Basics of Tai Chi Fighting 1
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- First video in a series - a look at the fundamental principles of Tai Chi Fighting.
What can be learned by studying the Form, looking at repeating patterns and moves, and how do they reveal about the the way of fighting of Tai Chi. Later we will look at how these ideas should influence pur practice of Push Hands.
You can find more info a hiddentaichi.com
It makes sense, I just started tai chi this year, and want to know the practical applications, glad I found the channel
glad to be of use
Excellent breakdown! Distance and timing control are essential to any martial art. American power distance is a huge hurtle to overcome in this process. Most people don’t know what distance they can or need to be to punch with any power. Tai Chi, Bagua, Xingyi and other arts teach this, if you know what to look for. The hand is out, elbow is down, fingers are extended or the palm is forward (Yin or Yang Hand), shoulder square, etc. This is the right distance for YOU to land a solid straight, vertical punch or spear, sword or finger strike to the throat, eyes, etc.
Great stuff. The more arts you study, the more the differences fade and the common “truths” emerge.
It’s nice when you can set your opponent up with full step retreats or yin/blending/absorbing movements. Once they assume that’s always going to be your response to forward pressure, that’s a great time to incorporate your half step. You have moved out of harms way, but you haven’t given away distance as you did before. Your weight is where it should be and as the opponent commits fully forward the surprise is you moved but didn’t go anywhere😂Lots of striking options from there.
Slipping/parrying is another nice skill to have to incorporate with half steps and weight shifts to
enable you to evade without giving up striking distance. Thanks for posting 🙏
thanks for the comment! the next step is addressing these issue in Push Hands, so that the skills you mentioned ( side stepping, weight shift, etc..) are being trained.
Many thanks Sir for Your pointing out the positional evasive techniuques and potential froward move for attack or counterattasck. JUst one thing to be added, when rotating and possible sitting back, there is also an option of si,ultaneous counterattecjk an the other side. Best regards. Paul,69, Fan of Tai Chi, too.
In Wudang Taiji shi san shi (13 form) single push hand set is done with a follow step directly following the push. It’s similar to a Xing Yi step. Relates to exactly the same that you have mentioned. Put pressure and close distance
Single Whip: 360 block used by most military combtive systems. Good vid!
The essence of Taichichuan M.A. is,IMHO,structure and moving body weight in the strikes(or throws/locks)
yes, but how..the details matter
Thank you !
You're welcome!
Website is a bit too well hidden (with extra `c' in the link above) but I found it...
oops, fixed it! thanks
hello, I tried to subscribe to your site & it gives an error notice every time I try. Thanks for any directions.
That’s strange…email me at chris@hiddentaichi.com with more details and I’ll see what I can do
I discovered this very same thing many years ago when I started studying and researching Chinese martial arts,that many instructors taught a close dooor version wish was the original and practical version and a public version were they just made up a bunch of bu##it to teach the public and that goes for all styles of Chinese martial arts and you can see the results today of all the ineffective Chinese martial arts styles out there today.
I study the most old forms, Yang banhou & shaohou, in China in the region where there's not diluted modern versions, just the one passed down from yangs. Never saw leaning back, tcc MUST have fullness and bounce away any strike. One can step back to avoid a hit but there's not in original Yang that body leaning exposing lower gate central line. Never.
1. it's not leaning back, but sliding the hips forward, so that the back remains straight ( from knee to neck).
2. I find it hard to believe that a practical martial art has NO way of dealing with a hard push or a punch to the face other than "bounce away any strike". This ignores weight and height disparities between fighters. And stepping back is not always possible or fast enough to deal with a hard, quick shove. Stepping back simply resets the the fighters to square one. Having the ability to lean back a bit to avoid a punch or absorb a shove gives you the option of bouncing back into your opponent's space.
3. this "leaning back" is part of a mechanic of motion which grants you a 360 degree of motion of the upper body while remaining balanced ( both while stepping and fixed feet). If you don't have this, then the upper body is forced to remain rigid instead of fluid.
I'd love to learn more about these old forms, especially if there is video of them!
Meanwhile in China, the so-called grandmasters are being beaten to a pulp in challenge matches against novice boxers and MMA fighters.
I admire your passion, but we have to be realistic. Tai Chi Chuan is an art of movement and breathing, not a martial art.
The only thing that makes you a good fighter is actually fighting full contact with real people that are fighting back. Anything else is just talk.
And I say that as someone who spent years in the traditional Chinese martial arts. I used to be dazzled by the romance and magical history of thd various arts. Then I moved to full contact Muay Thai back in my 20s and I realised just how useless most of the trad training is in reality, both in a ring and on the streets.
I agree, that's why I'm doing this. The "grandmasters" are simply parroting what they have learned, without ever putting it into practice. My goal is to find the correct "shape" of the art in order to then move on to a Push Hands practice that is informed by it, which then creates a bridge into sparring. Without sparring or at least correct and high-energy Push Hands, Tai Chi will never be a martial art.
I agree with most of what you said; however. Tai Ji Quan is absolutely a martial art, hence the “Quan” (fist). This is well documented in the history of the style. In fact, the origins of Tai Ji are comparatively well document simply because many of the practitioners were from northern China, and were educated, so they were able to read and write, and as a result, they recorded the history of their art
That being said, something must have been lost along the way because I never even saw one single Tai Ji practitioner spar, let alone fight using the art. I was a competitive boxer, before I trained in any other martial arts. My experience really gave me the ability to determine whether or not specific styles of martial arts are useless, or if the way they are being trained/taught is impractical.
I love traditional martial arts, specifically Chinese martial arts. But I grew up in a bad neighborhood where I had to defend myself Quite often. I couldn’t afford the train in a way that would not work in a real fight. As you said, it is impossible to be able to fight if you don’t train full contact against a non-compliant partner. I don’t think I’ve ever seen traditional martial arts techniques being demonstrated against somebody throwing a full force punch with the intent to connect. If you don’t spar, you won’t be able to fight well. I don’t get why so many people don’t realize this. I can only assume that they’ve never been in a real fight. I wish Chinese martial arts schools would start sparring and testing their techniques. If they do, they may be able to rediscover what originally made their style effective, as well as the training methodology needed to to do.
@@1mataleo1 Yes, I had a fantastic book many years ago (sadly lost now) that was about a European man's travels to document all the last of the 'dying breed' of true Tai Chi Chuan martial artists. This man ended up in Taiwan after many years of investigation. This was back in the 1960s/1970s.
It was a short book, but there were some fascinating accounts of all of these old men who were the last link between the old world China and the Communist era.
I can't remember the details as I haven't read it in over 20 years, but it was indeed a book about the practical side of Tai Chi Chuan and the many fighting exploits of some of these characters against all sorts of other styles and schools. Even back then the Chinese masters from the hard styles sought out and challenged the internal fighters to prove that Tai Chi was not practical in a fight. These stories proved otherwise, and often in very entertaining ways.
@@hiddentaichi A worthy endeavor. And quite a difficult challenge in the modern age, where people are not willing to put in the time and dedication to practicing the traditional arts to a level that they would have been practiced (and indeed need to be practiced) in times past. Best of luck.
I would love to read that. I’m going to have to see if I can search that book out. If I think I come across it I’ll let you know. Thanks my friend 🙏🏼
Goat chai chi vs sheep chai chi
ha!
A taolu should be deconstructed and each discrete form/shape/structure pressure tested in isolation as a starting point. We learn the use by the results of pressure testing. Hard contact, unscripted, non-cooperative sparring at about 2/3 real world speed/intensity is the next transition step. With today's protective equipment there is no excuse for shadow boxing as the sole training/practice activity. Form Fairies be damned.
I agree. Though there is an important point that cannot be lost. Tai Chi is an internal martial art, and I think there is something to that approach. There needs to be a careful ramp-up to sparring to preserves and teaches the internal aspect, so that by the time you are sparring, they are automatic. That's why the next step is developing a Push Hands training method that gets you to the sparring without losing the internal
Form fairy here! 🧚♀️ I totally agree with all that saying and try to practice accordingly. For me the form is just another type of skill drill.