I am still very new at this but wondering when you get over the self conciousness or the feeling everyone is watching you? I also had a friend who does Tai Chi and while doing it in a park, had someone stop and tell him why he was doing it all wrong. Neale
When you learn that what other people think doesn't really matter. :hat: Four little words for that situation: "It's a different style." And it ties into the first point as well. There will always be people who want to throw in their tuppence, but it's down to you to decide whether you pick it up.
When Jesus preached to the people, should he care about people watching him? When people watching you, they will make you to feel important. Is that a good feeling? The moment that you think positive, the moment that it won't bother you for the rest of your life. To develop self-confidence infront of a lot of people is a very important skill in your life career path.
Funny thing I am in the public eye for a living as a performer, so it is not being looked at. I guess it is because I am still self concious of being a 53 year old guy who is overweight exercising in the park. Good news is that I have lost over 50 pounds in the last year and a half. Neale
You gotta train somewhere, might as well do it somewhere pretty, such as a park And so what if you're overweight? You're exercising. What are they doing?
Thanks for your replies I just have to get over myself. I will start in my back yard and work outward Who knows, doing it in a park might be a good way to find a teacher. I see lots of Tai Chi groups in the local parks.
In the past 4 years, I only met one Taiji group in the local park last year. After I played push hand with the instructor (it soon turned into a wrestling match), I have not seen anybody practice any style of MA in the local park.
I wait until they are all asleep - they are evil anyway - they don't need to know taichi & beat me up I hate this Jail
Sometimes I have to remember what forum we're on. The kind of response that would be seen as humourus on KFM would get me banned here :evil::evil::evil:
:wow: It must be nice having a park with enough lights to train at night time. Nobody learns enough taiji by watching "some person in a park" to develop any practical skills, pick a fight with said person and then beat them up using those "newly learned" skills. Or of any MA for that matter. And everybody's evil...really? Lol, I would have paid to see that Everyone I have ever seen do push hands has always been exceptionally delicate and not have any clue as to any kind of martial applications behind it. That would have been awesome It's always a good place to start . If you pay enough attention to the ebb/flow of people in and out of the park you can pick pretty well when to go and when not to. It's even easier if you're willing to go when raining. But with enough training, you start to just not care (at least in my experience). You people have all the luck. I'm the only MA guy who goes up to the park to train and even then there's only a couple of teachers. Including the dude I used to practice karate under who I fell out with. Have you thought that it might actually be just that people are looking at you while you're not performing that's the problem? Think of it this way - imagine we all have "masks" that we wear whenever we're awake. All sorts of different masks for different things - "stuck behind a desk and bored at work", "tired and depressed at home", "going out to see some friends and being a jack-the-lad", "I'm happy in the kitchen", etc. When you perform, you put on your "performer mask", put yourself in a pretty specific social role and deal with people watching you. But when you're not performing and you're training, you're not putting on a tried and tested routine, you're not stepping into that social role. You are an individual who's not putting themselves on display. You're a dude who wants to get enough time and space to train, to practice and learn. Does that make any sense? Or did I just IMAS the forum? :jawdrop: Awesome going ol' chum Honestly I don't know. I've just found the more I train, the less I care what others think. As someone else said, at that point you shrug and tell them it's a different style. If they have any real clue what they're on about they'll understand or even ask what style it is. If it's average joe that knows nothing then the criticism really doesn't matter does it? Alternatively you can smile, say "thank you, I'll bear that in mind" or "I'll check with my instructor" and go back to doing what you were doing. Failing that, do it completely naked. Your form will be the last of their worries
I have never done tai chi outside of a small room ----- no this isn't me.---- Jux an example - some day I'll go out side & move more freely - but not today [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFJxIpf2tbM"]Compact Yang 37 - YouTube[/ame]
Why did it turn into a wrestling match? Is it because he didn't understand push-hands, or because you didn't, or because neither of you did?
I couldn't bring myself to train in the park where I live. The reactions would be too off putting. Shame really, maybe I should move LOL
Places.. OH OH!!!! Go and train up on Little Mountain or at SFU or in Belcara or ... You are sooo spoilt for places to train in the Lower Mainland and (believe it or not) most people in the area wouldn't be rude (it's not in the cultural mindset)! Go for it!! LFD
You know I have seen this happen before as well. Not quite sure why but I suspect that (and forgive me if I am being presumptious) when one meets someone to perform and exercise that is part of your system, you aren't happy if the other person is better at it. I know that in a number of chinese systems there are similar types of drills. John was a high level Shuai Jiao competitior for years and I bet it wouldn't be easy to either uproot or unbalance him... I saw this with a Lung Ying practitioner in a NYC park and lots of TCC guys wanted to have a go... seemed that they were more competitive than one might has suspected. LFD
It depends I suppose, moving step free pushing looks like wrestling to most people. If people start off with the fixed step free pushing, ego often means it will soon turn into a form of wrestling with steps. When off balanced the off balanced person will often take the other person off with them. It's like when the thrown person drags the thrower to the ground with them. Anyone who thinks pushing competitively shouldn't turn into a kind of sport grappling doesn't really understand the difference between "push hands" and "free push hands". The latter are rule sets agreed between two people where you score points. Sound familiar? What's more these rule sets don't rely on anything from the former "push hands" to exist in of themselves. But people will continue to equivocate them, just watch.
