1973
After learning
Cheng Man-ching's short Yang form and getting the idea of
push-hands, after nine years of study, I thought I knew something,
and went off to Ben Lo's summer camp in the Catskills.
1981
My first big
lesson from Ben was that I didn't know anything but a bunch of
empty movements and some ideas of being soft and yielding that I
had no idea how to realize.
So I started
over. Ben Lo's camp every summer for ten years. I developed a root,
some integrity in my body. Now I was more difficult to push. I was
still clinging to the notion of being soft and
yielding.
Those same
years I commuted to New York to study tai chi free-fighting with
Ben's classmate William Chen. I had a chance to relax into my fear
of fighting, and to connect to my legs.
1989
Then I went to
a tournament in Winchester. I was determined not to care how I did,
but I was totally discouraged when I got pushed out in the first
round.
When I saw
William, his advice was to stay in the front foot (use more root).
When I told him I wanted to try that soft and yielding thing, he
said I had to come to New York and meet his friend and classmate,
Tao Ping-siang, who was, he said, "the softest of all of
us".
I did come to
Manhattan and met this old guy who weighed less than a hundred
pounds and was unpushable. I studied with Dr. Tao until his death
in 2006, and I have continued studying what he taught me in the
years since then.