MASTERING TAI CHI CHUAN WITHOUT A MASTER

There are 200 millions people practicing Tai Chi in the world but just a fraction of them do Tai Chi as a martial art. Out of this small fraction even lesser are proficient to use Tai Chi effectively to defend themselves. Why is this so? Personally I can attribute this problem to at least 3 reasons. Firstly, lack of serious training hence no self confident in using Tai Chi. Secondly, lack of understanding how the soft Tai Chi can be used effectively in fighting and thirdly, lack of knowledge on Tai Chi fighting strategy and techniques.

Though the 3 reasons I provided are inter-related, the first, which is lack of training can easily be overcome by putting in more efforts. The second attribute of lack of understanding is a bit trickier. Traditional Tai Chi training emphasize on acquiring power (Jin). To achieve this, one needs to understand proper body alignment and acute awareness of energy flows within and without the body. Proper instruction from a qualified master will be most helpful. Last problem requires understanding of TC principles such as Yin Yang, sensitivity, centreline etc..again a good instructor will be most helpful . Can one do it without a master? Yes...though a bit harder but yes.

In the internet era, information which was secret then is no more now and is widely available. You just need to ponder on this information, test it and experiment with it. With some hard works, a lot of creativity and never hesitate to ask around, you will still able to do it without a master.

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COMBAT TAI CHI CHUAN

The terms "combat taichi" shouldn't even has arose if tai chi chuan was kept to its original form and purpose. Tai chi chuan was originally created as a martial art first and health exercise second. But nowadays when we mention tai chi chuan first thing that pops-up in everybody's mind is health tai chi chuan. In fact Tai Chi Chuan was first made popular by Yang Lu Chan for its fighting effectiveness and not because of its health benefits. However, Tai Chi Chuan with its slow movements and gentle gestures may be difficult to believe as a combat or fighting art for many people. But the reality is, it was created originally created a self defence system and a damn good one too.

The combative aspect of tai chi chuan has been vastly disregarded in modern society. Personally I think if one wants to reap the full benefits of tai chi chuan, it is better to approach it as martial art first and health second. Because if one approach it as martial art one has to do a few things :

1) train harder
2) understand tai chi deeper
3) focus more on the development of chi, jin and shen

By these few things, health benefits will also increase by that much extra efforts one put in. Tai chi chuan is so much more beautiful when approach from the martial art's perspective. Suddenly you will find the principles become alive and the path is a life long journey..what a great companionship. Personally, I have seen a 60+ year old guy effectively defended himself from a robber using Tai Chi. Pink of health and able to deefend oneself..isn't that wonderful?

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FAST TAI CHI

One common question I always get especially from people who are not familiar with tai chi chuan is how can tai chi be effective in combat when it moves so slowly. I am not surprised because once I asked the same question too. This perception comes about because we often see people performing tai chi chuan very slowly. We hardly see people who do tai chi chuan in fast pace. In fact in olden days students begin tai chi chuan with slow and expended movements to build kung fu and once they have mastered it, they will gradually increase the speed and contract the form.

In traditional yang style tai chi chuan, students start with a 20 minutes form and work their way up to 45-60 minutes. To do this, they have to consciously slow down the movement considerably. A very slow form builds physical strength, calm the mind and excites the chi. Once they are very strong with the slow form, they will speed it up from 45 min to least than 10 min. This is to tell in olden days, they did practice tai chi fast form for martial art purposes.

Having shared the above, it doesn’t mean a tai chi expert who only did slow form cannot move fast. Because tai chi chuan advocates relaxation and letting go of all stiffness and tensions, a good tai chi player can react in blinding speed. Tai chi experts can punch as fast as wing chun experts if not faster. However, this doesn’t mean tai chi people can have the false sense of confident that they can punch very fast and without much practice. Though tai chi chuan requirement of been soft and loose provided the device for great speed, we still need to practice punching, striking, moving fast to truly master it.

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