Listening | ||
classes qigong tai chi kung fu about us reviews a-z
Fear
Beginners spend ages training various 'sensitivity exercises' only to go to
pieces when faced with actual combat.
Their lack of composure ruins everything.
Typically, the student pretends to be calm but tenses up.
Combat
Combat training must address composure and fear.
Unless fear is understood, you will never have the opportunity to use your
sensitivity skills.
Most students do not remain calm when assaulted. They tense up and become
external. The
tai chi is forgotten.
Listening
Of all the sensitivity skills, 'listening' is the most important. And
perhaps the least understood.
Listening pertains to tai chi,
self defence and everyday life.
It is about being present, being receptive to what is
happening in the
moment.
Being present
This may sound quite straightforward, but people are very self-absorbed.
They do not really listen. Instead of paying attention, they talk. Their
awareness is selective.
Impatience, selfishness and greed make people restless and bored.
Composed
Listening takes composure. You need to be quiet inside. Patient. Receptive.
Open. Flexible.
Awareness is like living
with a snake in the room;
you watch its every movement,
you are very, very sensitive to the slightest sound it makes.
(Krishnamurti)
Sensitivity drills
Tai chi sensitivity drills train the nervous system to accurately
determine what the opponent is doing.
The information is received through the body (via touch) and from the eyes
(peripheral vision).
All data is processed by the brain.
Empty mind
The skill of 'listening' is unconscious.
You do not think. You do not concentrate. You have a 'sense' of what is
happening and you respond accordingly.
Wrong path
Unfortunately, many sensitivity drills are trained incorrectly. The onus is
on the wrong thing.
Instead of cultivating softness and re-educating the nervous system, the
drills are often about winning.
This is a mistake.
Pushing hands experts
Exercises such as 'pushing hands' must be seen in the wider context of the
tai chi. They are not an end in themselves.
They are a learning tool for teaching skills that must eventually be
utilised in combat.
Some exponents seek to be pushing hands experts, which is absurd. It is like
becoming an expert at 'indicating' when driving a car. Everything you learn
in tai chi only has meaning in the context of combat.
Awareness
Unless you become soft and receptive, you will not cultivate any meaningful
sensitivity. Your ability to listen will be poor.
You will miss opportunities 1-5, and maybe catch number 6, believing it to
be the first.
4 ounces
The solution to this is to slow down and exert only 4 ounces of pressure (at
all times). Muscular tension, aggression, fear and force will hold you back.
Awareness, softness and yielding offer the path to sensitivity, but the real
source of listening is your mind. Unless you open yourself up to your
opponent, you will never hear them.
Your body
Beginners do not 'listen' to their own body. They ignore range, commitment
and discomfort. People adopt physically painful stances because somebody
else tells them to.
You need to be smarter than that.
Beyond ego
Biofeedback, proprioception, kinaesthetic awareness - these things are
missed by most tai chi people. They are too concerned with posing.
Robot
Most students are unforgivably tense and totally unaware of the fact. They
actually consider themselves to be 'relaxed'. By whose
standard?
Don't tense-up
When touched, the student immediately responds by tensing up. That is fear.
Remember: tension is used in karate. It is not tai chi.
We don't often consider that
the actual ways in which we assimilate what is presented to us have a
tremendous impact on our progress. How we learn in the dojo is at least as
important as what we learn.
(Dave Lowry)
Your opponent
In terms of listening, your opponent(s) is everything.
Without them, you would have nobody to evade. There would be no need for
combat.
You must become a shadow, echoing your attacker, exquisitely sensitive to
their every movement.
The aim is to move as one.
Presence
This takes you into the realm of meditation.
Unless you are present, you will not see/feel what is happening right in
front of you.
More
Listening skill is far more than pushing hands. If you cannot put the listening skill into actual combat and use it
effectively, why bother training it at all?
Page created
18 April 1995
Last updated
16 June 2023
▲