Martial sets | ||
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Neijiaquan
Tai chi is an 'internal' style of
Chinese martial art.
How you train the form, and what you do with it is defined by this fact.
The internal
arts are circular and rely extensively upon spirals, curves,
softness and gravity.
This must be evident in your form
training and your applications.
Combat
In order to fully understand the ramifications of the form
movements, it can be quite useful to
apply the form.
When a tai chi person possesses a poor sense of
application, this tends to reflect their
overall limited understanding of the art.
The form was designed with combat in mind.
If you lack the ability to use the
form, what are you practicing?
What mistakes might you make?
Difficulty
Students often find form application to be exceedingly difficult because
they lack the martial background and spatial
awareness to see the
possibilities within the form.
People sometimes import ideas from
other martial arts, but these do
not sit well with the form and lead to a singularly non-Chinese
approach emerging.
A useful way to get a sense of potential form application is to train 2
person sets or drills.
Sets
Our syllabus explores these 2 person combat sets:
San sau
- 2 person unarmed set
- street attacks versus tai chi
- designed to encourage economy of movement
Da lu
- 2 person unarmed set
- tai chi versus tai chi
- a form of pushing hands
- designed to teach rollback, bump and
evasive footwork
Cane
- 2 person armed set
- tai chi versus tai chi
- teaches the student to be versatile and
adaptive
- introduces the possibilities suggested by the cane
Small stick
- 2 person armed series of drills
- tai chi versus tai chi
- designed to encourage stickiness, reflex and timing
- excellent test of nerve under pressure
- only the miniscule, economical movements
are fast enough to work
Not combat
Sets are not fighting.
They are fixed pattern, and serve to train accuracy, positioning,
timing and movement.
The skills they teach can be taken into combat if they manifest under
pressure without contrivance.
Habits
In practice, the sets are about habit.
They encourage a certain way of moving, a habitual approach to attack.
This is what you take into combat.
Melee combat
Sets can only take you so far...
The preference is to focus upon form application, partnered drills and
unrehearsed freeform combat featuring
multiple opponents.
Tai chi
versus tai chi
A number of the 2 person sets teach the student how to employ
tai chi against tai chi.
This is a daunting prospect since your opponent
possesses exactly the same knowledge and skills as you do.
Any of the san sau
applications - performed correctly - have the potential to finish-off the
attacker.
(Eddie)
Lower grades
A students' response to attack is random, sloppy and untrained.
The individual is usually poorly coordinated,
with little sense of balance, rhythm and timing.
What you bring with you into a tai chi class is worthless:
physical tension,
bad postural habits,
aggression, fear,
clumsiness...
Skills from other martial arts tend to be an impediment.
Unlearn
You must unlearn.
Our aim is help you to become responsive,
spontaneous, adaptive. Capable of changing instantly in accordance with
circumstance.
The way and its power
Tao Te Ching teaches us many important lessons.
In terms of combat we recognise that the 'power' can only be used if the
student adheres strictly to the 'Way' of the event.
Blocking the incoming force,
struggling, resisting, postural instability... these bad habits prevent the
student from having any power.
Instead, it is necessary to harmonise, accord,
blend with the attack.
Neutralise, and counter-attack by borrowing
power from the opponent and adding it to our own.
This is harder than it sounds, for the
student must set aside their own pride and
ego, and follow the parameters of the art exactly.
Preparation
The fundamental qigong
exercises were designed to build-up the strength and coordination
required to practice form.
Instead of moving in a tense, sloppy, disconnected way, students learn how
to move slowly and smoothly.
In time, the entire body moves as one unit.
When the form is practiced correctly, it is quite
demanding.
Form
The form itself teaches the body how to move in an
internal way.
Ideally, this is how your body should move in combat.
Form literally means 'shape'; and the aim is to re-shape your movements and
structure into something martially
viable.
The complexity of form means that a student has countless layers of
skill to add to their form, and it will take decades to
understand it deeply.
This learning process is what training an internal art is all about.
Drills
The partnered exercises in the syllabus are about using the form.
Many of the skills acquired from pushing hands (and the associated
exercises) are quite subtle and require significant on-going practice.
Sensitivity, awareness, stickiness and peng are
cultivated patiently.
Such drills are not directly martial.
You could not apply the drills in combat, but you would use the skills
taught by the drills.
Sets
Sets are derived from the form.
They use movements from the form against an
attacker.
Therefore, they also serve to test your skill with form. If your form is
imprecise and sloppy, your application will not work.
A combat set provides an opportunity for a student to really
tidy-up their form and gain insight into how
the form can be used.
Errors that may seem unimportant in solo practice may
prove disastrous in partner work.
Gaps and deficiencies
It can be quite a shock for a student to find out that their form is
actually a mess.
The form may look aesthetically pleasing, yet under
pressure it falls apart.
Taoism advocates eating the fruit, not the flower.
The form must be functional, effective and comfortable.
If your structure and movements fail in combat, what exactly are you
training when you practice your form?
Tai chi skills
Combat sets require the student to apply tai chi skills
effectively.
You cannot simply use force and expect success.
The sets are ruthless in their ability to expose faults in your practice.
Only by adhering to their lessons and requirements can the student apply
tai chi correctly in combat.
How do you know if you are doing it correctly?
It works.
It feels easy.
It is very effective.
The attacker should be incapable of mounting an effective counter-attack.
Tips
These tips will significantly improve your martial sets:
Move the body first, the hands second
Use all 3 types of
yielding
- weight shift & waist turn
- stepping
- bend at hip kwa
Slow down
Versatile
Every combat set contains countless chin na,
shuai jiao and variations on a movement.
A skilled student can easily recognise viable
follow-ups and explore these.
At this stage, the combat set pervades the student's
consciousness and can be
used readily in combat.
Dismantling the sets
High level instructors learn to take the sets apart and gain a comprehensive
understanding of the biomechanics involved.
They can also make connections and associations between patterns, themes and
form movements.
Hidden applications become apparent.
Beyond sets
Most of your combat training in our school will not involve sets.
We prefer our students to experience a wide range of spontaneous attacks
from solo and multiple attackers, armed
and unarmed.
Sets are a learning tool and can be very useful, but they are not
random enough for
actual combat.
Melee combat tests the individual's ability to respond under pressure.
Page
created 6 October 2003
Last updated
10 November 2023
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