SAID- Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands principle
If we take the physical stress of trainin hard in say something like fajin….day 1 you train on fajin ‘An’ or push for 15 minutes…the next time you train you will be more prepared and can go for 20 minutes. you can adapt to the increased stress you impose on your body. Take standing maybe it is painful for you to stand 10 minutes. well the more you stand 10 minutes, your more able to adapt to 15 or 20 minutes of standing.

GAS- General Adaptation Syndrome

this principle has to do with recovery time after hard work. so take your fajing exercise you just did for 15 minutes and then go into something less impacting, maybe a round of your form or sitting qigong for rest and recovery.

Overcompensation- this is growth in response to training. the longer you train in something the better you will get. If a taijiquan person trains very hard and diligently in a specific skill- say ‘holding’ postures, then they can reap the benefits of that training in terms of leg, core, and hip strength.

Use/disuse- use it or loose it principle. this is a basic kung fu principle. if you train for several days and take a break for a week, you loose what you gain. kung fu is like paddling up a river, if you stop paddling your making your way downstream when you need to go to the source and essence which is way up stream. This has alot to do with Wu De- diligence, perseverance and discipline.

Specificity principle - A basic principle of training which states that in order to improve a certain component of physical fitness, a person must train specifically for that component. an example here would be if your going to do a Tui Shou ‘push hands’ event and you go to yoga class 80% of the time. Yoga class might help you get more flexible, but you should really be in Taiji class training 80% of the time with other students in push hands and event simulation.

Overload- this principle states that you will not grow if you do the same thing everyday. a perfect example is CMC stating you need 1 form in morning and 1 form in evening. To really be an outstanding Taiji player you need to change up and do alot of hard work. for exampe: instead of doing the form once, try doing alot of repetitions of just brush knee, wave hands like clouds, and repulse monkey over and over until the legs burn.

The Law of Individual Differences
here is a perfect example- Taiji people love to mimic and pretend they are their teachers many times. some will do the form the same way their teacher does and try to mimic everything without looking inside and trying to understand how their body is and capable of. I have seen young guys move like an old man taiji simply imitating the old mans form. The old man back might be slightly hunched because he is 90 years old. people should learn to listen to their own body and how it feels.

This is an article inspired by many of the people I have met on the T’ai Chi (Taiji) path in parks and other gatherings. I started learning when I was 18 from a free class in the park and want to share with you places here in Virginia, Maryland, and DC that offer free instruction. The dominant style in this Mid-Atlantic region is the Yang short form popularized in the 1960’s by Cheng Man-Ch’ing and Robert W. Smith. Please note this article with contain Wade-Giles and Pinyin spelling of Chinese terms- example- T’ai Chi (Wade-Giles) and Taiji (Pinyin).

My first T’ai Chi park experience: Wilson Pitts

It was fall of 1990 and I was starting my first semester of college at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond Virginia. My sister told me about a martial arts guy teaching a free class in Maymont Park on Saturday mornings at 9am. Having interest in learning self defense, I went there to find out more. The teacher, Wilson Pitts, arrived and he guided students through a series of calisthenics called, “Ba Dua Jin” which meant ‘Eight Flower Brocade’, bear and crane animal frolics, and finally some specified qigong movements using breathing and sound to stimulate each internal organ. We proceeded to learn some stance work that involved bending the knees and shifting weight between left and right legs. “This Taiji stance is the foundation of all the Taiji movements” Wilson explained. Later we would eventually be learning the first section of 12 movements of Yang’s short form. The martial art was called Taijiquan; meaning ‘Grand Ultimate Boxing’ and that millions of people practiced this healing art everyday in parks in China and Asia. This Taoist martial art was based on Taiji or the ‘yin-yang symbol’ using the Chinese understanding of “Qi”, the bio-electric energy that circulates in the body for health, but not only did it help the body become stronger, it was also potentially a devastating martial art. “Taijiquan has two other related arts in it family, Baguazhang (Eight diagram palm) and Xingyiquan (Mind-Intent boxing) are two sister arts to Taiji, this family is called ‘Neijia’ or Internal arts” Wilson explained. “Baguazhang teaches you to move your center of balance in circles, Xingyiquan teaches how to move the center linear and at angles, while Taijiquan teaches how to move in all directions.” Wilson had learned from several teachers himself, but was inspired to learn and teach Taiji’s Yang short form from the way Robert W. Smith taught in Maryland. Wilson continues to teach at Maymont park on Saturday mornings for 28 years now.

More info on Wilson Pitts- www.sacredpeaks.net
and is @taijicoach on twitter
Tai chi in the park video Wilson talks tai chi park http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRufEz4b0LI

Robert W. Smith brings Tai Chi to DC metro area

Let’s go back to Bethesda, Maryland, 1960s, when one Robert W. Smith came back from living in Taiwan and learning the Neijia arts from several masters. An early T’ai Chi pioneer who was Prof. Cheng Man-ch’ing’s first Western student beginning in 1959. Smith lived in Bethesda, Maryland for many years and produced 14 books on Asian martial arts including “T’ai Chi Ch’uan, the Supreme Ultimate” which he co-authored with Cheng. This was one of the very first books in English about T’ai Chi Ch’uan. Mr. Smith taught a free Taiji class at the Bethesda YMCA parking lot on Saturday morning’s beginning in 1962. He also offered a class near his home in Bethesda at Fleming Park where he started a group interested in Baguazhang and Xingyiquan . This group still meets to this day to practice every Sunday mornings at 8am.

When I first moved to the Washington D.C. area I met some people and also found some websites that advertised some gatherings in various parks in the area. Here I would like to talk about a few I have visited from time to time.

The Fleming park group in Bethesda Maryland.

This group gets together on Sundays and has been doing so for almost 50 years now. They normally begin with practicing Xingyiquan’s classical 5 element fists which correspond to a particular element in the Chinese philosophy. The names and energy are described as following: Pi quan: Splitting fist is related to metal like an ax chopping, Beng quan: Crushing fist is related to wood like a straight arrow flying, Tsuan quan: Drilling fist is related to water like a wave crashing, Pao quan: fist is related to fire like cannon fire, and Hen quan: Crossing fist is related to earth like volcano erupting.
The Fleming park group also practices the Baguazhang “Hou tien” which are a series of linear and circular Baguazhang drills. They will review some of the self defense applications of how the movements work. There are plenty of members who have been there and welcoming and willing to show you many of the basic exercises. Typically the Fleming park might practice Taijiquan at the end of the 2 hour or so class. Since they have a roofed park area, they will go year round with training, even in snow.

Warren Conner- McLean Virginia

Warren Conner who has taught T’ai Chi in the Washington, DC area since 1975, has offered a free Yang style short form T’ai Chi beginners’ practice since 1993. On Saturdays at 8:00 a.m. in McLean Virginia, a group gets together at McLean Central Park at the outdoor basketball court located behind the Dolley Madison Public Library. The group normally performs the beginners’ set of Cheng Man-ch’ing’s Yang style short form about a dozen times. After a short break, the beginner group performs the beginners’ set three more times while a more advanced group performs the entire short form. It is an all year event which meets indoors at St. Luke Catholic School’s gym from November through March during the cold winter. Warren began his training with Robert W. Smith in 1973.

More info- www.taichicenter.com

Paul Ramos: Wu Shen Tao Push hands gathering in Takoma park Maryland.

In late 1990’s Wu Shen Tao, a martial arts school in Silver Spring Maryland offered a Monday night ‘push hands’ gathering. It is now a 7pm Tuesday night push hands gathering at the Liz Lerman school of Dance in Takoma park. Many people would get together and practice “Tui Shou” which translates as ‘push hands’. It is a relaxed sensing drill used to interpret and redirect an opponents attack in the middle-to-close ‘hand to hand’ combat and grappling range. Wu Shen Tao also expanded to include ‘push sword’ and internal sword sparring on every other Saturday. Paul Ramos is a certified Judge for several Chinese Martial Arts organizations for Neijia arts including fixed and moving step push hands competitions. Paul has been involved in coaching and had produced many National competition champions.

More info- www.wushentao.com

Dr. David Walls-Kaufman- Lincoln park Washington D.C.

I originally met David at the Wu Shen Tao group in late 90’s but later started joining his Saturday morning group at 8am in Lincoln Park off East Capitol Street in DC a few years ago. Having played push hands with him, I knew of his ability. David had been practicing since 1988 and is a long time student and disciple of Ben Pang Jeng Lo, Cheng Man Ching’s senior student from Taiwan. David was able to “get it”, that is…the real ability to be able to relax, sink, and push an opponent very far. David had competed and won several major push hands events. His class usually begins with a few rounds of the entire form along with standing in the Taijiquan postures for a long amount of time to make the legs strong. “I emphasize the same stress Ben Lo puts on separating the weight in each posture and the cultivation of chi,” David says. The form class ends with doing another round of the entire form after the prolonged standing, then an hour or so of push hands. David not only is a Taijiquan expert, he also is a Doctor of Chiropractic and a singer/musician in the band, “Lands of Malls”.

-more information for David and his Chiropractic clinic can be found at: www.capitolhilltaichi.com

Julian Chu- Carderock Potomac Maryland

I also found out from some students that Julian Chu was teaching a free class where Taiji enthusiasts could get together and practice. On Sunday mornings at 8am in Carderock Park, Potomac Maryland in every summer since 1992; Julian Chu guides a large group through the Yang short form. This group really spends a lot of time on every aspect of Taijiquan. Class will start with a series of joint opening calisthenics, then do the entire form twice, and wrap up with standing meditation. Then the class will go on to perform Taiji sword, Taiji saber, and Taiji long pole, before going into Tui Shou or ‘Push hands’ practice. The free class is open to Taiji practitioners of all levels who are interested in enhancing his/her Taijiquan capability for health and self defense. Julian also offers other regular classes in Maryland (at Julius Middle School in Rockville) and Virginia (at Northern Virginia Community College’s Annandale Campus) on weekends. Besides, he has co-sponsored the quarterly Greater Washington D.C. Area Push-Hands Get-Together in Rockville Maryland with then David Chen and now Joanne Chen since 1995. Julian has taught Taijiquan for over 30 years, and is a senior student of Benjamin Lo.

Joanne Chen – Wu Wei Tai Chi – Cabin John Regional Park – Rockville, MD

David Chen enjoyed the lively Taiji practice he found in the parks of Taiwan and China and wanted to recreate that experience here. He started a free, weekly practice in Cabin John Regional Park, in Rockville, over a dozen years ago, and watched it grow in popularity. David was a tireless organizer of taiji activities and he loved to share with others. Sadly, David passed away after surgery in 2005, but, thanks to his wife Joanne and his senior students and friends, the practice is still going strong. The group meets year-round on Saturday mornings from 10am to Noon to practice the Taiji form, push hands and Taiji wooden sword. Friends are welcome and encouraged to share in the fun and learning.
This summer, a beautiful Taiji practice court is being built in the park to honor David Chen’s contribution to the community. The court will be a cultural landmark that will encourage visitors to practice Taijiquan, meditation and other health related activities.
To find out more about the Tai Chi court please visit the website at http://www.wuweitaichi.com/founder.htm

More info: www.wuweitaichi.com

Closing thoughts

T’ai Chi has become more popular in western culture particularly after the Tiananmen Square revolt in Beijing China on June 4th 1990. 20 years since that event, globalization of Chinese Wushu (Martial Arts) Culture grew as more teachers from Mainland China immigrated to countries all over the world. In DC’s Chinatown and schools in the area, there are classes where you can learn the ‘24 form’ that was created in 1956 by the People’s Republic of China’s Sport and Health commission. This was created in attempts to help people learn exercises for health and sport. The People’s Republic of China’s Sports Commission has created many competition routines for wushu sports ever since. Robert W. Smith is credited to leaving a legacy here in the DC metro area and America in general for people to enjoy the rich benefits of this unique martial art and preserve their health.

Yesterday’s event was a great eye opener in several areas for myself. We first started the seminar with form instruction. Since everyone there was already familiar with the form, it was more of a discussion on details. Master Chen’s experience and learning through long period of study with Master Cheng Man Ching led him to many insights in which he discussed how his form had changed through time.

The first point of discussion we talked and experienced for ourselves was internal relaxation and sinking. He discussed the importance of really knowing this internal relaxation and use of the hands. He said that the hands had yin and yang. The yin fingers are the ring and pinky while the yang fingers are the thumb, index and middle. For instance- when you open a door your ring fingers touch the door knob, but your yang fingers do the work by twisting the knob.

When beginning the form and raising the arms, the attention moves to the yin fingers while you should experience the internal organs relaxing and naturally sinking while you bend and sink into kua. At this point the shoulders lightly float and open the same way a bird sinks its weight in legs and opens wings and pushes before flight. The body might lean a bit forward but the spine is still straight. This is done unconsciously in many sports as Master Chen demonstrated a tennis player or baseball player unconsciously sink and compress ‘chi’ before striking a ball. The yin fingers help the body to sink and relax (especially in inner thighs) in many of the transitional postures he showed as we went through the form.

Using these point of awareness we went through the form and focuses on points of transitions that use the ‘yin’ parts of palm and the sinking and relaxing feeling and understanding the yang aspects. This was combined with the second part of form discussion on using the big toe and inner thigh muscles when stepping. He discussed not turning the waist but stepping and shifting into the lead leg and allowing the fingers to lead the movement of the body. This stepping with concentration on the big toe and inner thigh created power and compression of ‘chi’ along with a burning in the legs. William Chen said that he didn’t know, but “Tony knows” ….that is- ‘Toe, knee, nose’ all move in coordination. After a studying these stepping and transitions up to the ‘wave hands like clouds’ we began the application portion of the seminar.

William CC Chen discussed his form and the additions of postures from the Yang Long form that were excluded in the more common 37 Yang Short Form. These were Needle at Sea Bottom, Fan Through back, Hit Tiger and Double punch ears. He also showed us a step back and push that Cheng Man Ching would do when he ran out of space practicing form in his living room. William CC Chen included that stepping change in his form instruction.

Here in the application portion we worked with a boxers jab, cross, hook, and upper cut. He teaches the jab by using the weight already transferred into the lead leg and a slight push upward with the lead leg thigh and big toe. The arm is relaxed and extends like handing someone a cup of tea. The yang fingers clinch on impact. He had me hit his hand in a jab and while my arm was relaxed and tensed on contact, the line of power was firm from foot through entire body out to the fist. The mental aspect of punching was based on William saying “ I kill you or I knock you out” when punching. He had us working a stepping forward foot work with this slight raising of weight with the front leg while rear leg almost comes off the ground. We worked this striking on a heavy bag with gloves using jab and straight right punches. The lead leg and big toe had a slightly more inward detail when using Tai chi for punching. He showed the same power connection with the hook punch and showed a combination upper cut-hook from the form with ‘step up to seven stars and ride tiger’; this was a rear upper cut, rear hook application in a quick 1-2 combo. There was a second interesting drill he showed with two people holding gloves up- he quickly hit both of them several times with a whipping motion same as the opening and closing of ‘playing the pipa’. Lastly he showed the yin fingers in use for sinking/ level change or ‘ducking’ to avoid a hook punch faster than mentally trying to bend knees.

Next was the push hands portion of the seminar where we concentrated on 3 main techniques. The first technique was centered around a short but power motion of the elbow slightly lifting up when a partner has his hand sticking to your wrist and arm. The second was if an opponent was using a very strong ‘taiji resistance’ to a push and you simply grab and turn the partners shoulder and waist guiding them toward you and easily tossing them. “Oops I push you” he would say when walking around and showing it to each person effortlessly. The last technique was similar to the expanded ‘embrace posture’ you often see in holding postures in zhaun zhuang and yiquan and it is simply expanding out the arms and not pushing in the sense of pushing we are all too familiar with like a horizontal push for opening a door. He had a phase for this pushing ‘you smell bad get away’ kind of push.

Lastly was the sword portion of the seminar. We went through the entire form section by section using the same stepping drill as we did in empty hand set with the stepping details with sword fingers as leader to turning body and turning over of the sword. After 4 hours of not sitting and th stepping work I really felt a lot of deep muscle work done in the legs.

About Master William CC Chen:
At age 75 he trained in Tai Chi Chuan at a young age with Master Cheng Man Ching in Taiwan China.
He competed Taiwan full contact between 1954 and 1958.
His daughter Tiffany and son Max are both US San Shou team fighters and National champions as well.
more info: Master William CC Chen

peng+ forward step
peng+ backward step
peng+ left step
peng+ right step
peng +centered rooted
peng+ peng
Peng +Lu
Peng+ ji
peng+ An
peng+ zhai
peng+ Lieh
peng+ Zhou
peng+ Kao

Lu+ forward
Lu+ backward
Lu+ left
Lu+ right
Lu+ center
Lu+ peng
Lu+ Lu
Lu+ ji
Lu+ An
Lu+ zhai
Lu+ Lieh
Lu+ Zhou
Lu+ Kao

ji+ forward
ji+ backward
ji+ left
ji+ right
ji+ center
ji+ peng
ji+ Lu
ji+ ji
ji+ An
ji+ zhai
ji+ Lieh
ji+ Zhou
ji+ Kao

An+ forward
An+ backward
An+ left
An+ right
An+ center
An+ peng
An+ Lu
An+ ji
An+ An
An+ zhai
An+ Lieh
An+ Zhou
An+ Kao

zhai+ forward
zhai+ backward
zhai+ left
zhai+ right
zhai+ center
zhai+ peng
zhai+ Lu
zhai+ ji
zhai+ An
zhai+ zhai
zhai+ Lieh
zhai+ Zhou
zhai+ Kao

lieh+ forward
lieh+ backward
lieh+ left
lieh+ right
lieh+ center
lieh+ peng
lieh+ Lu
lieh+ ji
lieh+ An
lieh+ zhai
lieh+ Lieh
lieh+ Zhou
lieh+ Kao

zhou+ forward
zhou+ backward
zhou+ left
zhou+ right
zhou+ center
zhou+ peng
zhou+ Lu
zhou+ ji
zhou+ An
zhou+ zhai
zhou+ Lieh
zhou+ Zhou
zhou+ Kao

kao+ forward
kao+ backward
kao+ left
kao+ right
kao+ center
kao+ peng
kao+ Lu
kao+ ji
kao+ An
kao+ zhai
kao+ Lieh
kao+ Zhou
kao+ Kao

you can later explore 3,4,5 combinations using attach and defense. example peng+ an + backstep/evade + forward ji.

sample vid of solo and combination

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=AGaIMdqb678

Based on my own experience when starting with CMC form in late 80’s early 90’s, the teachers did not teach stretching, stances, or basic stepping and movements. They begin the student with “The form” with justification “its all in the form”. Rarely a teacher might import a brief warm-up like ‘Ba Dua Jing’ to the curriculum. In my experience with teachers who taught Yang Family Taijiquan form it was pretty much taught the same way with going right into ‘Raise hands’ , Grasp Bird tail, Single Whip, ect.” and thus leaving the beginner trying to copy a series of movements and stepping completely foreign to their balance, mind-body connection, and muscle memory. A high degree of frustration ensues, quality of movement sacrificed, inability to retain information, and willingness to continue with long term study is then defeated. A lack of interest and drop out rate soon sets in.

Enter the 24 form-

When I met a teacher from Yongnian Taijiquan Association, who was also a member of the Shanghai Wushu Sports University in early 90’s, a new understanding of Taijiquan was presented. As a teacher well versed in the International and National competitions in China and USA, the modern approach to teaching was modern and systematic. The negative scrutiny of the traditionalist that “It’s not Taiji” changed to small adjustments and corrections, to a ‘flowing movement vs exact posture’ approach. Here is how Taijiquan was broken down by the modern instructor:

Basics:
-Warm up consisted of joint opening and loosening exercises from head to toe. This included neck, shoulders, elbow, wrist, waist, spine, hips, knees, ankles.
-Various athletic sports style stretches for legs, back, hip, waist, ect.
-traditional stances.
-Stepping drills- walking forward, backward and sideways without hand movements.
-walking forward, backward and sideways with hand movements: Part horse mane, Brush Knee, Wave hands, Repulse monkey.

With learning those simple amount of basics and progressing with them, my own Taijiquan quickly improved. Later when I decided to teach, my students were able to quickly surpass the traditionalist’s students and even compete in local tournaments and win. Along the way I was even able to help struggling Taijiquan schools with established curriculum’s and have positive results with students I taught. It was because these teachers were not taught this way that the student has to miss this as well. Taijiquan teachers who opened up to this approach helped business and frustrated beginners gave thanks and ability improved.

The reason I am writing this is because two clients of mine from the Information Technology side business have taken up Taijiquan. One is learning the CMC form and the other Yang Long form from some teachers I know. Both are very confused and not certain how long it will take for them to “get it” after over a year now and just getting to 1st Brush knee- play pipa. After a year! I know if they were to learn the basics, they would grasp it much quicker as the information would be beneficial. I see this when I go to many groups that have free classes in the parks as well. Going right into the form without good basics simply does not help the novice student. Though I don’t teach anymore nor haven’t taught in many years, it motivates me to start teaching Taijiquan again even though I am happy with my current training with Boxing and Thai Boxing.

Addition:
Basics:
-Warm up consisted of joint opening and loosening exercises from head to toe. This included neck, shoulders, elbow, wrist, waist, spine, hips, knees, ankles.
-Various athletic sports style stretches for legs, back, hip, waist, ect.
-traditional stances.
-Stepping drills- walking forward, backward and sideways without hand movements.
-walking forward, backward and sideways with hand movements: Part horse mane, Brush Knee, Wave hands, Repulse monkey.

A little bit more about this:
The stepping drills is doing walking across a room so you get rows of repetition and a lot of it. The stepping without hand movement and then with hand movement takes a good 40 minutes and the legs are toughened and sore. The heavy elements sink making legs feel heavy and lighter elements move upward with arms feeling lighter.

Also ‘Peng-Lu-Ji-An’ sequence can be repeated moving forward getting both left and right side done.- excellent basic.

In this way you can choose small sections to repeat. For instance the last closing section of ‘Snake creeps down- 7 stars- ride tiger- Sweep lotus-shoot tiger’ can be repeated many times.

So instead of doing a form where you do a few movements once, with basic repetitions you get a lot done with quality.

Comments:

Some Feed back from some other people:

As some call it, Yang 24 (Beijing 24 or just plain old 24 form) does not come directly from the Yang family it comes from Li Tianji

And please correct me if I am wrong but Li Tianji trained with Li Yulin, Sun Lutang and Li Jinglin and he learned Taiji from Li Jinglin, who was a student of Yang Jianhou which of course gets it to the Yang family…kinda.

Li Tianji studied with Li Jinglin so the Yang connection is obviously there and the postures are as those of Yang Chengfu. Beijing 24 shi taijiquan’s movements are exaggerated but they are Yang style nonetheless.

more feed back:

Excellent opening post! Now i think the point of the topic has deviated to “what is 24 Taiji” which I am sure is not the point. Let me firstly say from my experience in CMA that , as traditionalists one should try to stick the original as much as possible in all forms, but at the same time we should not be limited by this thought either. When we see something that is useful or beneficial that does not neccessarily come from within our own system, we should make use of it, and by the same token when something whithin our system does not make sense or is not useful, we should first try understand it more, and then improve it so it does make sense or benefit us. Without this type of mindset we will doom our own traditional systems to disappear in the future, or become irrelevant. We need to strive for improvement while still sticking in the confines of or styles as far as possible.
An example of this is the creation of CMC style of Yang Taiji. CMC Taiji is the result of his understanding of Taiji, and the environment in which he practiced. Personally, its not for me, but each to his own.
I want to quote from the topic:

“The 24 form was created in 1956 by the Government Sport and Health committee so people could learn for sport and improve physical health. It is often called the “Beijing form” and even the “Communist form” from many people. From what I have heard, the Yang Family had no say into the creation of this form and had much disapproval. It was a different approach to Taijiquan instruction that made learning Taijiquan much easier in my case. I had started with CMC taijiquan and each teacher taught more about how I was not doing Taijiquan than that I was doing it correctly. I guess its a positive vs negative reinforcement that I experienced.”

The government created a simplified form of taiji for one main reason, and that is to get more people practicing taiji, when I say more people I mean everyday masses and the reason was that they realized the vast benefits of Taiji practice. In comes the Li family who had the task of creating a form, that wasnt too long to be overlooked by the common people, and not too complicated in terms of depth, something they could practice everyday without taking up too much time. In effect it is an INTRODUCTION to taijiquan. It was not meant to replace any taiji by any means but just make it more practical and accessible to everyday people. This introduction is basically a “doorway” to taiji. With that it has to focus on elements that a beginner can grasp, and that will appeal to non martial artists. So it focuses on external elements as opposed to the whole kettle of taiji fish. This has benefits in many ways, including benefits for the promotion of traditional Yang whether you can see it or not. The fact is, the more people that practice this, the more interest that is sparked in people, from this there will be some who will go further in that just the doorway and seek deeper into the road of Taiji. The external is a road to the internal, remember that. Trying to teach people internal principles off the bat is very difficult and from my experience, teaching from an external point of view first helps firstly identify those that have the aptitude to do internal work and secondly get them geared for it.
Back to the topic at hand though. Above is stated that the Yang family had no say in the 24 form and they weren’t happy with it. Well lets not ask them what they had to do with CMC Taiji or what they think of it either…… The task Li Tianji had was a tough one, formulate a clear strategy on the development of 24 taiji for common people. So things had to be clear is black and white, or people wont understand. But with this I believe that a basic taiji training regimen (focus on the word basic here please) was created. Of course warm up and stretching are essential and this is a fact for ANY CMA….it can only do good. After that a curriculum of stepping basics, hand basics, and movement basics were created that helped the beginner develop the skills required for 24 taiji. These are all good, and can only create solid base for Taiji in all forms. Personally I think the approach is a good primer for further Taiji training, albeit superficial at first. But the point is, from the superficial we got in deeper, we cant jump into the deep end straight away from my experience. A systematic approach is needed for beginners, one that focuses on topics they can grasp easily, and this is exactly that.

He does them for a good amount of repetitions so the set takes 20-30 minutes. Followed by two sets of Lao Jia Yi Lu or Old Frame Long form.

Chen exercises:
1. wrist circles hands clasped
2. arm circles both directions
3. body wave/ chi flow circles hands to dan tien
4. hands at shoulders arm circles both directions and alternating
5. waist twists- 2 elbow strikes
6. forward bend bouncing
7. squating
8. knee circles inside, outside, together both directions
9. squat and half squat
10. drop stance warm up
11. drop stance
12. gong bu bouncing
13. gong bu with heel up
ankles
14. shake out kicks
15. hands over head through body- heaven/earth walking.

i am having to baby spoon feed these cats so even doing sparring isnt a weekly event, its something that is thrown in ‘here and there’ until they are comfortable enough. My goal is to assist with getting them used to someone aggressive enough to be throwing punches and kicks at them and how to respond appropriately and calmly under pressure.

In tai chi I dare not teach the empty hand form without showing the applications. this way in practicing the form they can use the application intent or ‘yi’. i’ve introduce them to some hsingyi and drills like- heng vs pao drill or pi vs beng drill. I introduce them to circle walking and fan chang change. Then walking drills where one guy does a fan chang change and the other guys needs to react and change on circle. There is always push hands too which is very reactive.

i started as a tai chi guy but was lucky that my first teacher was a martial artist that taught hsingyi and bagua. He also felt neijia had a lack of real cardio so he taught western boxing as well. Neijia was water while boxing was fire…. the fire to burn up and raise the bodys metabolic rate and sweat out toxins and burn up the food/calories for health.

he was able to create many two person combat drills similar to push hands for each of the postures using a sticking approach, leverage, and body mechanics.
my approach is different. as much as i appreciate and have learned many push hands sets- I dont start my drills from a already touching.
example-
1. peng drill- guys throws a punch- bridge it with peng- (practice a few of those) then try grabbing the wrist and yank hard to unbalance them.
2. lu- one guy chases with left or right punch and student needs to train lu to outside on whatever arm partner feeds him
3. ji-using a sticking lu (from above 2.)to get to the outside of opponent and add jump stepping ‘press’ to uproot person or strike kidney.
4. an- angling off an attack by stepping away from opponents line and using peng to stick then attacking with a lifting/push their body from lateral angle.

these are working from a pre-sticking situation into a bridging one, how to blend and move with the opponents stepping, being in the right distance and angling to find line of attack after neutralization.

i am putting my friends at an advantage with boxing drills, as a matter i fact i show them how a MT guy might attack or a bjj might attack or a judo throw might be countered with a throw. its called “know your enemy strengths and weaknesses”

some of the taiji fighting drills and 2 man work I have shown are solo fajin drills using the 8 energies while moving forward, back and to left right, and being centered. good posture is key, this can be standing, and with jump steps when doing the offensive/defensive moves. Later transferring that power into a object like a heavy bag, eventually a moving target like on focus mitts, kick shield, and thai pads.

i like to have them do structured tai chi punches to the belly pad (step-parry-punch is a good example) and work palm strikes to focus mitts (brush knee/fair maiden palm) . we’ll take strikes and kicks from the forms and doing them on thai pads and create simple yet comprehensive combinations using good posture and structure. simulated various attacks like throw a kick to person and have the person do brush knee to stop/catch kick and push the opponent.

it takes some kind of wisdom and intelligence to study IMA especially baguazhang and taijiquan.

we are doing 2 man taiji fighting drills. some are solo movement drills, later they work with a partner on them. paired drills might be using the 8 energies of taiji, 5 elements of xingyiquan, jibenshou fa of baguazhang. we incorporate them with power on martial arts equipment. we sometimes use sections from the 88 “taiji san shou ” two man set as combat drills too. sometimes we do taiji with wrestling/shaui jiao flavor, sometimes we do taiji with qi-na flavor, sometimes we do taiji with combat sport flavor more of a striking with arms (boxing) or striking with arms and legs (kick boxing) and sometimes striking with arms, legs and throws (san shou). all of it is based on who comes to class, where they are in their training, what i want them to learn. Most of the combat stuff is pretty much after warm-ups, stance work, basics- (hand skills, footwork, other), forms, and conditioning. after combat work we do qigong/meditation/mind work.

i can care less to be a dogmatic traditionalist. to me the traditionalist are a joke and just gathering dust. my training is based on 15 years of CMA/IMA and 5 years of MMA training with Pros(boxing, muay thai, wrestling, judo, jujitsu, and cross fit) people with real combat experience. Most CMA/IMA people i know dont come near to having anything remotely close to real combat experience, it really is a rare type to find someone in IMA willing to fight and show it. those that do and have like john wang, wuziyidi, cerebus, ashe, cai longyu, cung le, kenneth fish, luo deixu, mike patterson (and his students) and a rare few others like myself with balls to step in a ring have my respect.

taiji is there for me, i dont have to be there for taiji.

Solo fajing was taught by Weiqi He, disciple of Fu Zhong Wen and solo Da-
Lu was taught by Xianhao Cheng, Jang Yu Keung line. Both Fu Zhong Wen and
Jang Yu Keung were disciples of Yang Chen Fu.

88 two person set

Wudang Paired sword

Origin of this form: Jiang Yun Kun was a disciple of Yang Chen Fu when Yang’s taught in Hangzhou China. Performed by Zhu Liang Fang

i’ve played around with these Yang Tai chi applications with mma gloves:
pung- whipping back hand
ji- fajing press to bag
an- fa jing push to bag, or duck then angle off line of attack and fajing push
brush knee- palm strike to face
step- parry- punch as a three combo attack= right backfist- left jab- right cross
high pat horse- chop to throat
separate foot- foot jab
heel kick
rooster on one leg- independent knee
bend bow shoot tiger- angle step then punch
step up to seven star- dirty boxing uppercut
sweep lotus- outside kick to bag
punch opponent ears- play around with this with one arm is a coiling hook
Fair maiden plays shuttles- palm strike upward block
repulse monkey- elbow from behind
slant fly- shoulder strike