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| Martial perspective | ||
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Comparing
Imagine that you are studying tai chi and you have a friend studying
judo? Your friend will most likely pass belts frequently and gain
martial skills quite quickly.
By contrast, the tai chi student is progressing quite slowly and doing very
little actual combat practice... This can be
confusing.
Why isn't the student gaining fighting skills as
quickly as the judo student?
The answer is simple.
The arts are very different. In
mainstream martial arts the students
existing physical,
psychological and emotional habits are adapted to fit the given art.
In tai chi all of these habits are scrapped completely.
I was admitted to a select
special research program in karate... here the innermost secrets of karate
are introduced to future teachers. After a few months, it became obvious
that many of the most 'secret' techniques were ones I had already learned in
my first 2 years of basic training in the internal arts.
Many karate people had to wait 5-20 years before being taught the same
material.
(Bruce Frantzis)
See the problem?
A tai chi student must completely re-learn
how to use their body.
They must unlearn and this takes time.
Tension must be lost.
Exaggerated movements are not permitted.
Aggression is pointless.
Life after 40...
Most
martial artists retire at 40.
Tai chi is a lifelong art, so it will take longer to gain martial
aptitude but (providing you practice) the skills
may last a lifetime.
Tai chi is about changing our internal environment so that life becomes a
joy to live and not a burden to drag into old age and death. It is about
helping your body to let go of the past and your mind to slow down and cease
churning. Tai chi encourages your internal focus to shift toward
cherishing and remembering all that is wonderful in your life. It
predisposes you to look forward to ways to make life better, rather than
remembering how unsatisfying it has been.
Most importantly, tai chi gives us the ability to realise a greater human
potential in ourselves and to have genuine compassion for others. Tai chi,
with its gentle strength, moves us closer to feeling more truly alive.
(Bruce Frantzis)
Teachers can only teach you
to the level that the strength of your basics will allow them to. They can't
do anything more, it's impossible.
(Bruce Frantzis)
Your judo friend...
Let's imagine that your judo friend has a blue
belt.
You are a tai chi blue
belt. When it comes to fighting, what would your judo friend expect from
you? The same.
You may disappoint them...
Judo health studies?
When it comes to the external martial arts you won't find a lot of
articles published by doctors proving that karate or judo are
good for your
body. In fact, quite the opposite is true.
If you searched the web, you'd find many people complaining about how their
chosen art wrecked their knees, shoulders etc.
Bruce Frantzis:
A lot of martial arts will basically destroy your body.
How many tai chi
health studies have
been performed?
Quite a lot. With old people doing tai chi for
health. They weren't even doing the complete art and it did them
a lot of good.
Tai chi was designed for long-term
practice.
These neigong practices can
transform the ordinarily tense human nervous system into a very fluid one in
which there is virtually no time lag between conscious will and the body
moving swiftly or delivering power.
Ultimately, a great deal of the fighting prowess of internal martial arts
derives from the absence of central nervous system lag time. With reaction
time virtually nonexistent, the internal martial artist is able to change
fighting techniques faster than an opponent can, and is able also to combine
the normally separated areas of the body into one integrated, unified and
powerful whole.
(Bruce Frantzis)
Technical knowledge
The tai chi martial skills must be refined many,
many times before they are truly 'combat' ready.
The nuance of each movement, the possible ramifications, applications,
variations, off-shoots and follow-ups must be examined thoroughly.
How the body moves.
How the power is being generated.
As your overall skill in tai chi grows, your
body and mind change considerably, and these training methods will change with
you.
Layers of meaning, purpose and application will unfold.
Learning to box
The popular book Chinese Boxing by Robert Smith refers to kung fu as
being 'Chinese boxing' which is what kung fu has historically being called.
The word 'boxing' summons images of fists and punching.
Taiji is supreme ultimate (yin/yang)
and signifies the process of dynamic balancing.
Quan is fist (combat/martial art/boxing).
Dynamic balancing boxing renders the art as a process.
How do you measure up?
Think about your blue
belt judo friend... If you apply your black belt level tai chi skills
against your friend, they will be most impressed. You will not be
weak or apologetic.
Nor will you start talking about qi.
Instead, you will kick ass.
Far away
One interesting thing to keep in mind is that
all the good stuff in the
syllabus is still to come. And by definition it has to be more
powerful and effective than
anything you've
encountered to date.
Upon reaching what is perceived as an ideal goal, the artist
discovers something entirely different. The artist is suddenly confronted
with the fact that what was thought of as perfection of technique was merely
the introduction to it.
An entirely new vista has opened. The artist must be prepared to turn his
gaze from the heights that have so recently been gained, and prepare for the
ascent of the peak suddenly found beyond them.
(Dave Lowry)
Page created
18 April 2005
Last updated
16 June 2023
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