Tai chi
movements are really very simple but students insist upon making tai chi
difficult by adding extra moves.
Tai chi is not complicated; people are complicated.
(John Lash)
Follow your instincts
When attacked, you can do
whatever you like, providing:
It is performed in a tai chi way
It works
It is appropriate
You do not damage your own body
You do not leave yourself unduly vulnerable
You must learn how to respond without adhering to a fixed
technique.
A technique is a step-by-step model for dealing with a known, set attack.
In the confused melee of
combat you are constantly shifting, constantly
changing. There is no time for thought.
You must simply follow the flow and see what occurs.
Improving your responses
Drills, partner work and form all serve to teach a variety of skills that
improve your capacity to cope with an attack.
Freeform self defence is essential in this regard.
Once you move past a fixed attack/fixed response mentality you can learn how to
apply an increasingly technical repertoire of responses.
These are not techniques.
Our training methods were designed to improve your understanding of the human
body.
Understanding joint movement, physical flexibility and areas of vulnerability is
crucial.
You can immediately feel what possibilities are open to you, and respond
spontaneously.
The first
chin na skill is to employ positioning
effectively.
Later, you learn how to:
Misplace the bones
Cavity press
Divide the muscle
Seal the breath
None of these are techniques. Everything is applied with the flow.
Drills
Tai chi offers a vast number of drills, most of which explore the
interplay of
kinetic energy.
If you treat 'pushing
hands' as simply a drill, then that is all it will ever be.
A receptive student will take the underlying principles of pushing hands and use
them in self defence.
Unless you use what you are training, what is the point of studying it?
When faced with a genuine attack, beginners start blocking the energy flow.
There are no blocks in tai chi.
No blocking
Every moment of joining is soft and sticky. Every movement is rounded.
We connect, become sticky/listening/sensitive (this is essentially 'grappling'),
and then we strike or employ chin na.
Usually this all happens in an
instant. The evade-contact-counter is one integrated flow.
Exercises such as 'yielding/chin
na' offer a way of exploring the moment of contact, and how to
use that opportunity to counter using jing.
When we use the term 'grappling' we do not mean ju jitsu or wrestling.
Struggling is not involved.
Tai chi is not
fighting.
It is self defence.
There is a distinct difference.
Experience
The more
skilled you are, the greater your capacity to
determine range, speed and spatial relationship.
You understand the limitations of the human body.
Angles, variables, possibilities, options, choices - these are at your disposal.
You move
instinctively, feeling your way through the
attack, compromising and
incapacitating the assailant.
Your intention is to feel for
opportunities and take the initiative. You also want to limit your
opponent's capacity to reciprocate.
This is not the outcome of technique. It is a question of experience. Of
presence.
The more experienced you are, the more
appropriate your response will be.
A skilled student can utilise the three dimensions economically, with a
minor
movement creating a significant outcome.
Page created 23 September 1999