to turn around 180 degrees and land ten feet away facing a French Door which I hit with force, bursting them opening and startling office workers in the next room. The incredulous spectators clamoured for another demonstration.  Surfu replied, “It doesn’t need repeating”.
 
Eventually, I became one of Surfu’s students who responded to “No Touch”,  I recall the first moment vividly.  We were at Lake Helen Mackenzie during one of the early summer camps, and Surfu tried to move me with chi from about fifteen feet away.   I stood waiting for something to happen.  Anything!  I had no idea what to expect.  After what seemed like minutes, I  decided to move and he seemed relieved.  I had faked the response because I didn’t feel any of the sensations that I usually felt when I physically approached and made contact with him.  Later, I realized that I had not connected to his centre as I usually did when I approached to engage him during a demonstration.  The next time he tried “No Touch”, I visualized connecting to his centre as I would if I was about to make physical contact. Sure enough, I was moved by his chi. The stronger I made the connection, the stronger and more abrupt his chi affected me.  If I visualized making a rugby tackle on him, he easily bowled me over ten feet or more from where he stood.  Check out the picture of Surfu and me on his web site.
 
This fits with the concept that tai chi is a Martial Art, or the art of self defence.  My belief is that when I approach Surfu, my energy field extends in an attempt to connect with his centre.  Surfu is able to sense my energy boundary and my body’s centre.  This clear awareness enables him to easily move me by directing a laser like beam of chi at my centre.  My body behaves like a tumble weed broken free of its mooring in the wind.
 
I have been teaching tai chi for over 25 years.  For the first 15 years I attempted to copy Surfu's form and to demonstrate this copied ‘form’ to my students.  Surfu often said, “Form should not be copied”.  How is this possible I thought?  I could not figure out how to teach tai chi without using the shapes I had carefully attempted to copy.  He also said, “When I came to Canada I had to ‘smash down’ every thing I learned and start from the beginning.” What does that mean, I thought? Didn’t his ‘form’ look beautiful before he ‘smashed’ it down?  
 
Over thirty years agoPeter and Ronnie Ulhmannspent some time in Taipei studying culture and language.  When they asked for a good tai chi master they were told that Henry Wang was one of the best teachers of Cheng Man Ching’s Yang Form in Taipei.   Surfu now claims, ‘form’ should be ‘Globe Shaped’ or ‘No Shape’.  What happened to the different poses or shapes named in the Cheng Man Ching form, Ward Off, Grasp the Swallows Tail or Low Punch?  How is ‘No Shape’ possible? What did he mean when he said, “It’s not a punch”? Fortunately for us Ronnie asked Surfu if he was interested in coming to Canada to teach tai chi.
 
My moments of understanding came slowly.  After one occasion after showing my form to a group of my students, one of the students exclaimed, “That's not what you taught us!” At first I was confused until I realized that my form was no longer a series of distinct shapes, but instead had become more ‘fluid’ or perhaps ‘globe shaped’.   My ‘form’ did not clearly represent the various shapes I had carefully emphasized and taught the class.
 
Analyzing my movements helped me to begin to understand Surfu’s concept of including the transitions between the shapes to make ‘Globe Shape’ or ‘No Shape’ possible.  I began to understand when he compared tai chi movement to that of a fish. The hands are the tail of the fish. Visualizing the movement of a snake works as well.  The centre of the snake behaves as our dan tien.  When the snake moves forward from its centre, the tail follows.  The hands are equivalent to the tail of the snake, while the root or feet behave more like the head of the snake.  Surfu often compares the tai chi movements to that of various animals.
 
Teaching beginners ‘form’ means giving them recognizable shapes and movements they can identify with.  Showing them the position of the hands first, rather than how the centre moves the hands, is much easier for new students to learn. Even though Surfu always says, “Turn the centre first”, this constant reminder often goes unheeded because most students continue to focus on copying the shapes by leading with the upper body.
 
Many years of form practice and guidance from Surfu helped me realize that movement doesn’t originate from the dan tien.  The dan tien directs the movement.  Movement begins in the ankles which are connected to the root or the ‘bubbling well’ in the feet.
 
 Surfu’s concept of swinging the bucket helped students begin to understand how little movements of the centre can radiate out to become fast or slow movements in the hand. The demonstration helps us to understand the connection of the body’s centre to the hand.  The smaller the centre and the more relaxed the torso becomes, the more powerful the chi becomes when focused or delivered to a chosen point.  Surfu often compares the body’s centre to a door hinge.  The movement generated near the edge of the door will be slow and have little effect.  Movement close to the hinge causes the edge of the door to move dramatically. Therefore, the smaller centre movements become exaggerated as the movement nears the surface of the body. This helps explain the power of the one inch punch or push.  Moving a small amount at the centre can cause a rapid, connected movement in the hands. Again these lessons were repeated regularly in our weekly classes but progress requires internal changes to our body that take time to occur.
 
Attending weekly classes in Surfu’s  studio, we would often take turns standing next to him while the rest of the class attempted to analyze the difference between our ‘form’ and his.  Often the comment was, “Surfu moves as one unit while we obviously miss one or more of the seven principles.  I came to realize that movement and chi must originate in the root and be directed through the dan tien before I could begin to apply the ‘Seven Principles’ properly. 
 
Surfu often refers to the ‘Trail’.  Again the ‘Trail’ had little meaning until the ‘Seven Principles’ become evident.  How do you know when you have glimpses of the “Trail”?  For me the sense of the ‘Trail’ occurred when any movement began to involve the mind coordinating  the movement of chi and the physical body together.   The mind moved chi while the physical body flowed or moved in the direction of that energy.  The ‘Seven Principles’ eventually become apparent in each movement.  Simple movements became more involved until I began to have a sense of Surfu’s  globe shape instead of the various static postures of the form.  While believing I have a sense of the ‘globe shape’ I know that my form is far from looking as smooth and beautiful as his.
 
My career as school teacher and rugby coach may have prepared me to help others understand the nuances behind movement in ‘form’. Earlier in my relationship with Surfu, we had an interesting disagreement about our two styles of teaching. Surfu preferred to wait for the students to discover for themselves the ‘mysteries’ of tai chi, as he called them. This follows a Chinese tradition, whereas, teaching in the west is more about pushing the student to learn. Western culture also encourages the student to ask questions to clarify their knowledge.  In Chinese philosophy,  Surfu explained, asking probing questions is considered disrespectful of the master.  Students are expected to wait until their Surfu feels they are ready for the next step. There is no urgency, the Surfu controls the progress and expects obedience and respect. Canadians students tend to be impatient and want to have more control in the learning process. This attitude results in hundreds of Canadian students who begin studying tai chi but fail to appreciate the health benefits, because they are to impatient or busy to appreciate the value of daily tai chi practice.
 
I am grateful to have had the privilege of studying with such a great Tai Chi Master.  After years of questioning and practicing, I have an appreciation of what Surfu has offered us.  His dedication to the perfection of his form and his soft power constantly surprise and inspire me.  I am also thankful for the many tai chi friends and experiences that I have gained as a result of this on-going study.  The tai chi mystery will continue to be a challenge for us to collectively solve.