One thing flows into another, and at no point is there a halt.
It is a constant movement, with no fixation.
(Krishnamurti)
Self defence
You cannot tai chi self defence without touching one another.
Furthermore, you cannot learn tai chi self defence without striking one another.
Impact
Performing applications in thin air is no good. It proves nothing.
Striking target pads and bags are also unrepresentative.
Nothing compares to striking an actual person.
You may appear to have wonderful form and lovely self defence skills but it
will all fall to pieces if your strikes are worthless.
You need to feel what happens when you physically strike somebody.
Do you feel a jarring, unpleasant jolt upon impact? Adverse feedback up your arm
and into your neck?
Did the blow have the intended effect? Were you hurt yourself?
Hitting another person skilfully may not be as easy as you imagine.
4 ounces of pressure
The tai chi classics advise us not to use more than 4 ounces of pressure.
How is this accomplished when striking?
Simple.
You learn how to strike in a manner that delivers kinetic energy into the body
without pushing or forcing.
This cannot be achieved if your are tense or insensitive.
External strikes are hard and brittle. Tai chi strikes are soft and penetrating.
Alerting the nervous system
If your blow is hard and brittle it will alert the attacker's nervous
system.
Newton's third Law of Motion states "To every action
there is an equal and opposite reaction".
The harder you bang into your opponent the more resistance you will encounter.
The psoas muscle responds to physical and emotional shock by tensing up the
entire body.
This is an involuntary reaction and reduces mobility.
Our aim is to strike in a fashion that does not alert the nervous system (unless
we want it to).
The attacker's body does not perceive the threat and the body does not tense up
in anticipation.
Naturally, the opponent will tense up on occasion. We can deal with that too.
Adverse feedback
If you bang off another person's body, it is quite unpleasant.
There is a concussive shockwave that travels along your arm, into your spine and
throughout your body.
This is not good for your health.
The aim must always be to strike with the whole body, every part soft and
loosely connected.
This is the essence of 'reeling silk' and is cultivated by internal strength.
Performed correctly, this should ensure 'soft meeting' upon impact.
Internal strength and reeling silk will not prevent adverse feedback on impact
unless you are soft, sensitive, and have awareness.
Soft meeting
How much of the force you are delivering is actually going into your
opponent?
If you are tense, then much of it will bang off your attacker's body and back
into you.
This is why 4 ounces of pressure is fundamental.
The moment of contact must be heavy, soft and penetrating. Do not push.
This is not so hard to achieve. It just takes a little practice. In time it will
be second nature.
Striking one another
Our students are not allowed to pull punches. All strikes must make
contact.
The degree of power delivered is negotiable, but impact is essential.
This is not an invitation to be macho.
We certainly do not spend our lessons beating one another senseless.
But we do make sure that freeform self defence entails significant contact.
'Being struck' is actually a topic in part 1 of the intermediate syllabus.
Students learn how to take a punch to the body without tensing up or becoming
upset.
Bag work
A three-tier wallbag filled with dried peas can be excellent for impact
training providing you use it correctly. (Be careful not to over-fill it).
Smashing into the bag with no sensitivity is foolish and will result in injury.
You must learn to strike the bag in a meaningful way without any adverse
feedback.
This is not so easy.
We used to teach this topic to beginners but moved it into the intermediate
syllabus because students were just mindlessly pummelling the wallbag.
Soft target pads are quite useful providing they are filled with malleable
fabric.
The brittle focus mitts commonly used by martial artists are bad for the joints.
A heavy bag is good for impact training with a stick , but we do not recommend
punching or kicking a heavy bag if you are learning tai chi.
Striking a heavy bag can lead to an excessive use of force, with much of the
kinetic energy being wasted.
Bags and pads have limited uses in our school. They do not reflect flesh and
bone. Remember that.
Moving
A final thought to consider is the fact that your impact work needs to
include freeform self defence.
You need to strike somebody who is not stationary.
Real life opponents can stop your strike. They can move out of the way.
You may even miss.
Training against pads, bags and compliant practice partners may offer you impact
training, but this is still not a reflection of credible self defence.
You need to throw in some confusion, risk and randomness.
Page created 5 December 1998