All of the joints must be soft and relaxed. The muscles on the limbs and in
the torso must also remain relaxed. You must practice the movements until
they feel completely natural and effortless.
If the muscles and the joints are tensed, then the jing manifested will be
hard, and will not penetrate. Such hard power is not characteristic of tai
chi chuan.
(Yang
Jwing-Ming)
Foundation
Most of the
material offered in the beginners syllabus
represents foundation training.
Your body is taught how to move more freely. You explore structural alignment,
stability and mobility.
Strength is addressed, along with an understanding of force, pressure,
sensitivity and yielding.
Without a strong foundation, the later material would be weak and lack context.
It is not possible to simply jump straight to the advanced material. Your body
would not be capable of performing the required skills.
Background
In
our school, we recognise that qigong, neigong,
form and the countless drills are simply the background work for actual combat.
Becoming strong, fit, flexible, resilient, sensitive, fluid and calm - these are
the behind-the-scenes work.
These background skills are extremely important.
Without the underlying abilities, the self defence work simply will not emerge
when you need it.
But the form is not everything.
Safe
It is necessary to have context.
Qigong, drills and form represent the training undertaken in private prior to
encountering real-life opponents.
Training in a safe, controlled environment enables a person to explore the
material, make mistakes and test the resilience of their skill.
This training is very important.
Solo
and partnered work may represent 90% of your tai chi.
The remaining 10% needs to be actual
combat.
Self defence
If you want truly realistic self defence training, it is necessary to be
assaulted for real by a total stranger.
This is not so desirable.
The nearest alternative is to create a training scenario in which the
combat echoes reality to the greatest possible
extent without ultimately being too dangerous.
Students need to be put under pressure so that they can face their fear, their
panic, their trepidation.
Solo attackers,
multiple opponents and
armed assailants are necessary.
The aggressor is free to punch, kick or grapple in any manner they choose.
Every strike must make contact and have some power behind it.
Freeform self defence needs to be spontaneous.
The student is required to adapt, change and improvise.
Step-by-step techniques, stylised drills and thinking simply will not work.
Understanding
It is important to understand what the background training is for.
Without the necessary background work, the
tai chi will not work in combat.
Yet, the background work must be tested. You need to experience pressure.
Otherwise you do not know yourself.
Skilful form applications are great in the classroom, but will probably
fail in the street.
We ensure that our students have a realistic
understanding of what the different parts of the curriculum represent.
Unless you put the background work into practice, how do you know whether it
will work or not?
Page created 22 April 2007