Tai Chi Training is for everyone

[clfsean]

Funny: I visited my godson's Karate dojo and found myself in conversation with some of the senior karateka. Hearing that they offered Tai Chi, I asked them what style they practiced. The uncertain reply was "Tai Chi .... Chuan?"

Brilliant!!!! One of the many reasons I am so picky & absolutely choosy when looking around. Fortunately I'm good to go where I'm at now, but had I heard that I probably would've laughed right in their face without thinking about it.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Brilliant!!!! One of the many reasons I am so picky & absolutely choosy when looking around. Fortunately I'm good to go where I'm at now, but had I heard that I probably would've laughed right in their face without thinking about it.

I would have said....then its fist style then huh

 

[colemcm]

I once got into it with a guy over a "Tai Qi Chuan" offered by an American Kenpo school and how it probably wasn't legit. The school advertised that they taught Xing Yi as a way of bridging Tai Chi to combat use. . . Because Tai Chi has always depended on Xing Yi to be effective.

To me, nothing quite says, "We're offering this to draw suckers in and take their money.", quite like that does.

 

[mograph]

Brilliant!!!! One of the many reasons I am so picky & absolutely choosy when looking around. Fortunately I'm good to go where I'm at now, but had I heard that I probably would've laughed right in their face without thinking about it.

Heh ... well, I grimaced, then mumbled "thanks."

At one of their demos, I saw a boy do his kata and kiai with such intensity that veins were bursting out of his head. I thought "poor kid: he's going to mess himself up."
The same day, the other students were shouting "kee-ai." I don't think that's quite right ...

Sorry, I digress. This just highlights the fact that if a "combat" martial arts school teaches taijiquan, there's no guarantee that it's good taijiquan.

(... and I'm not bashing karate, of course. I just don't think this was my kind of karate school.)

 

[Xue Sheng]

I once got into it with a guy over a "Tai Qi Chuan" offered by an American Kenpo school and how it probably wasn't legit. The school advertised that they taught Xing Yi as a way of bridging Tai Chi to combat use. . . Because Tai Chi has always depended on Xing Yi to be effective.

:lfao:

I once had a school I stopped by to observe a calls tell me "well this is real martial arts, not the taiji you do"

 

[colemcm]

*facepalm*

That attitude is so damned annoying. What's even more unfortunate about it is that they're not entirely wrong. It makes me sad to see what gets passed off as Tai Chi in so many places. Tai Chi seems to have the honor of being, simultaneously, the most AND least practiced martial art.

 

[clfsean]

:lfao:

I once had a school I stopped by to observe a calls tell me "well this is real martial arts, not the taiji you do"

That's when I'd go "oh goody, let's touch up & go!!"

 

[Blaze Dragon]

Let me intervene right here, if I may. The "fist" is correct, also as a rough indicator of "martial art" or "boxing." But taiji or tai ji comes from Taoist cosmology. Metaphorically, it's about the creation of The Myriad Things (basically, the complex world) from an undifferentiated beginning. Remember, this is a metaphor that can be applied to many things.

In other words:
The universe started as wuji, which means "no extremes", "no opposites", "no polarities" or "no ultimates." Everything is the same, nothing stands out, nothing moves. This is represented by a circle.
The next state that arose was/is taiji, where stuff started happening. This is the constantly-flowing state of yin and yang: symbolized by the familiar black & white swirly image. Since this is the first time that stuff stood out (when opposites appeared), the taiji state can be translated as "grand extremes", "first extremes", "supreme opposites," "most important polarities," and so on.

So the meaning of ji as "ultimate" is not "best"; it's more like "opposite" or "polarity" or "end."

After taiji, yin and yang separate or become less fluid; then they combine in pairs, then trigrams to create the bagua, and onward. Metaphorically. :asian:

Ah very nice that's just the way I heard it translated.

 

[Blaze Dragon]

I once got into it with a guy over a "Tai Qi Chuan" offered by an American Kenpo school and how it probably wasn't legit. The school advertised that they taught Xing Yi as a way of bridging Tai Chi to combat use. . . Because Tai Chi has always depended on Xing Yi to be effective.

To me, nothing quite says, "We're offering this to draw suckers in and take their money.", quite like that does.

Wow...news to me. Should have asked them what Kenpo depended on to be combat effective

(that is not a rip on Kenpo, but if a school is advertising an art, then teaching you another to use the first one...well you put the pieces together :S)

 

[Blaze Dragon]

Funny: I visited my godson's Karate dojo and found myself in conversation with some of the senior karateka. Hearing that they offered Tai Chi, I asked them what style they practiced. The uncertain reply was "Tai Chi .... Chuan?"

Ah, this suggests they have a firm grasp of the art :S

 

[hunyuan24]

Here is the school I was tempted to drop in on. http://www.changingdragon.com/ Does anything on that site say if it is martial or not? So far I see a mention of self defense but only briefly.

I have always been curious of martial tai chi. I think that since I am moving away from mma asperations and into more practical ones.. I see many side benefits of tai chi. I feel that physical benefits of the practice, the health stuff so to speak will only help my Taijutsu. If I get to learn a martial art on top of it, hey added bonus.

Let me know what you guys think about them.

I just re-checked the website and Google'd Ch’ang Tung Sheng, their Great Grandmaster's name, in Chinese. Ch’ang Tung Sheng was actually called King of Shuaijiao (i.e. Chinese grappling/throwing/wrestling) in China. He combined his wrestling skills into his Ch'ang style Tai Chi, so I would imagine you can learn martial arts applications, especially those related to grappling.

Here is a website dedicated to his wrestling arts

http://www.changshuaijiao.org/eng/

And this page specifically talked about the martial arts application of Chang style Tai Chi.
http://www.changshuaijiao.org/eng/chang_tai_chi.htm

I hope this helps.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

the martial arts application of Chang style Tai Chi.

The difference between Chang Taiji and Yang Taiji are:

- The "leg move" has been added in.
- You give before you take.
- To move yourself out of your opponent's moving path, give him plenty of space to fall.
- To keep your friends close but to keep your enemy closer.
- Dynamic rooting is more important than static rooting.
- ...

 

[Xue Sheng]

The difference between Chang Taiji and Yang Taiji are:

- The "leg move" has been added in.
- You give before you take.
- To move yourself out of your opponent's moving path, give him plenty of space to fall.
- To keep your friends close but to keep your enemy closer.
- Dynamic rooting is more important than static rooting.
- ...

Yang Taijiquan also has

- To move yourself out of your opponent's moving path, give him plenty of space to fall.
- To keep your friends close but to keep your enemy closer.
- Dynamic rooting is more important than static rooting.

As for these

- The "leg move" has been added in.
- You give before you take.

Explain then and we may have those as well

Heck we even have fakes in Yang to make people do stuff so we can end it because we got tired of playing with them

 

[Transk53]

Overall I have a clumsy balance that at times can be quite annoying. I can bump in to objects sometimes that quite frankly would seem comedic. Question is this. I have been told that Tai Chi can aid people that are uncoordinated and thus help improve balance. Would this be true? Would the slower movements help the brain train itself to have better coordination?

 

[Xue Sheng]

All I can say is Taijiquan trained properly can help you with understanding connections within your body and it can also help you become more aware of your center which does help with balance. But it is not a miracle cure for anything, it is not a quick fix and you have to learn it and train it properly

 

[Transk53]

All I can say is Taijiquan trained properly can help you with understanding connections within your body and it can also help you become more aware of your center which does help with balance. But it is not a miracle cure for anything, it is not a quick fix and you have to learn it and train it properly

Thanks. There quite a few classes in my area.

 

[seasoned]

In the traditional circles a lot of dojo supplement with Tai Chi because it helps a student to better understand the inner workings of their main art.

 

[Transk53]

In the traditional circles a lot of dojo supplement with Tai Chi because it helps a student to better understand the inner workings of their main art.

I am about as traditional as a sausage on a cake, but I am starting to see the martial science behind a lot of it. The whole lifestyle element seems to encompass every art and style.

 

[cloud dancing]

Breat is the power behind all things.
I began teaching my son as soon as he began to stand up.By 2 years old he understood
the dtan tien breathing.I taught him chi-kung and reget due to my own lack of elf-respect
I neer taught him Hwa Yu style.My first lesson w/Old Man Li was "up goes down."
it's break from a choke hold.Arms come up inside the choke hold,{palms up}turning the hands outwards seperates the hold .Then grab his arms and pull down into a knee strike.to face He also explained,
if you're having a bad hair day and simply want to KILL HIM-strike both sides of his neck at with fingertips, same time instead of turing the palma from palm up to pushing outwards and with palms down pulling him down into face getting hit by your knee.
strike to kill.Every technique he taught application.Few I ahve forgotten.but always Li taught as a martial art.Once simply using chen ssu chen,pulling silk exercise or hold ball right ,right hand on top,then turn enlarging the ball ,end with left side holding the ball with left hand on top.Once someone upset me so without thought ,I threw him first right then left using simply chen ssu chen.I had no thought of what tedchnique I was using simply he angered me.
I was told.Practise forms and when time comes to use techniques=it will be automatically done.
When i practise Chen Man Cheng-Short yang/{modified under yang's supervision}.I visualize how i will use each tehnique.over time my vision of the form has changed. something master Geaorge Mattson, uechi ryu mastre said . "static means not learning nor developing on your own.Tradition is good but each person must adapt his techniques for his personal useage."Over decades he expects students to have small or large changes in how he taught them.to him this means growth
I mention teaching my son early in life as i read one wushu chop suey do fung wu doo ddo master saying how OMG tai is soo complicated that impossible to Teach children
as for fighting effectiveness-I read how Hung Gar mastres would not teach tai-chi until student ahd been studying for over 10 years and then he felt was safe to teach tai-chi.many hung gar mastres felt that tai chi was so very deadly that only the most trusted would be allowed to learn.
I once taught for a girlat a local college,I taught one girl "old Woman's kick"
simply an inside of the foot sliding down along the instep ending with stepping on the instep.
the very enxt day she told me how she had almost broken ehr boyfriends foot.She was suprised how efefecive the technique was.I told ehr why do you think I taught you this move?for fun as a joke.i am teaching you how to protect yoruself. girl who had invited me to teach dropped me like a hot rock. golly gee you see I just wanted something'SPIRITUAL"
I did not want you to teach them how to defend themselves.End of teaching that class
I have my own style.it is only 24 techniques as most persons want to enter the school ,be given a super pill and walk out knowing it all.patience is uncommon today. soon my book will be finished and the goal is to give Diabetics.HIV's etc as way to learn w/o attending any school.Book w/LARGE PICTURES,DVD and hypnosis CD's.it will focus on health but with minimal self-defense techniques as part of the training.I get angry with attitude
but but but you've gotta attend classes with someone/NOT.
Anyways {with my diffculty typeing} I 100% agree tai-chi is for everyone.Even with attitude
OMG that's for old people,sure and yoga does not help to limber up,nor does it aid in stretching.and that danged ballasted Raja Yoga from PremRawat/uoutube WTF does that ahve to do with martial arts training.like being centred and keping awareness of persons thoughts is worthless.6th sense not wanted not needed except when faced with combat situation.I've actually talked down opponents wnating to fight and felt bettre than if I'd actully been forced to hurt them or get damaged by them.Distraction is deadliest weapon and Li always said when anrgy smile.no warning that you're going to strike or throw them.
where did the wrong idea that taichi takes it's power from shing-I come from.Push changes into a palm strike and grab throw is all in forms.more you practise more power tehre is in your strikes.Internal power remains hidden not shown like weight lifters body.
Always attack with suprise.hit first and win with first strike.Light shines.darkness leaves.