I would have missed this year’s Scottish Parkinson’s Table Tennis Open were it not for an entertaining radio interview with gold medalist Gillian Lacey-Solmar. She is one of a group of Parkinson’s patients, the “Movers and Shakers”, who undertake various activities to keep in shape and slow the progress of the disease. She says that she’s not very good but is nonetheless passionate about the sport. And she did win the medal, after all.
“I’m absolutely devoted to this now. It’s got all my neurons firing.”
She and the Movers and Shakers have been playing a lot of ping pong in the past few months. Their coach says that it’s good for them because it engages all parts of the body and brain. They feel they’re getting the exercise they need, but at the same time it’s absorbing and fun.
Speaking of absorbing and fun, a few months ago my taiji group began practicing the taiji fan. Taiji employs a number of weapons, just like other styles of kungfu. Fan is one, although it may not seem all that dangerous. You can use the closed fan to block and hit. I’ve got one with metal spines that packs a punch. And opening the fan in different ways can screen punches and kicks.
We started with a short fan sequence of 18 moves. The group took to that enthusiastically, and lots of them now have fans of their own so they can practice at home.
The form we’re working on right now is an even more challenging 52-posture sequence devised by Grandmaster Li Deyin (b. 1938). I certainly feel like all my neurons are firing when practicing this form. I guess I’m now absolutely devoted, just as the Movers and Shakers are.
The movements are based on the taiji sabre form. With some embarrassment I have to admit that my fan experience has been entirely based on YouTube videos and material from the websites of various taiji schools. Grandmaster Li has two wonderful instructional videos, in which he and two of his students break down and demonstrate the movements. His daughter Faye Yip has made a bunch of films too.
I’m not the only one learning fan at Y.T.U. One of my students is also doing a tai chi fan class in Almere – just under an hour from us here in Utrecht. There’s a weekly evening group there, led by a Chinese woman. They put on one of the YouTube videos and practice along.
There are videos which show the form from the back, from the side, at different speeds and some show the names of the postures as they are performed. One unusual thing struck me about a lot of these videos. It’s that they very often play the same Chinese song. Here’s the song:
I wondered why this is. It sounds quite martial. Perhaps Chinese people are encouraged to practice and ‘do their best’ when they hear this music? I asked one of our Chinese friends if she knew the song. She did some great research.
It turns out that the 52-fan form can be performed to this song, “Chinese Kungfu”, composed in 1996 by Wu Jiaji and sung by actor/singer Tu Honggang, who also sang the theme songs to the films “Ip Man”, “Fist of Fury” and “Farewell to my Concubine”.
Crouch like a bow, stand like a pine.
No moving, no shaking*, sit like a bell, Rush like a blast of wind.
NanQuan and BeiTui, Shaolin and WuDang.
Taiji and Bagua palm strikes; China has amazing kungfu.
After this there are five more verses, based loosely on Chinese martial arts sayings, proverbs, advice from 5th century generals and the like. The song concludes:
‘ Zhōng hua yōu shēn gōng!’ – China has amazing kungfu!
* Movers and Shakers: no offense meant, this probably refers to being still when lying in wait to attack. But what an amazing coincidence that your name is in the song!
The 52-posture fan form has six parts, one for each verse of the song. In addition to the salute at the beginning, and some transition measures at the end of part five, it works out to eight moves per part, timed with the music. Some parts are faster, which is clear from the song. If you practice with the music the timing of each movement is obvious.
Our group has also been practicing taiji sabre each Sunday. Some of the moves are therefore already familiar because, as I said, the fan form is sort of an outgrowth of sabre techniques. Still, it’s complicated and, after all, there are 52 moves to learn.
Last week one of the participants asked, rightly, “what’s the added value of doing the fan?” I think she was feeling overwhelmed by all the new moves. I started thinking seriously about what the advantage of doing the fan form might be. The fan movements, like the sabre, are based on the turning of the waist and core. In Chinese this area of the body between the bottom ribs and the hips is called the Yao. We can think of it as the entire core, the column which has to move together and is in fact constantly in motion. The difference might be that in Western exercise, we’re expected to tighten and strengthen the core muscles: all those abs and obliques. In taiji we turn the yao, but we’re allowed to keep it relaxed. In the fan form there are also a lot of low stances and balance postures. There are movements where we stand on one leg and turn. I said to her that in my view the added value of doing the fan form has something to do with flexibility, balance, core strength and developing strong legs. This is true but of course the feature of the fan form that has made everyone in the group so enthusiastic in the past couple of months, is just the fact that it’s a lot of fun. You do all this challenging and at times aerobic work, and you hardly notice that you’ve been exercising.