The practice of Small Chi Sphere is related to the practice of the Elongated Wrist. In actual learning, we may not learn in this order. Instead, we typically learn other main principles such as the Three Chi Rings, Lowering the Elbows, Buns Under the Armpits, etc before we come to the Small Chi Sphere.

I touched on it here because the Small Chi Sphere principle is an extension of the Elongated Wrist principle. The easiest way to learn the Small Chi Sphere and make it a habit is by learning to do it when your hand is in open palm formation.

This is simplifying and dumbing down the actual process of learning to use the Small Chi Sphere but if the objective is to pick up the understanding earlier, well I suppose it is a necessary evil.

You learn about the Small Chi Sphere by learning to hold it between your fingers when you have an open palm formation. All five of your finger tips gently grasped and adhere to the Small Chi Sphere. You need to use your imagination to do it.

If you are lacking in the visualization department, get an actual small, ideally light ball, and have a feel of what it is like to grasp it. This is a quick way to get the feeling. There are limitations to learning this way but if its gets the learning moving along then why not.

Whether your palm is facing down, facing up or facing forward, always have the Small Chi Sphere grasped between your fingers. Never lose it unless the learning steps call for it to be momentarily out of your hands.

When you can grasp the Small Chi Sphere, then you can learn to manipulate it. A very simple basic manipulation occurs in the Beginning Posture where you are holding the Small Chi Sphere with your palm down, then release the sphere to fly through the air into the distance, then as you turn your palm up the sphere flies back into your hand in a quick instant (the action is performed by hold hands, eaching holding its own sphere).

Right before this action, there is an action of how each of the two spheres is formed, rolled up the body, inserted through your body, then brought back out before releasing and retrieving the sphere.

And after this, you again insert the spheres into your body, bring them out, place them on the level surface of the river (it can also be the sea or a swimming pool, but let’s make it a river) and press the spheres into the water, right up to the Kua Ring of the Three Chi Rings.

By now, you can see how easily complicated the learning has become and we are still in the Beginning Posture movement. I just described it to give you an idea of what our learning of GM Wei Shuren’s Tai Chi is like.

Along the way, you can learn to manipulate the Small Chi Sphere by rotating it, depressing it, dashing it, and even disintegrating it on cue from an external pulsing dot. Yeah, man, some of the things we do sounds just like science fiction when we describe it.

There are so many more things to talk about when it comes to the Small Chi Sphere. I think I will give my hands a rest from the typing and your mind a rest.

There’s no escape from the basics, more so if you are learning GM Wei Shuren’s Tai Chi.

A long time ago my teacher said never, never throw away the basics. The better you know your basics and understand the connection between each and every basic, the more refined your skill will be.

However, its too easy to forget the basics especially if you practice different arts. So if Tai Chi is your chosen poison make sure you make the basics part of your movements before you mess around with other arts. Even then practice regularly and check, and check again that your basics are still there.

Everyone knows that you must first learn to Sung when you do your form. Sung is the basis for main things to come, chief among them the one thing everyone loves and can’t get enough of, FAJING.

For me this is my conclusion for the importance of Sung. Sung is the first gateway to achieve different objectives. So we must somehow, by hook or by crook, get to Sung. But what does Sung mean?

Sung can mean different things to different practitioners depending on their level of mastery. For us let’s not become overly obsessed with Sung to the exclusion of everything else. Like I said its a means to an end, a tool.

We begin with a simple attainment of Sung that everyone can master……. well, almost everyone, as long as you are prepared to do the practice carefully and diligently as long as you need to get there.

The easiest way to learn to Sung is by practicing Elongated Wrist. Basically, Elongated Wrist is to physically keep your hand and wrist in a straight line, well, its actually more than that. It is more like water surging out from the wrist through the hand and the pressure of the water straightens out the wrist, elongating it.

So keeping the wrist-hand straight is not it. Keeping the flow of energy from the wrist to the hand is it. But this can be abstract so beginners can miss the point. Easier to tell them to imagine a bracelet cuffed around the wrist to straighten the wrist and hand.

If you keep practicing this way, and you keep at it, you should come to a point where you feel as if you have no hand. You can see your hand but the feeling is like the hand is not there. Well, if you want to feel your hand just bend your wrist and you can feel your hand again.

So if you can “lose” your hand you can say that you have achieved a level of Sung in your hand. If this Sung is real, not imagined, then when someone grasped your wrist with their hand he should feel a huge surge of power coming right at him. He should not feel as if you are trying to push your wrist at him.

This is why I say this is like losing your hand. Your partner grasped your hand, he can see your hand, but he does not feel your hand pushing back, he just feels this energy.

The practice of the Elongated Wrist is not an isolated practice. Whether we are forming an open palm, a fist or a hook hand we must, we must have the Elongated Wrist. This means that when we practice the form (whether 22-form, 108-form or 37-form) you must have the Elongated Wrist present from beginning to end.

And that basically is why the Elongated Wrist principle is so important.

We normally think of stepping as a means to get us to the position we want or to control our range.

However, stepping is also good for one other thing – power generation.

In 6-MS we learn how to step in a zig-zag manner. We use this stepping because 4 of the 6-MS strikes are powered by the body posture associated with this stepping.

For 6-LH we use a different posture due to the range and angling requirements.

Both methods of stepping are related and can be practiced together. However, to make the learning easier we should learn the 6-MS stepping first. Generally, this stepping is easier to practice. The problem arises when we learn the 6-MS and 6-LH stepping together.

This is when if you did not practice 6-MS stepping properly you will find that when you change from 6-MS to 6-LH stepping you can’t get the power out crisply. So its better to make yourself practice more rigorously so that you don’t have to go back to practicing like a beginner at a later stage.

I will refer to 6-MS stepping as Step-1 and 6-LH stepping as Step-2.

When you practice 6-MS it is not enough to just step out of the way of a strike. You should turn enough to maximize the range and power afforded by the turning of the body. It is when you do this that you are winding your body to the maximum.

When you do Step-2 as follow up your body will need to turn back the other way. So if your body is already well winded in Step 1 you will be able to turn back strongly when you change to Step-2. This winding and unwinding will allow you to power not just your blocks but also your strikes.

That’s why you should not skip any steps or do each step in a lackadaisical manner. Each step before affects the step after.

Perform each step carefully. As you become more familiar then you try to minimize the lag between changes. If you keep practicing there will be a time when you can perform an action in one step instead of a few steps. The speed of execution is then not so much a matter of forcing yourself to move faster but a matter of efficiency and minimizing the steps required to carry out an action.

Last comment – when practicing Step-1 do not overlook the role of the parry hand. Knowing what to do with the parry hand can help you with power generation also.

We have a simple solo sequence, 5-MS, for the 5 Major Strikes that is basically performing each of the major strikes in their order.

Now after some time training with 6-Blocks we can upgrade our practice of the 5 major strikes by combining elements from the 6-Blocks into the sequencing of the major strikes.

And I added one more technique to this sequence as a bridge between the major strikes and the other three solo bridge hand sequences 6-LH, 3-WS and 3-NS. I will call this 6-MS.

In CMA there are three levels of blocking and attacking namely :-
i) Block then counterattack
ii) Block and counterattack at the same time
iii) Move out of the way and counterattack

The sequence of 5-MS focuses on (iii) whereas 6-LH, 3-WS and 3-NS emphasizes (ii). For 6-MS we will have (ii) and (iii).

As usual, use the sticks on the ground as a guide to ensure your stepping is consistent. But do get rid of them as you progress.

6-MS-1
1) Perform right 6-Blk-1 as your right foot steps to your right
2) Pull your right hand back and execute left Yum Chui
3) You can decorate the technique with additional movements later

6-MS-2 with 6-MS-3
1) Perform right 6-Blk-1 as your right foot steps to your right
2) Pull your right hand back and execute left Gwa Chui
3) Your left hand changes to 6-Blk-7 then 6-Blk-8 as your execute right Chau Chui; your body position changes accordingly

6-MS-4
1) Perform right 6-Blk-1 as your right foot steps to your right
2) Pull your right hand back and execute left Gwa Chui
3) Perform 6-Blk-2 with right hand as if clearing the way even as your left hand moves into position
4) Once your left hand has cleared the way quickly execute Sau Chui

6-MS-5
1) Perform right 6-Blk-1 as your right foot steps to your right
2) Pull your right hand back and execute left Charp Chui (this variation is called Fan Chui)
3) As you pull your left hand back to protect your face, execute right Charp Chui
4) As option you can tack on 6-MS-4(3) and 6-MS-4(4)

6-MS-6
1) Perform right 6-Blk-1 as your right foot steps to your right
2) Pull your right hand back and execute left Snake Hand
3) Bring up your right hand over your left hand to trace a semi-circle and execute right Snake Hand
4) Complete the technique with left Snake Hand to target

Some additional things to add on to the video yesterday. Treat this as the first thing to work on because it is foundation.

Start with footwork first. Don’t rush. Step a few times first to get the hang of it. Then keep practicing until comfortable. When you think you got it, now take a video (or use a mirror) and check if what you really look like corresponds to what you think you are like.

You can break the footwork exercise in the 6-MS footwork and 6-Blk footwork. Do just the 6-MS footwork first as a way to measure the stepping length. Once you can step comfortably and easily, then add the second part to become the 6-Blk footwork.

After getting the stepping length down, checking if after every step your leading right hand can drop onto the centre stick without having to adjust. If not, check your stepping.

If the above is in place, practice 6-Blk-1 with the stepping. Work on hand leading the body which involves being able to move and intercept with minimal necessary movement of the right hand. Don’t use force. Pause, check against the centre stick as reference.

If you got this then try forming the cupping hand shape at the last moment. Again don’t use force. Keep doing it. Check if you stop at the proper level.

If you can stop at the proper level every time, then try using light force. Go slow. Feel how the hand leads the body. Is the other hand on the chest?

When you get the hang of it, continue to go slow. Now feel how your stance interacts with the right hand to add power by using gravity. If you can’t feel it, then put this aside for now.

After seeing Paul’s video feedback I have come up with a learning breakdown that starts from scratch.

The learning will just focus on 6-Blk-1.

Footwork
Just ensure that footwork is performed properly it is essential to have points of reference. For this purpose we can place three sticks on the floor to act as indicator.

We begin the footwork exercise by keeping both feet together. This will avoid the tendency to place the foot such that you can cause yourself to trip when stepping fast.

We first step to be out of the way. This is the footwork of 6-MS. Once out of the way, we pivot back to the position that we use for 6-Blocks, 6-LH, 3-WS, and 3-NS.

Hand Placement
6-Blk-1 – the hand is cupped, positioned just above the solar plexus.

To know where the hand is positioned we can use the both hands to check the placement by placing the cupped left hand on top of the cupped right hand on the sagittal plane.

Training Posture
In readiness, body upright, knees bent slightly, both hands in front of face.

In moving into position, the blocking hand is on the reference point representing the line of attack; the other hand is placed on chest (tap your chest to remind yourself that you are doing it) in readiness for striking.

Exercise 1
Step forward with right foot X 10
Step forward with left foot X 10
When stepping forward, first use body posture of 6-MS briefly before moving into body posture of 6-Blk.

Exercise 2
Repeat Exercise 1, however, after you finish each stepping check your body position by lowering your leading hand from front of face to 6-Blk-1. Check if your cupped hand falls naturally onto the sagittal plane (above solar plexus level) without you having to adjust the position. If not, then your stepping needs to be adjusted.

Also, check if your non-blocking hand is still on your chest (this is why you should tap your chest as a reminder).

Exercise 3
Imagine a left straight punch coming at your chest.

Quickly move your right hand to intercept it, step with your right foot into position as you do so. If you do it correctly, you have basically just moved out of the way, with your right cupped hand on top of the imaginary opponent’s left wrist (if you can get an actual partner this will be easier to learn).

Do not try to actually block first, study the timing, coordination and position instead.

Exercise 4
Repeat Exercise 3, however, this time after you finish the blocking, move your left hand after holding a horizontal fist from your chest up along the sagittal plane towards the imaginary opponent’s face.

You will notice that you are unable to reach further without turning your waist to your right; the other point to note is that your left hand is lined up to strike without having to adjust again.

Exercise 5
Repeat Exercise 4, however, this time when your left fist reached the maximum range of its movement without turning your waist you extend the range by turning your waist to your right to enable your left punch to go further.

What you need to take note is when turning your waist to the right, be aware that your right cupped 6-Blk-1 is still in the same position. It is common to forget the position of your right 6-Blk-1 hand when turning the body. In application, this means that you have lost control of your opponent’s left arm, allowing him to use it again to attack you.

The second point to note that when you move your left punch to your opponent’s head it should move along the sagittal plane, instead of drifting off as can happen when you are turning your waist to the right.

The third point is to keep your right 6-Blk-1 arm still when turning your waist to your right. Treat the right arm like a static hinge that the rest of your body turns towards.

Exercise 6
For this exercise you would need a dummy arm, a partner’s arm or use your own arm.

If you are performing right 6-Blk-1 then you use your left arm as a dummy arm.

First, perform 6-Blk-1 quickly with a swift dropping accelerating movement, then come to a sudden dead stop when arrive at position. Do it a few times.

Now extend your left arm with hand forming a fist (whether vertical or horizontal does not matter). Just hold your left arm there (don’t hold it too rigid).

Perform right hand 6-Blk-1 on your left wrist. If you do it properly the moment your right hand makes contact and stop, the motion should bounce your left arm off. If you find your right hand below its position this means that you are pushing rather than bouncing.

If you do this exercise on a training partner, your stepping will add power to the block. If you also practice Iron Palm the effect on your training partner will be even better.

That’s about it for the set of basic exercises for 6-Blk-1 from scratch (refer to video if you have a problem understanding it). You can apply them to the practice of the other 5 blocks.

It is not the first time I said it but here it is again. One of the key lessons from the practice of 6-Blocks is to learn how to put the Ancient Bell Body principle from Grandmaster Wei Shuren’s Yang style Tai Chi into actual practice.

It took an empty MILO bottle for Paul to finalize “see” this point years after he first learned the exercise.

The thing about learning is you have to practice. If you are good at observation, like have a good eye that can spot differences, then you can make the learning journey on your own. If not, then you should rethink how you learn.

When you practice there are two aspects to the practice. One is your practice leads to improvement such as your ability to remember the sequence and perform it smoothly. The second aspect is that you pick up unintended habits, habits that will hamper your ability to progress further as you move down the road.

So you practice and you practice on your own. You check your own progress. You think you got it. Time passes. However, you still fail to have insights.

Why is this so? Part of the reason is that you did not practice enough to generate questions, generate doubts as to what you are doing. You need to practice and then find yourself asking, wait how does this transition to that. How do I actually change here? What am I missing? Should it be this way or that way?

When you have questions then you investigate and try to find answers, then put them to practice and see if this resolves your doubts. If it does not, then you repeat the process.

The easier way is to practice and ask your teacher questions. That’s what I used to do but I don’t ask shallow questions cause that would indicate that you did not practice as much, and just want the easy way out. The questions you ask will tell the teacher if you really did practice.

Some teachers will give you clear cut answers. Some will give you vague answers and make you work for the information. Yet some teachers will tell you to steal the information, meaning watch and observe, then put together your own practice, test your understanding, analyse what you know, watch again, practice again, and keep on doing until you finally succeed in acquiring the secrets.

You may not think it but time flies by quickly. The practice of 6-Blocks is not meant to be a practice of years or decades, but of weeks. If self-defence material takes too long to be mastered, then it is basically useless to the person learning it.

Why did it take Paul years to see the point about Ancient Bell Body? A visual examination of his performance gave an indication.

The practice of 6-Blocks is not just about moving the arms. Instead, it is about moving the arms, getting the body involved, the timing and coordination of the arms relative to the body, the physical angles being controlled and the mental angles under surveillance, how to change from one block to the next, where the actual openings are, how the opening can be closed in an instant, how the blocks can be an attack and how a block can morphed into an attack in the timing of one count.

Seeing Paul’s performance I decided that its time to go back to basics, the very first step. Still, a study of solo movement is just that – moving in relation to nothing. Something had to be done about the nothing. This is where the MILO bottle came in.

The one thing I wanted to highlight is the flow of 6-Blocks. The second is when do we change from one block to another block. So while holding an empty MILO bottle I had this idea, thought about it, and the next day made a short video.

I send Paul the video and he caught on to the insight about the connection to Ancient Bell Body. Now the only real question is – now that Paul knows it will he be able to improve his performance and infuse it with the nuances that should be in attendance during the movements.

Practice. Analyse. Check. Practice.

And just like that it is now the 2nd day of 2026.

2025 has come and gone. And so where are you today after the last 365 days in 2025? Did you make any progress? Did you learn anything new?

Time is a flow. Once time flows by you it is no longer coming back. Before you hit the age of 50 you look to the future. Past 50, we tend to begin the countdown to the unknown expiry date. So whatever you want to do, want to learn, want to master, know that time will not wait for you.

Did you make a resolution at the end of 2025? Were you able to fulfil the resolution of the year before? It is easy to make resolutions today that we soon forget tomorrow.

I once had an art teacher, Mr Lee. He was so “famous” that before I was transferred to his school my fellow students opted to take double mathematics or science subjects rather than study art.

In our first class Mr Lee laid down one rule – if we fail to submit a homework do not make excuses, just admit that we did not do it. And sure enough, soon enough, a student also by the family name of Lee (no relation to Mr Lee the art teacher) was not able to hand in his homework. Student Lee started to give an excuse, only to be cut short by Mr Lee who reminded him not to give excuses.

So there you go, you can make excuses for not practicing, not learning but in the end if you did not do it, you did not do it and end up where you are a year ago.

In learning the easiest rules to observe are :-

1) Practice daily
2) Strive for improvement
3) Study carefully what you are doing

The above are governed by your attitude and aptitude towards learning. As long as you do not get caught in mind traps of your own making you will be fine.

There is a new book that was released in the 4th quarter of 2025 entitled Water Mirror Echo : Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America. The journey of Bruce Lee’s learning of Wing Chun and how he subsequently evolved to JKD is a timely reminder of how we can learn more effectively. I have read about Bruce Lee’s learning in other books but this book fleshes it out better, maybe its because the author was able to access the source material.

Your learning is your journey. How you choose to make that journey will determine the subsequent outcome.

I would have written more except I am working to revamp a work website.

So onwards 2026 and don’t let time slip by you again.

Its time to check Paul’s learning progress. If he has been practicing regularly there won’t be a need to prepare for this. Just do it on the fly, setup the phone and hit record.

Perform 5 sets of the sequences below. The 1st set is like a trial run to get into the flow, the 2nd and 3rd go at a smooth even pace, and the last two sets the timing can vary if you are visualizing an application, or demonstrating control of space and lines, even as you are using power.

6-Blocks one after another
Step forward with right leg, perform single right hand 6-Blocks.
Then step forward with left leg, perform single left hand 6-blocks.
This is Set-1, repeat for 4 more sets.

6-Blocks in Sequence
Step forward with right leg, perform single right hand 6-Blocks 5 times in a row.
Then step forward with left leg, perform single left hand 6-blocks 5 times in a row.
That’s it.

6-LH, 3-WS, 3-NS one after another
Step forward with right leg, perform single right hand 6-LH.
Repeat for the left side.
Next step forward with right leg, perform single right hand 3-WS.
Repeat for left side.
Finally, step forward with right leg, perform single right hand 3-NS.
Repeat for left side.
Repeat above for 4 more sets.

6-LH, 3-WS, 3-NS in one sequence
Step forward with right leg, perform single right hand 6-LH, followed by 3-WS and 3-NS.
Repeat for the left side.
Repeat above for 4 more sets.

6-ES
Step forward with right leg, perform 6-ES.
After ending right 6-ES your left leg will be forward; now perform left 6-ES
Repeat 4 more times.

That’s it. In future progress check we will examine the 2-handed versions of 6-Blocks, 6-LH, 3-WS and 3-NS. We may also look at the long pole.

Do you want to be soft?

Or do you want to be hard?

Or somewhere in between?

And no, this is not a post about erectile dysfunction…………..

Maybe its because I learned Tai Chi first that I somehow ended preferring the soft approach. However, saying that one wants to learn the soft arts won’t get us very far.

Why?

Tofu is soft. So is noodle, wet or dry. But have you seen anyone get hurt by tofu or noodle?

On the other hand take a strand of wire. A wire is soft in that it can be bent. Put a few strands of wire together and twist them together.

Now they are soft and also strong, resilient. I used to have a few bunches of these twisted wires from an engineering project but I threw them away due to the rust. However, they were useful for conditioning the body.

So to say that you want to be soft is meaningless unless you define exactly what this means.

A useful definition of being soft is to define it as follows :-

i) Bending with external pressure without collapsing
ii) Using sufficient and necessary (minimal) strength to perform the task

This definition allows us to examine what principles and training methods allow us to achieve our training objective to be soft yet functional.

First, we ask the question – what do we mean by using sufficient strength? For example, when performing the Sam Bai Fut section in the Siu Nim Tao are we using just enough strength, too much strength or even strength that is not necessary to do the movements.

From here we can work towards achieving the objective of using sufficient strength. If you are on the right track you will feel that your movements are effortless. Yet when pressured by your opponent your structure won’t collapse.

When your opponent’s pressure is very strong and causes your correct arm structure to deform do you resist or does your arm automatically bend with the force and move into another strategically advantageous position? If yes, then you are like a willow bending with the force and returning it.

This is only the first part of the learning of being soft. The second part is how to use softness to be hard or to focus or amplify the force that you can now harness by not wasting unnecessary strength.