Sword: Ultimate Internal Tool
I'm centering my yearly internals seminar on Tai Chi Sword. Enrollment is nearly full - I can't do a big mob scene with content like this. But there are some slots still left, so I want explain the deep rationale for doing this at all. The main point: the focus of this training will be a little different from normal Tai Chi sword teaching.
First I want to lay out some background and qualifications. I've trained in Zheng Manqing (ZMQ) Tai Chi since my first introduction to it by Robert Smith in his free Saturday morning class at the Bethesda Maryland YMCA. Concurrently and subsequently I've done all kinds of other martial arts training, including Northern Shaolin, Western boxing, 7 Star Mantis, Yiquan, Xingyiquan, Xinyi Liuhe, Bagua Zhang, Russian Systema, Ashtanga Yoga 1st and 2nd Series, and a bunch of other stuff. The Shaolin, Xingyi, Mantis, and Bagua training also included substantial weapons work, such as saber, double saber, halberd, hook sword, dagger, and other traditional hardware.
But let's stick with the Tai Chi line for the moment. Smith's free class was only a toe in the water. I seriously went whole hog on it when I met Benjamin Lo in 1986, at a Smith-hosted guest seminar in Bethesda.
I recognized him right away as the most real deal in Tai Chi. I continued training with him every summer in San Francisco til I moved to San Francisco in 1990 for full time training at his low profile local school. I remained under intensive Tai Chi training with him til he closed the main operation in 1997, and thereafter attended many yearly special events that he taught all over the USA, up almost to the year he passed away.
Along the way, I was privileged to attend a special invitation-only Tai Chi sword training series. It was about 6 weeks of several intensive sessions per week at the school, we were a group of his senior students. He only did, I believe, just three of these special sword series' in his entire USA teaching career, from mid-80's onward. Apart from that, he would usually agree to offer correction sessions for annual Tai Chi camp attendees who'd already learned the whole sequence, usually from some earlier New York-based lineage, because Prof. Zheng had taught sword more frequently and liberally, from the mid-1960's to mid-1970's than Ben ever did. So some of those New York OG students appreciated his corrections and feedback.
Anyway that series foundation was great, but I went way beyond that. For several years I made monthly trips from Seattle back to San Francisco to attend the small semi-private training group sessions Ben continued to run at a hosting karate space. On every one of those trips I also trained Tai Chi SWORD intensively and privately 1-1 at Ben's house in the outer Richmond, in the backyard. This added up to several dozen super high quality multi-hour personal workshops.
In addition to all the above work with Chinese sword, I also trained intensively for many years in Japanese Iaido (seated instant, silent and invisible drawing and resheathing the sword). That's a whole different art using the Japanese two-handed katana - super sharp, all real. I was part of our group's small public demo team which performed at local events, e.g. Bellevue yearly 秋祭 (Aki Matsuri, Fall Festival). I trained under 7th and 8th dan sensei's (Iaido and Kendo rankings) in Seattle and Tokyo. This was me in my Iaido days:
The 'gross motor' principles of Iaido are quite different from Tai Chi sword. But the training made me better rounded and definitely more sensitive to seriously dangerous real edges - drawing, cutting and resheathing instantaneously without visual guidance - only tactile feel. I was good at that.
Anyway based on the above Tai Chi sword resume, you might expect that my performative Tai Chi sword form is superlunary - over the moon! I should be like a Baryshnikov with edged weapon in hand. But nope, I'm not. I have a totally non-performative orientation, which will be reflected in this seminar. Of course, even if somebody were the actual Baryshnikov, I don't think anybody can ever match, much less exceed, the performative depth and aesthetic power of Professor Zheng or Ben Lo going through this sword routine. You can see the Professor doing it on many YouTube videos, and Ben's amazing Hollywood-quality rendition was recorded once for posterity and is now immortalized on the commemorative DVD 'Enduring Legacy'. THAT is performative excellence. I am far from it.
But I don't really mind being far from it, because my approach to the sword is based entirely on its utility for intensifying energetic engagement, flow and experience. That's all I've ever cared about. And while the Professor and Ben are amazing exceptions, a general rule is that more you're into these things from a performative or athletic or aesthetic angle, the less likely you are to dive deep enough to access the incredible internal doors that sword work unlocks. Sad but largely true. Anyway I have full authorization from Ben Lo to teach this.
Of course, the physical movements are the starter foundation, but you have to keep your eyes on the prize which is the internal triggering that sword work can initiate. There is a handful of internal essentials that you must know and apply to pretty much every move. These internal essentials are specific and technical, just not overt gross motor movements or named configurations. The essentials apply to almost every move and position in the form. But you have to be told what they are and exactly how they apply to the gross motor movements. These essentials involved internal usage of hand and grip, internal activation of torso and back, internal dynamic of arm positioning with respect to body and some other things. Phrased as I just have here, these may sound kind of physical. But no, these are internal effects that are just triggered by the various body parts and positions.
And we need to go slow enough to trigger the tangible, fully experiential energy-body response and flow. As I've written many times for decades (and now I see other teachers have picked up my point using almost exactly my words), the internal energy experience is not a philosophy, not a metaphor, not a concept, not mere terminology, not a delusion, not merely subjective 'sensations', not a religion, not a ritual, nor a primitive misunderstanding of a well-understood, purely scientific physiological process. It's its own thing. Internal energy. And its development can be massively enhanced and accelerated by a certain approach to sword work.
So if you attend, you won't hear me trying to justify sword as light calisthenics, or as a combatively real military or defensive tool, or as a precious cultural performative heritage, or anything like that. I do it for one thing and one thing alone: as an internal accelerant. There are certain foundational components built in to this form which set that stage for that - but you need somebody to lift the curtain on it. Despite my pedestrian aesthetics in the 'dancing' of this form, I know how to reveal the inner sword to you.
Rather than struggling just to remember the moves (even people who 'know' the form mostly don't practice it daily) while rushing to the finish line, you have to go slower, more like the empty hand form. In this seminar we won't be concerned with rushing through it. We'll linger on each move as I present the specific inner components of each. If you already know the entire sequence you can apply every internal principle in every move and you'll find it's a much deeper dive than you've ever yet done. But even if you barely know the form at all, or not at all, that won't matter because you can access the internal depth of the work in the very first few moves. The internal keys are much more important than the widely available and easily learnable physical shapes. You will learn to internally activate your grip/hands, your back, hips, torso and legs. This culminates as an internal energy torrent so intense you'll totally forget about the superficial performative game of sword and get back to the real point of it.
But the weekend will not be limited only to Tai Chi sword. As I've said, all that matters to me is the energetic experience. To facilitate that, I'll also teach some selected internal energy drills. These are sourced from or inspired by all those arts I listed up above. But I'll be handing over only the cream of the crop. Only what most maximally pays cash. In particular I want you to understand how to internal activate the torso. This is a level changer. Lots of people can feel occasional buzzes, rushes, and tingles in their hands and palms. Frankly that's nothing. It can be felt there with 10 minutes of instruction. That's just 外氣 (externalized energy). I want you to feel the power's origination, from deeply within your body and blasting up from your feet. To do that we need to get your torso activated as 'Old Ox Power' (老牛筋). I will teach drills derived from Chen Tai Chi, ZMQ Tai Chi, Xingyiqua, Mantis and other traditional sources that I've specifically honed for this purpose. I'm hoping that by offering these along with the internal sword work, it'll be like pump priming so you'll come to feel the incredible power of the sword practices and embrace them more wholeheartedly.
The seminar details are listed in the pinned graphical post at the top of this blog. For those who've already registered and/or pre-paid and/or at least expressed interest, I will send a group mailing next month with a few more details about location and equipment. There are only a few slots left, as I have to keep this small due to the space requirements (sword) and need to spend as much time working with each person as possible.