San Ti

Great Rant Steve Along similar lines and since Ba gua was mentioned, during a Ba gua class, a new student asked my teacher how the trigams relate to the palm changes, and the reply was, "I could it explain it, but you wouldn't understand, so just go practice instead."

Old Green, I think that you can learn an awful lot just by practicing the individual postures and directions. I am currently training Tai Chi Chuan, but come from a Hsingyi Chuan background, so maybe take my comments in that light. I find it very difficult to learn the body mechanics and potential usage of individual postures from a 100+ posture form. Flow and sung yes, but not really those other things due to the time it takes to perform the entire set. What I did to learn the form was to take an individual posture and drill it for a week and then add the next posture the following week and so on until I finished the form. So each week I drilled a different posture and added it to the previous weeks' postures until I could do the entire form. My view is that the form is a repository of the postures and a way to train endurance, flow, and concentration. Perhaps one could view my drill as a form, since I do a continuous drill with stepping, sort of like a Hsingyi fist. SteveF and Stigweard: I don't think we are disagreeing, only that I think the postures and details should be learned first. If I am understanding you correctly, you are saying that the form should be learned first and then the details added later.

Vortex, Do you stretch your neck, shoulders, chest, and especially your lower back, pelvic region, and legs? I'm not particularly good at rooting, but deep stretching of those areas helps. As does standing meditation and properly performed stance training. The tai chi style I am currently studying has some nei gong exercises that help with this by strengthening the legs and core muscles as well as dropping the center of gravity. You might also try some manipulation if you have injuries or muscles that you can not seem to relax. Several different manipulative modalities are really what did it for me. Cleared up some long standing imbalances that were preventing me from relaxing/achieving proper structure. Good training.

Hi, I can't say that I have learned fighting skills exclusively through Tai Chi training since I have trained external styles and the 2 other main internal styles. At the moment, I am learning a practical style of Tai Chi and using it to explore and refine body mechanics and applications from a different point of view. Some of my classmates have had no other martial arts training and have learned to defend themselves using our class syllabus. Enjoy your training.

Ben, I really don't agree with mastering the long form first. Coming from a Hsingyi background, I find the Tai Chi forms entirely too long to learn the advanced body mechanics necessary to progress. IMO, it is much more useful to take a single posture and drill it until you understand. Then take the next posture and so on, until you have worked through all of the postures. Then start work on the long form to learn things like flow, long term concentration, possible combinations. Suninmyeyes, It is possible to learn self defense using Tai Chi. If you have the basics down, then you will need an instructor who understands and can teach self defense, and motivated training partners. Realize that it is progressive approach, you will need to learn the skills from the two person exercises and incorporate those into the applications. Good Luck

Thanks for posting those, found them a few years ago. Never really knew much about him because my Sifu always said that it was more important to practice than to get caught up in history/stories/lineage debates. After the filming of the clip I posted, my Sifu told him that he was lazy with that performance!

My favorite as well, but my current home has no teachers, so not currently practicing ba gua. Here's vid of my Grand Sifu fooling around for the camera. Good luck with the training Sean. Go slowly and enjoy it.

That sounds like a fantastic program A Seeker. Must be one of the executive MBA programs that so many Universities now offer. Glad you had a positive experience in business school.

That was a large part of the problem, but it was also me wanting to do and not be told. I realized that I could just use my scientific methodology in a business context. Read, discuss, experiment, evaluate, repeat.

Masters in Physiology (neurophysiology/motor control) I would have finished the PhD had there been funding for the study of how accupuncture works from a western scientific perspective, but there wasn't and the idea of being a professor teaching and researching something that I wasn't passionate about was not acceptable. Lasted part of one term of a business degree as a mature aged student, but found it to be simply about churning students for profit.

A few bits of Long Fist as a child Wrestling in high school Kenpo Wu Yu Xiang Tai Chi Chuan Liu Feng Chun Ba Gua Zhang Hebei Xing Yi Chuan (Dong Zi Ying lineage) Currently studying Wu Dang Tai Chi Chuan Various qi gong, nei gong associated with the above systems

Hi, Thanks for the welcome. After a little look around, it appears that many of the practices involve using intention (yi) to find and then open energetic pathways. Would this be an accurate beginners assessment or am I totally missing the boat? San Ti

Greetings All, I've been practicing the 3 main internal martial arts for awhile now and am curious to explore some of the other practices of Taoism. Going to have a good look around and maybe ask some questions. San Ti