Hi tpyeon - thanks for the intelligent, 'insider's' response you said it better than I could. I'm not saying, "he's rubbish" - he obviously isn't from what you say. I just don't like what he's doing with his lower body much, and even if he can get away with it, I'll bet many of his students will have incidences of "Taiji Knee"....
hey tjb, tai ji knee sucks.. chen stylists are a bit mad about their training and think it's a fine line. due to the demands of the form there are more opportunities to mess up your knees. and do it pretty fast too.. hence the importance of so much basic training. i still wouldn't want to do my form that way. you should really come to a chen xiao wang seminar, a pushing hands one, i think you'd really like it. he's often in the UK and does several locations. if you let me know where you are, i'll pass on details when i hear of anything if you like. kind regards, timo
Sure, I'd like that. I'm in Rochester down in Kent. For years I was not interested in Chen at all, but since I've tried some other different stuff out in recent years I realise I probably need to experience it directly to get a better idea of what it's about, so yeah I'm up for giving it a go (circumstances permitting)
Xu is good but he does make the form look longer than it is to, for his age he still look like he is in good shape. Seems to me Chen requires more physically out of it than yang. The first vid is closer to how most ppl do the form. ps i have the living treasure vid of him xu i mean but never used them for much.
Hi Caz, I'm curious. Do you call what you do Tai Chi Chuan at all, or just Tai Chi? Also, do you think Tai Chi should be comprised solely of yin elements, such as softness, slowness, yielding etc. If so, do you think it would be better to give it another name? Tai Chi might be a bit misleading as half of the symbol is Yang. Maybe you could call it "Yin" instead. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this.
Define healthy please, caz.... not holding my breath...you never replied to my last question... :bang:
I do call Tai Chi "Tai Chi Chuan" sometimes, but not often. Of course Tai Chi should not just focus on Yin elements, this would be an imbalance and make the body weak. Push hands and some light application work are the Yang element to Tai Chi, while form and Chi Kung are the Yin side. What was your last question? Caz
This being the case, you practice each 50% of the time, yes? As much time on push hands and light applications as form and chi kung?
Balance does not mean 50% to 50%. Balance is the exisistance of both within the whole. A practice push hands and applications, but they make up 1 third of my over all training. The other two thirds go to form and chi kung. I feel it is more important to focus on the Yin aspects in order to help develop both personal "after birth" chi and cosmic "prebirth" chi. Without these being developed, Tai Chi becomes just another martial art, and we can't hope to gain the skills the old masters had. Caz
My only problem with the video is the lighting and shadows For future reference, when shooting outside, do so on an overcast day. You eliminate shadows, and the clouds naturally diffuse the light so all the levels are pretty even.
BBC news predicted an overcast day, and we were out fairly early so we were expecting fair conditions for shooting. Unfortunately, nature had different ideas. Hopefully the weather will be better/worse next time. James
You on medication Caz? Time of the month? you make me laugh... answer my question, dammit.. :yeleyes:
