|
|
||
| Nerve | ||
classes qigong tai chi kung fu about us reviews a-z
.JPG)
Delusions
It is quite common to read a tai chi website and come across some
sketchy, vague reference to how the art can be used
in self defence.
There are usually no specifics.
Somehow the martial heritage/reputation of tai chi
is thought to be enough to imbue every student with power.
Oh, really?
The real world
In the real world MMA fighters and boxers
train hard.
They train to win.
Their fear and uncertainty is channelled into
aggression, intimidation and combat.
Pitched against most people in the world, they will comfortably emerge
victorious.
Questions
Having read about Yang Lu-chan and the
awesome power of tai chi, the naive
beginner believes that their art is
unbeatable.
They ask questions such as "How will tai chi fare
against MMA?" and expect a
comforting answer that features qi.
This is the wrong sort of question.
Arts do not fight Arts. People fight people.
There is no teacher but the enemy.
Only he will tell you where you are weak, where he is strong.
(Ender's Game)
YouTube
YouTube is filled with many examples of perfectly decent
martial artists getting beaten up by
an MMA guy.
The beating is normally decisive, fast and
pretty bad.
What happened?
The answer is simple.
When faced with a genuine threat,
most people totally lose their nerve and get beaten up from the
onset.
Martial expectations
A boxer or an MMA practitioner is a very serious opponent.
They train in earnest. They are ruthless,
seasoned fighters. They can take a beating. They
are not messing about.
This hardly sounds like the average tai chi student does it?
Commitment
A student of judo may train 2-3 times a
week in class. To pass a belt they must fight other judo people working to pass that
same belt.
Progress is contingent upon victory.
How many tai chi people are prepared to do the
same?
Nerve
In conflict (of any kind) it is critical that
you keep your wits together.
This means:
Your mind is here & now
No conscious thoughts
No emotions
You have confidence in your art
Does this
mean that
you will win?
Of course not. It means that you now have a chance.
Self-consciousness
Ego, vanity, pride,
worrying and fear will
destroy your capacity to use tai chi.
Instead of channelling your fear into aggression...
relax.
Feel humour. Feel peace.
Be present.
Pay attention. Be alert.
Lose your self in the event itself.
4 oz is the result of
internal strength. A
cat touches lightly because it is already buoyant.
An average person, trying to give 4 oz, collapses
their frame. Without
internal strength, 4oz is
conceptual.
(James French)
No faith
Most tai chi students don't really have internal
strength.
Under pressure they resort to
tension/brute
force.
Ultimately they lack faith in the art and fail to
recognise that their body is already strong.
They falter, brace and
crack up.
Jing
Internal power is continuous;
it does not wax and wane, nor is it summoned to
facilitate a task.
It is there all the time, unless you collapse the joints, disconnect,
tense-up, oppose force or use local muscle
strength.
This means that every single action you
perform in a whole-body manner is strong.
Now all you need to do is keep your nerve and employ the tai chi
effectively.
Use the principles
People read The Tai Chi Classics,
Tao Te Ching,
The Art of War, Book of Five Rings and
The Way of Chuang Tzu... and then what?
They treat it as an intellectual exercise, with
no bearing on reality.
This is not the Way.
The principles are there to be used.
Tai chi will only work in combat if you are
practiced enough to be
thinking in those terms and employing the principles in your everyday
life.
Tai chi is a
recognisable fighting style
If you watch wing chun applied in combat, it looks distinctly like wing chun.
The same could be said of judo, aikido, ju jitsu, pencat silat etc.
By the same reasoning, the martial art of tai chi must look like tai chi.
What does tai chi look like in
combat?
Tai chi looks like tai chi.
The form, pushing hands,
you know... tai chi.
If the martial expression of tai chi
does not look like tai chi, it is probably not
tai chi.
Confidence
No student can reasonably expect their art to
work against a genuine
opponent unless they put in the practice time and address the issue of
nerve.
Panic is inevitable but avoidable.
Coping must be trained. It is not an outcome of
doing the form.
Worth reading
•
Are you a martial artist?
•
Conviction
•
Incapacitation
•
Neutral state
•
Tai chi fighting method
To lift an Autumn hare is no sign of
great strength;
to see the sun and moon is no sign of sharp sight;
to hear the noise of thunder is no sign of a quick ear.
What the Ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins,
but excels in winning with ease.
Hence his victories bring him neither reputation for wisdom nor credit for
courage.
He wins his battles by making no mistakes.
Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory,
for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated.
(Sun Tzu)
Page created
6 July 2004
Last updated
16 June 2023
▲