Tai Chi Combat Self Defense

[ChenAn]

Here is my student's Taiji. This video was filmed 35 years ago.

And again it doest’s ring a bell. Sorry. It’s not my system and whatever pitfalls and advantages comes with it I can’t really tell.

In my line we practice first form xinjia yi lu (83 postures) in average 30-40 minutes . One would fall a sleep of boredom watching it on video lol Very different from other branches that may practice same thing other ways.

In any case I have counter example of Jet Li whose gong fu admired by millions on movie screens suffers from serious illness . And frankly looks way older than his age


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[Kung Fu Wang]

右蹬脚 Right Heel Kick
左蹬脚 Left Heel Kick
转身右蹬脚 Turn Body and Right Heel Kick
左金鸡独立 Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg, Left
右金鸡独立 Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg, Right
十字腿 Cross Kick

IMO, if you keep your spine vertical all the time, you are not training your single leg balance to the maximum.

Here is a good single leg balance training - 舍身探海 (She Shen Tan Hai) Sacristy body and dive into ocean. If you can still do this posture when you are 80 years old, you don't have to worry about falling down from stairs.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

People have said that Taiji is good for weak, sick, old. What if you are not weak, sick, old? When you are young, if you do this posture daily, when you get old, you will never get a hump back.

Taiji training just doesn't bend your body back like this.

1. 羅漢观天 (Luo Han Guan Tian) - Lou Han looks at sky

 

[ChenAn]

People have said that Taiji is good for weak, sick, old. What if you are not weak, sick, old? When you are young, if you do this posture daily, when you get old, you will never get a hump back.

Taiji training just doesn't bend your body back like this.

1. 羅漢观天 (Luo Han Guan Tian) - Lou Han looks at sky

Fallacy of hasty generalization


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[mograph]

Submitted for your approval:

• Courage is the engine.
  
• Intelligence is the rudder.
• Wisdom is the governor.

 

[Xue Sheng]

IMO, if you keep your spine vertical all the time, you are not training your single leg balance to the maximum.

Here is a good single leg balance training - 舍身探海 (She Shen Tan Hai) Sacristy body and dive into ocean. If you can still do this posture when you are 80 years old, you don't have to worry about falling down from stairs.

Speaking as a Taijiquan guy who also does Yoga, whose favorite yoga posture is half-moon. We don't agree, but that is nothing new.,

But if that is your standard than from a yoga perspective that is not enough either...why stop at a bad warrior 3 position

Proper warrior 3 by the way

you should then also do a half-moon pose

and of course there was a balance exercise I got the idea for form Bruce Lee's first book. Bring your leg up in front of you stop in the position for an heel kick and t hen horizontally rotate it to the rear and then swing through back to a heel kick...all done slowly....and I could say if you are not doing that, as well as warrior 3 and half-moon.....then you are not working enough on balance

However the reality of the situation as far as it applies only to balance.... a tree pose works just fine (You may want to try it) as do many taijiquan poses, when done properly and the proper speed. They also train how to maintain that balance while in motion.

I recommend starting with this one

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

That's a good one - 烏龍戏水 (Wu Long Xi Shui) Black dragon plays with water

 

[ChenAn]

Chen sword aka jian has exactly the same posture as in yoga


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[JowGaWolf]

1. No weight training - You may lose bone density in old age.
2. No heart stress test - The slow Taiji movement does not make your heart to work enough.
3. Not enough single leg balance training - You may lose balance and fall in old age.[/QUOTE]

1. The slow movement makes your body weight more than enough for weight training. In addition forms is not the only conditioning that is done for Tai Chi. There are medical studies that actually show that it increases bone density
2. No heart stress test - You don't have move fast to stress the heart. There is both slow practice and fast practice for Tai Chi (the martial version, not the "health only" version)
3. Not enough single leg balance training. When I practice that's all that it ever seems like I'm doing because it takes me so long to transition weight from one foot to the other. My legs actually gained muscle mass because of Tai Chi.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

2. No heart stress test - You don't have move fast to stress the heart. There is both slow practice and fast practice for Tai Chi (the martial version, not the "health only" version.

We are talking about whether "Taiji for health" is good enough for health. If you train "Taiji for combat" and spar 15 rounds daily, you won't have any health issue.

I just had my heart stress test 3 months ago. In that test, I had to run 30 degree uphill in quite fast speed in order to push my heart rate to the required level. I do believe that the common slow Taiji sole form training won't be able to achieve that.

 

[ChenAn]

We are talking about whether "Taiji for health" is good enough for health. If you train "Taiji for combat" and spar 15 rounds daily, you won't have any health issue.

I just had my heart stress test 3 months ago. In that test, I had to run 30 degree uphill in quite fast speed in order to push my heart rate to the required level. I do believe that the common slow Taiji sole form training won't be able to achieve that.

And you didn’t really see video of 93 years old taiji practitioner above ? Lol


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[ChenAn]

Off topic: I’m in aviation business so I know little bit about heart test. Usually stress test is not required unless doctor suspect that you have heart problems or you had heart problems before . EKG is sufficient during routing test.

When patient submitted to stress test no one asks to run because if patient do have a problem doctor don’t want to cause cardiac arrest. Most patient usually asked to walk fast uphill .

My question -?did you elect to have stress test yourself or you suspected problems?



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[Xue Sheng]

We are talking about whether "Taiji for health" is good enough for health. If you train "Taiji for combat" and spar 15 rounds daily, you won't have any health issue.

I just had my heart stress test 3 months ago. In that test, I had to run 30 degree uphill in quite fast speed in order to push my heart rate to the required level. I do believe that the common slow Taiji sole form training won't be able to achieve that.

My taijiquan sifu is pushing 80 and he always surprises his physicians as to how healthy he and his heart is

 

[JowGaWolf]

We are talking about whether "Taiji for health" is good enough for health.

Oh ok. "Taji for health" as in people who only do half of the training. People who only do the "health part" I'm really big on training martial arts as a fighting system. Even if people don't want to use it for fighting, they would a lot of health benefits from the training. I'm not a fan of splitting Tai Chi into 2 separate components (one for health and one for fighting). Train it for fighting and the health portion will be a by product.

I understand that there will be limits on to how much of the training one can do. A punch practiced as a punch uses different muscles then a movement that look like a punch but isn't a punch. Standing on one leg is easy, but standing on one leg as done in Yoga or Martial Arts takes a lot more muscle engagement to do.

Are are standing on one leg, but all don't engage the same muscles and as a result only will give a person maximum results. Westerners have a tendency to shortcut stuff.

 

[ChenAn]

There was health related documentary where one doctor said “ life is like a car without brakes. If you accelerate to fast you come to finish sooner”

I think it can be said about taiji. Balance of yin and yang. Either end of extreme is out of balance


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[JowGaWolf]

Balance of yin and yang. Either end of extreme is out of balance

I try to live my life like this. Because there are so many examples of it all through out life. I will definitely be using "Either end of extreme is out of balance." Very well put.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

My question -?did you elect to have stress test yourself or you suspected problems?

One of my SC brothers passed away in his sleep last Christmas. My wife forced me to check my heart. After that, I have checked my lung, kidney, and colon.

Taiji was my 1st CMA system that I have trained when I was 7. Today, I just don't feel like to train Taiji any more. About 1 hour ago, I just finished running 4 miles on the beach. Did XingYi Pi Chuan 1000 time in 40 minutes. I then did XingYi Beng Chuan 200 times. That was my 2 hours work out for today.

 

[ChenAn]

One of my SC brothers passed away in his sleep last Christmas. My wife forced me to check my heart. After that, I have checked my lung, kidney, and colon.

I got my checked as well. But in my line of business if you got your heart checked next medical renewal could have more consequences.

My friend, a retired airline pilot, who used to worked for TWS got a heart attack several days after checking his heart. Life is full of surprises - just saying


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[Zeny]

There are so many senior taiji masters/students in this thread. Why don’t we share videos of our own forms instead of just linking other people’s?

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

Standing on one leg is easy, but standing on one leg as done in Yoga or Martial Arts takes a lot more muscle engagement to do.

I have trained single leg balance all my life. It's one ability that I try to maintain through my old age