Taijiquan

Following on from my last post (Push hands is not fighting) it's time to ask the next logical question. What is? What's a "fight" supposed to look like if you do Tai Chi? It's an interesting question, and to some extent I'm thinking out loud here, so please bear with me.  Practicing applications from the form to work on your technique is fair enough, but when it comes to actually applying your art in a free situation against a resisting opponent what would it look like? Would you expect to see picture perfect Single Whip poses?

One of the early pioneers of Tai Chi Chuan in the West was the noteable Cheng-Man-Ching. Like many modern day Tai Chi mavericks he divides opinion, people in the Tai Chi world seem to either love him or hate him. He looked like the stereotypical "Tai chi master" - a small, elderly Chinese gentleman who could push around much bigger, younger and stronger opponents with ease. True to his image as the Taoist sage he extolled the vrtues of Chi over using muscular strength, the soft over the hard and yielding over force.

This week in class we were working on Peng Jin (Ward off energy), the fundamental Yang energy (Jin) of Tai Chi Chuan.

A lot as been written and debated about Peng Jin in Tai Chi circles, but I think the following quote sums it up pretty well, for me at least.

From the classics:

“The Song of Peng

I often think that Tai Chi Chuan called be called "boxing with the legs" because movement originates in the lower part of the body, rather than the upper. According to the Tai Chi classics, arm movements are generated by "turning the waist like a wheel", but also, "The jin [intrinsic strength] should be rooted in the feet, generated from the legs, controlled by the waist, and manifested through the fingers."

When it turns to "internal" striking, as opposed to "external" striking people get very silly. Give some people the opportunity to double-back flip and somersault at the Masters touch and they'll take it. Which is why it's difficult to talk about "internal striking" without images of these gullible fools springing to mind, but I'm going to try to do it anyway. It's also worth remembering that all of what follows matters not if your aim is to simply knock out a drunken attacker outside the pub on a Friday night. Just hit him. Hard.