It is not about
anger,
It is about peace.
It is not about power,
It is about grace.
It is not about knowing your enemy,
It is all about knowing yourself.
(Bulletproof Monk)
Self defence courses
A two-day
self defence course may teach you all
manner of tips and pointers, and
boost your confidence considerably.
But nothing has fundamentally changed. You are still the same
person who started the
course.
Only now you have a few more ideas in your head than before.
Do you earnestly believe that you are now capable of defending
yourself?
Whole-body movement
Every tai chi exercise should offer
you an opportunity to gain internal strength and move in a loose but
fully-integrated manner.
This is your foundation level of skill in self defence: whole-body
movement.
If you cannot move in a
soft,
relaxed, connected fashion, then you will have no internal strength and will
resort to muscular
tension
when put under pressure.
A variety of standing and moving qigong exercises, along with pushing hands,
intuitive escapes, yielding and other partnered exercises will develop this
ability if taught correctly.
This constitutes part 1 of the
beginners syllabus.
How?
Neigong
is the next area of skill to be considered.
Each movement you make must be internally infused with additional power, so
that even the slightest turn can affect the opponent.
Your
attention is
placed upon the
means,
the
process
- for they are responsible for the end result.
Only when you understand
how
the body is generating every single
movement can you use your body
effectively.
What?
Martial
drills train you to move without thinking, without
dithering or hesitating.
You learn to stay
composed
when faced with the unknown.
Then, the challenge is to handle
multiple
attackers who aim to grapple, punch and kick you.
It is imperative that you can deal with being hit by an attacker and possess
the ability to gravity strike them in return.
No
aggression.
No
anger.
No muscular tension. No
techniques.
No plans. No doubts.
This constitutes part 1 of the intermediate syllabus.
Pressure-test
When a student graduates
intermediate syllabus (part 1) they can defend themselves using a variety of tai chi
skills.
They undergo 5 challenges that test their ability to successfully evade and
counter multiple attackers who are
exuberantly
attempting to strike or grapple them.
Stylised practice that requires conscious thought will leave you
floundering.
Muscular tension will fail you and prevent smoothness.
You have to give in and rely upon your conditioning.
Nobody leaves intermediate syllabus (part 1) without confidently completing the
challenges.
Unnatural naturalness
Our students must train to a point where they have tai chi
abilities but could not easily articulate quite how those skills were acquired
or what they mean.
Some understanding is present but is by no means comprehensive.
The student
could not verbally articulate their understanding to another person.
They can
simply do.
This may be referred to as 'unnatural naturalness' and is an unconscious level
of competence.
They do not think about what they are doing.
They just do.
Until you can simply 'do', you are not an advanced exponent.
You must transcend
the point where conscious thought intrudes.
Subtle
Lao Tzu wrote that great skill goes unnoticed.
This is the aim of tai chi self defence: to avoid being hurt without
drawing attention to yourself.
Ideally, you should avoid having to even hurt the attacker. You only
want to deter them.
Tai chi as self defence
When you have finished intermediate syllabus (part 1), you should be capable of
defending yourself using tai chi.
This is not the end of your training. It is just the beginning.
Your use of tai chi in self defence must change how you view tai chi and the
curriculum.
You must learn how to defend yourself against a
knife and incorporate
increasingly subtle
skills into your training.
Gravity striking must give way to
fa jing and your
practice must continue to soften without any loss of power.
Page created 1 August 2000