Compare/Contrast

Take a moment to read this interesting article from The Washington Post, submitted to us by long-time student Bill, for an interesting look at cultural differences between Zhongguo and Waiguo (China and Rest of World!)?  Although it is not martial art, or taijiquan, specifically related you know how much we value the cultural aspects of our art!  And it certainly factored big time into LaoMa's early training!!!  (This cultural stagnation was what was behind Chairman Mao's great devastating cultural campaigns to eliminate "Four Olds" --old culture, old customs, old ideas, old habits-- to bring China fully into the 20th-21st Century!)

Why the Industrial Revolution didn’t happen in China

Spotlight on Catharine Carter

We ran across a featured image from Catharine Carter, one of our wonderful shufa/Chinese calligraphy students!  She is an innovative photographer and visual artist!  You can see more her work on her website: www.catharinecarter.com

Top Ten List

While there are probably a ton of differing top ten lists, this one is interesting.  It gives a martial arts student a quick run down of a few different masters.  So, these super perky and animated fellas can give you  a quick run down of who is on their top ten list!  Wonder do you recognize any names ;-)

(Hint: It's not LaoMa...)

Check yourself!

One of the most valuable tool a student has is self observation and correction.  With this blog, we try to encourage our students to look at other people doing taiji and to reflect back on their own form.  What can we learn from what someone else is doing; what does this person do better than us? 

That being said - everyone hates to see themselves doing taiji!!  It's uncomfortable to look at your form and realize that our knees wobble and our backs aren't straight.  But over time, you can learn to see past the few pounds you need to loose and the bad hair day.  Taking a slightly removed attitude, you can learn so much from watching yourself!

a Rabbit and a Dog has a current blog post that is a wonder example of this!  Not only can we learn from her observations but we can learn from her example!  

Take a few minutes to review her observations of her own form and to see the demonstration of her Yang-style taijiquan. 

“If you can’t recognize your faults…

…you’ll never improve.”

This past week, we did a demonstration for Mei-Ling and her family members who were visiting the Center. I chose Taijiquan because I really enjoy training it and performing it in front of an audience makes me uncomfortable.

If there is something that makes me uncomfortable, I’ll usually do it as long as it’s relatively safe and builds a skill I want to have.

This is especially important for Taijiquan because I should be as soft and relaxed as possible and performing can bring me to the opposite state. I have to be physically soft and mentally centered not just for performances, but also if I’m ever in a situation where I have to use it.

Click here to continue reading.  You'll find her demonstration as well as self corrections she's noted.

Taiji in confined spaces

Allen was a "Beat Poet" and in no way an accomplished Taiji player, and in studying this short-framed, reduced posture 37-movement style he did have a Form he could do in his narrow New York kitchen! Go ahead and critique it...

You can find the text of the poem here: http://slantedflying.com/a-poem-by-allen-ginsberg-about-tai-chi/

Buoyancy, Life and Qigong

A past student of LaoMa's has written a great article about the effects of breath training and his diving experiences.  Until recently, we didn't realize that Mike came to us through a long time senior student that is a diving instructor!  Mike has a good look at the benefits of the eight brocades, both under and above the water!   

That taiji training is sneaky and will pop up in the most unexpected places! 

In Mike's words:

"SCUBA is how I came to you, sifu, through Ron. The first benefit I realized from taiji was extended bottom time...the breathing you drilled into us reduced my air consumption (a lot is wasted on shallow breathing) I've only been on a few war wrecks, and wrecks where there were fatalities. Each one is an experience. Life, though, overtakes them all; it grabs hold wherever it can!"

Buoyancy Is Life

I had a good weekend for buoancy control. When I say good, I really mean terrific. My buoyancy control was spot on. Whereas in other dives I would have to at least set a finger to the sand to look for shells and the like, this weekend I hovered inches above the sand (or the ledge, or the wreck), just the way you're supposed to. I had, as my Taijiquan instructor likes to put it, a breakthrough.

Continue Reading......

Yang Cheng Fu's Ten Principles

We talk a lot about principles of movements in taijiquan.  It's a way of moving - not simply techniques and applications.  The more you read, the more you'll find different teachers emphasize different principles.   Although there are usually common threads, many teachers will disagree on order of importance as well as if something is actually a principle. 

Here is a link to Yang Cheng Fu's 10 principles along with explanations of what each one means. (http://taichivancouver.com/yang-cheng-fus-ten-principles-on-tai-chi-chuan/) What do you see in your own form?  Do you focus on any of these? 

Join the conversation through the comments below.

Crane and Wing Chun Kung Fu

Here is more hand and finger techniques from crane and Wing Chun training. Anything look familiar?

Perhaps push hands players will see similarities?

Raise in Rank!

Please join us in welcoming Gary Forbach to Senior Student status.  Gary has worked with great focus and discipline for 2 years and 8 months.  He has taken three classes a week for most of his time training and completed the Wudangshan 108 form in style!  Generally learning the form takes a bit longer but with the extra class time and practice outside of class, Gary soared to the top fast!

He tested at TKFMMA school in Durham, NC on Monday, August 16, 2016.  He awarded his red sash with his Thursday morning class looking on proudly.

Gary also has passed the first test of being a senior student - that is proving your teacher right!  During his test, he proved the transition postures are the hardest thing about the form.  Repeating postures in different context will trip anyone as LaoMa has repeatedly warned! 

You can visit the full photo album of his test by clicking here.

Taijiquan and Shufa Master

Liang Tung-Tsai alongside his teacher, Cheng Man-Ch'ing, displaying a painting of the Professor's. Professor Cheng is more know in America as a revered teacher and "Founding Father" of American Taijiquan, but in his homeland was better-known as a great calligrapher and traditional doctor.

Brushslingers - what has calligraphy taught you about taijiquan?  How do you feel the two art forms interact?

The devil's in the details

While this video is a close up view of Wing Chun hand positions and not taijiquan hands, we thought it might be interesting to all.  Lots of martial arts have slightly different hand positions specific to their style that people train with intense focus. 

It's worth taking a few moments to look at this video.  Do you see any similarities in the hands used in our form?  Have you taken the time to really think about hand and finger positions with each posture? What differences can you observe in the way each hand position is done?

Picture time

Adam Mizner is a well respected Taijiquan teacher as well as martial art practitioner.  This picture accompanies a video offer and this post is not his video offer presented.  You all should know my stand on learning/teaching videos.  Mainly what I'm looking for are comments on the photo alone...just to see if y'all are paying attention in class? :-)

Three Pals

Pictured here - left to right, William C.C. Chen, Frank Demaria, Sidney Austin.

This must be 1960's-early 70's. William, of course, introduced me to Taijiquan in 1964, I studied with him in late 1970's and hosted him at my school in Norfolk, VA. After meeting Dr. Jay at his then, Carroboro T'ai Chi Center (he had not yet at the time received his doctorate), our two schools attended each other's workshops including William's. Sidney was a student of Jou Tsung Hwa, and, when I met him in 1990's head teacher in his own school. He was also our senior student, Joe Tanzini's, first Taijiquan teacher in New Jersey.

Exploring the Eight Gates

The Eight Gates are a frequent topic that comes up in taijiquan.  There are many takes one what each one means.  For example, there areseveral points of view on what exactly push is and what part of the body you use to execute it.  As you can imagine, there are many conflicting ideas and some that agree. 

It's always helpful to read over these when you run across them and weight them about against what you know of the gates being discussed.  Sometimes it gives you a window into a posture or technique that you hadn't thought about. At the very least, it gives you a framework to mentally work through your forms and consider what is going on.

This article considers the eight gates from a technique point of view as well as a general principle.  While push hands players might have a bit more hands on experience with some of the instances that he talks about, it's a good discussion for us all, as we are all involved with that imaginary partner on an intimate level when we're doing solo form. 

Take a second to think about each gate in your form and share what you take from his point of view.

You can find the full article by clicking here.
http://slantedflying.com/the-eight-gates-techniques-or-principles/

Shared Postures

Taijiquan is a martial art and many styles have the same applications - no matter how different they may seem on the surface.  Can you spot one very recognizable posture that is used in both this video and the Wudangshan form?

Poison Finger Training!!

This finger training is almost as hard as the dantian challenge!! 

Congratulations to James Sutton from your push hands classmates!  James is the most recent recipient of the Jou Medallion.  We all knew you had it in your belly!! 

Jet Li and Donnie Yen have a rematch

For pure viewing enjoyment only of expert level, choreographed Chinese WuShu and music by famed Cinematographer Zhang Yimou, one of greatest fight scenes in Chinese cinema!

What do you see?

Question: here's a group of Chinese people, in China, doing their art. Looks like they are following lady in front. Hand Method...or...Torso Method. Look at it from low/slow/empty/whole body. Simplified Yang Style. Obviously not all long-time "masters." What do you see and recognize from, Fundamentals. Form. Function?

The Five Principles of Tai Chi Chuan?

It's always good to keep an eye out on commentary on taijiquan.  There is a fount of information out there - some may be more on point than other information.  As we've talked about before one of the real ways to explore taijiquan is to read these articles and others and think critically about them.  Below is a good example of this.  Take a moment to look at the principles that are set forward as important to taijiquan in this article and reflect on the hierarchy of importance - and if they are important. 

You should also take the time to view the comments to the article.  You'll note a colleague Rich Martin's comments.  Leave your response to this approach to form using the comment link below.

The Five Principals of Tai Chi Chuan:
http://slantedflying.com/the-five-principals-of-tai-chi-chuan/?utm_content=buffer09f2d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

One sequence; four forms

Below is a short intro to an interesting form comparison video.   Matt provides a few thoughts on taijiquan and then has a short video of different versions of Grasp Sparrow's Tail, Single Whip.  The comparison and the intro are both worth taking a look at.  What are your thoughts?

Taijiquan (Tai Chi) is a lot of mindful work. Inside intention and will are on alignment of knee with the foot, open and closing "kua" valley of the hip joint with inguinal thigh. smooth flow, spine straight, expression in the fingers, spirit in the eyes. - Matt Stampe