Introducing Ye Style Taijiquan and Ye Dami

[I am...]

The vid is an example of this second philosophy, trying to teach the body to make full use of individul parts of the body,which is why some of the movements might seem too extreme and contradictory to common tai chi principles.

I understand what you are saying, but I don't see that really happening in that video.

Ok... You can't see that he doesn't only raise up his shoulders, but lift the shoulders using the back and scapula. Fine, I guess the mechanics are just too different.... Big movements, too evident for tai chi in a sense. But everything is done from the spine, even shoulders and elbows. If he just lifted his elbows and shoulders, it would be stupid and unecessary, but it's not what he does.

Maybe.

I love the shoulder-ratcheting trick. I can do that too, as can anyone who can curve the length of their spine, rotate their waist and close their chest. The shoulder rotation between each "lengthening" is theatrics aimed at distracting the viewer's attention from what is really happening.

Sorry, but you are wrong. It's a very loose scapula. One of my teachers could do the same, no need to use any other body part, everything else is still, only scapula is moving. He can also fold back his shoulders so he seemingly lose about 50% of his shoulder width and make the shoulder blade bone stand out straight from the back. It's a part of isolation practice, like dantian practice in Chen style or maybe similar to what yogis do. This kind of practice will give your body a greater range of movement, valuable for throws, striking, applications, what ever.

Speaking from personal experience with this type of movement, it is from the looks of it, both a moveable scapula and what charles posted above. The theatrics are fun to watch but literally have nothing to do with what he is doing other than to mystify and misdirect things for the onlookers. He could have just shown him how far his reach was from the other guy, then reached out and touched him.

[zhenwu]

and the wavy hand movements with high shoulders..

Everyone knows about not raising the shoulders and keeping the elbows hanging down. So you should ask yourself why he breaks these very basic, most common rules. Is there a reason behind it or is he just a moron? The body method is different. This is not your everyday grandmother's tai chi.

ok .. =)

[Bao]

Speaking from personal experience with this type of movement, it is from the looks of it, both a moveable scapula and what charles posted above. The theatrics are fun to watch but literally have nothing to do with what he is doing other than to mystify and misdirect things for the onlookers. He could have just shown him how far his reach was from the other guy, then reached out and touched him.

The circling with the shoulders is from quite a common loosening exercise. It helps to engage and soften up muscles/connective tissue in the back. It has absolutely nothing to do with theatrics or deception.

[I am...]

Speaking from personal experience with this type of movement, it is from the looks of it, both a moveable scapula and what charles posted above. The theatrics are fun to watch but literally have nothing to do with what he is doing other than to mystify and misdirect things for the onlookers. He could have just shown him how far his reach was from the other guy, then reached out and touched him.

The circling with the shoulders is from quite a common loosening exercise. It helps to engage and soften up muscles/connective tissue in the back. It has absolutely nothing to do with theatrics or deception.

Hey that is your opinion and it's fine if they differ. Once one has the skill in our system, they can do that without any exercises needed prior, so if the way you learned requires a "warm up" or exercise to move the scapula, close the chest and move the spine, so be it.

Martial arts are hard enough to train deeply and to a great degree of skill as it stands. It takes not only a huge commitment of thought, time and energy, but also dedication over long periods of time. Why accept or allow anything into our culture that makes that process less apparent or misdirects where one would focus their practice or attention? I personally am not a fan.

[Bao]

Hey that is your opinion and it's fine if they differ. Once one has the skill in our system, they can do that without any exercises needed prior, so if the way you learned requires a "warm up" or exercise to move the scapula, close the chest and move the spine, so be it.

Martial arts are hard enough to train deeply and to a great degree of skill as it stands. It takes not only a huge commitment of thought, time and energy, but also dedication over long periods of time. Why accept or allow anything into our culture that makes that process less apparent or misdirects where one would focus their practice or attention? I personally am not a fan.

I didn't say that it's necessary, but I say that it's a natural thing to do if you have practiced this kind of exercise.

"Why accept or allow anything into our culture that makes that process less apparent or misdirects where one would focus their practice or attention?"

That's a good rhetorical. What I don't like is too much talk about qi and mystification of stuff. I want people do speak things in simple terms and in ways that things makes sense. I also want people to show and share what they do without too much fuzz. This is also one of the reasons why I liked the Ye clip. It makes some things very evident, a certain type of body mechanics that teachers rather tend to hide than show.

[wuwei sifu]

I read some of the comments above about breaking certain well know taijiquan body principles.

I immediately thought about Master Wang zhuang hong . he supposedly was a well respected sifu . Featured in tai chi magazine was my 1st. introduction to him. SINCE THEN I HAVE FOUND THERE YOUTUBE INFO, AND FORUM connected to it also. Learned various helpful, methods/points. I REALLY NEED TO DELVE INTO IT MORE THOUGH AND WILL DO SO. caps ninja dogging me sorry

at any rate i have told my students and others certain masters can do as they please in a way that seem to defy basic principles that we use as foundations for our taijiquan. Yet, they do so because they can and the obvious trhings we shouldn't do they can do with no ill effect at all.

caps lock ok, so i will add that all of the material i paid attention to from them was quite practcial. No hocus pocus or mysterious bs included in their teaching method . much of it immediately useful if you already have a decent background, but also useful for beginners too.

[wayne hansen]

I might be wrong but from what I see of his students on YouTube it dosent seem to have passed on
However he is not to be compared to the guy in this clip

[windwalker]

I might be wrong but from what I see of his students on YouTube it dosent seem to have passed on
However he is not to be compared to the guy in this clip

know a couple direct students of his who teach out this way.
interesting style. This is one, teacher Gary Lam, very nice and open guy.

[wayne hansen]

The above clip is the form but the intent seems to lack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJwuzLKI ... DC6623ED41

This is the main guy I have seen

[windwalker]

The above clip is the form but the intent seems to lack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJwuzLKI ... DC6623ED41

This is the main guy I have seen

Bryon, another good and close friend of mine.
his videos are primarily for his students,.

Gary is or was one of his teachers.
lacking intent, sounds kind of funny considering he is very martially
oriented.

[I am...]

The above clip is the form but the intent seems to lack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJwuzLKI ... DC6623ED41

This is the main guy I have seen

Bryon, another good and close friend of mine.
his videos are primarily for his students,.

Gary is or was one of his teachers.
lacking intent, sounds kind of funny considering he is very martially
oriented.

I liked the video by Byron, lots of good stuff in there.

[D_Glenn]

The above clip is the form but the intent seems to lack



This is the main guy I have seen

Bryon, another good and close friend of mine.
his videos are primarily for his students,.

Gary is or was one of his teachers.
lacking intent, sounds kind of funny considering he is very martially
oriented.

Bryon lays out some good basic explanations for push hands. That's a must watch video for everyone.

***
I believe this is a video of another Ye TJQ guy - Jiang Lan - http://www.56.com/u41/v_MTM3NTUzMTA.html

http://taijimax.com/my-taijiquan-teacher-jiang-lan/

.

[Bao]

Bryon lays out some good basic explanations for push hands. That's a must watch video for everyone.

***
I believe this is a video of another Ye TJQ guy - Jiang Lan - http://www.56.com/u41/v_MTM3NTUzMTA.html

http://taijimax.com/my-taijiquan-teacher-jiang-lan/

Byron has many interesting vids out there. He is very generous, shares his thoughts openly and is very passionate about his art. IMHO, it tends to get too intellectual at times. But he is certainly one of the most interesting teachers on the tube, very different from those who only put on a show. I like the fact that he is really teaching something.

Thanks for the links, appreciated.

[wayne hansen]

By lacking intent I meant nothing about martial ability
I have never seen that shown so I can't judge
I was just talking about form
With wang you can see it is driven from inside
The others just appear to mimick his movement

[windwalker]

Know both Bryon and Gary, respect their art and their practice although it's not quite my cup of tea.

. As far as intent different people play the form differently at different times.

They have a nice group and are very accessible should anyone want to come to visit, it's an interesting style