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Combat
In combat your tai chi
skills need to be immediately at hand, spontaneous
and well practiced. There will be no time to
think, remember,
analyse or
cogitate. Hesitate and you'll be beaten up.
Most students fail in combat because they
simply don't know the art well enough.
Knowledge
Double pushing hands is a higher-level
exercise. At that stage of learning the student has acquired the requisite
foundation skills necessary for this particular partnered drill.
When they reach an obstacle - which they will - they already possess the
solution. The student
simply needs to examine existing drills to find an answer that will work.
By contrast, a beginner cannot do this...
When a beginner encounters double
pushing hands they have very little
knowledge, experience and
skill to draw upon. They misread what is
taking place.
Their reference point for understanding
is exceedingly limited and they inevitably fall back into bad
habits of using
external practices of
force and tensed muscles.
Silently treasure knowledge and turn it over in the mind.
Gradually you can do as you like.
(Wang
Tsung-yueh)
In terms of yourself
The biggest problem facing a student is attempting to understand
tai chi in terms of yourself. It simply won't work. You need to see the
art and combat in terms of Taoism.
If seeing things in terms of yourself
actually worked, you wouldn't even need lessons... Hundreds of
new starters make this mistake and quit almost
immediately because their ego is a
problem.
When floundering they scrabble about for somebody to blame. The
teacher. The art. Their
practice partner.
The truth is much more simple. The problem is you.
Beyond yourself
The only way to get past your own limitations is to dig deeper. Imagine
that you're trying a new diet but not
losing weight...
What do you do? You can
blame the diet. You
can quit.
Or you could do a lot more research. Maybe
your calorie count is inaccurate. Your meal
configurations may be totally off. You may be eating too much or too
little.
The worst thing that you can do is to draw an erroneous conclusion
designed to protect your ego at all costs.
Gaining knowledge
Usually students fail on two counts:
Inadequate amount of study
Insufficient home
practice
Inadequate amount of study
The teachings of
The Tai Chi Classics, Tao Te Ching, The Way of Chuang Tzu, The art of
War, The Book of Five Rings, Back To Beginnings and the countless other
useful books need to be highly familiar.
It is necessary to read and re-read these books continuously. They
will change how you think, how you see things
and how you use
your body in combat.
Insufficient
home practice
Dr Michael Greger (author of How Not To
Die) recommends 90 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise
every day. Most students aren't doing this.
The three doctors who wrote The Okinawa Program maintain that tai chi -
with its ancient origins and incredible health
benefits - is the ideal form of
exercise for modern
people.
If this sounds like a lot of exercise, why not chop it up into
smaller increments spaced throughout the day?
A beginner forever?
In tai chi is quite common for a student to reach a
rudimentary level of skill and simply remain there.
They may learn many new forms and
exercises.
But everything is performed in a simplistic manner.
The problem with training long-term at a
simplistic level is that
the training is intrinsically incorrect.
Provably so.
Tai chi is a refined, subtle, complex, sophisticated
art.
If your progress halted at white belt and there are
13 belts; this is hardly impressive.
Without long practice one cannot suddenly understand tai chi.
(Wang
Tsung-yueh)
A
mirror
Beyond solo study and practice, the next step in getting better is
to partner with somebody who is better than you are. A more
skilled exponent will repeatedly expose
your gaps and deficiencies.
Your weaknesses will let you down. You
rush. You dither. You
anticipate. You space
out. You tense up.
You force. You are awkward. You seek to take
control. You get annoyed
or aggressive.
Don't pretend that you're doing OK. Be honest
with yourself. With your performance. Look at the proof.
Judgement is unnecessary but
clarity and honesty are essential.
No lies. No excuses.
If you want to make progress in
tai chi it is important to recognise that there are no
shortcuts, no cheats and no
quick fixes. Read
The Sword Polisher's Record.
Adam Hsu will say the same.
In fact, any traditional martial
artist would agree.
Paradigm shift
A 'paradigm shift' is a fundamental change in your approach and your
underlying assumptions. Gaining
skill in an internal martial art
requires a paradigm shift in how you perceive:
Gravity
Combat
You cannot conceivably hope to understand the
unfamiliar in terms of your existing
knowledge. What you have
learned to date is
not enough. Not by a long measure.
A student must wade deep into the unknown
and immerse themselves in ancient
Chinese wisdom. Contemporary
thinking will not help you. Become lost in
the Old Ways.
Muscle memory
One
major advantage of consistent on-going
home practice is the cultivation of
muscle memory. Rather than having to recall every
movement, the exponent's body knows where
to go and what to do.
This is the first step in
moving in a tai chi way...
What's the catch? To accomplish this, frequent,
mindful practice is needed. There's no other way to
attain this skill.
The more often your body performs tai chi movements, the more likely
it is to remember them automatically.
Autopilot
High repetition of qigong and tai chi
movements results in muscle memory.
The muscles are familiar with how and where to move and the
brain directs the action.
It will feel as though they moved by
themselves.
This is essentially no different to what happens when you drive a bicycle or
a car.
However, with tai chi you are learning long, complex sequences of movements/combat
drills/applications,
so the challenge is greater and more diverse.
The advantage of muscle memory is habit.
You do not have to think as much.
You can become immersed in the
event itself.
Knowledge base
Your tai chi skill is largely dependent upon your 'mental
representation'. How rich is your grasp of the art? How much
do you know? How many insights do you possess?
We are not talking about quoting people or boasting about who you have
trained with. This is about physical and
mental knowledge and skill. Accept the fact that if you can't do it, you
don't know it.
Humility
Have some humility. Humility is a recognition of our own incredible
ignorance when faced with the enormity of what is
known and what is yet to be known. We are all ignorant.
Fire raging in your hair
There is only one way out of this situation.
Climb. Climb as though your life depended upon it.
Climb up the syllabus. Go higher and
higher.
Gain practical knowledge about
anything and everything that may conceivably have a bearing on
tai chi. This is a challenge that will ignite something
precious in you. Life.
Spirit. Vigour.
The journey
Education involves exposure to new material, unfamiliar ideas,
theories, principles and concepts.
The new becomes slowly familiar.
The challenging is no longer quite as intimidating.
But this is not the end. It is still the beginning. Learning is a journey
that has no conclusion.
The practitioner must carefully study.
(Wang
Tsung-yueh)
Page created
18 April 2005
Last updated
16 June 2023
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