I wanted to see what people's thoughts were on applying Tai Chi Chuan to bjj. I've been practicing Tai chi for about 2 years and struggle to find devoted partners to pressure test and spar with. I recently picked up BJJ and it's been a great workout. Also sparring with people of all sizes and spirits have been very fun.
I wanted to ask if you guys had much success testing and developing the principles of your arts in these environments. My main goal in my Tai chi and internal practice is to be able to apply it against people who are truly trying to hurt me, the more uncooperative resistance i can deal with the more confident I get in being able to do so which makes it easier for my ego to deal with confrontation . Playing with it in a BJJ type environment lets me see what works and what doesn't albeit standup portion is not frequent as I'd like.
Some things I noticed in my couple months of practice:
- 1. noticed is that push hands type play helps with getting better grips and seeing opening for arm drags /taking someone's back.
2. Removing the slack out/plucking their arm/grips clothes help get an easy attachment to their center then moving them or sweeping by taking slack out.
3. General listening/sensitivity is much better than most bjj practitioners as they're mainly thinking about techniques and setups to apply instead of listening to the person and attaching to their movements and relaxing.
4. It can be quite challenging to relax and stay calm when people are wrestling the shit out of you and grinding but you don't have to play their game to succeed as staying relaxed and focusing on your breath and structure is much more efficient and when the openning arises I'm able to sweep or reverse their movement and survive.
5. 4 points of contacts (legs and arms) It's like doing push hands with 4 limbs. not letting people pass your guard (listening and moving with your legs creating setups for sweeps when they're on top of you. Full body movements pull with arm as you push with legs from center.
6. If they cross their body with their arms you can lock them up (for example gift wrap position) and it diminishes their power generation. This happens a lot in push hands
Cross body lock up. If someone is on the ground lock down across their body. ex: left shoulder right hip greatly immobilizes them as power through the body wants to travel across naturally. (
7. General principle of distinguishing substantial from insubstantial setting up for submission opportunities or sweeps.
8. Wrist Qinna helping with breaking peoples gi grips.
9. When on top relaxing and rooting through the ground through their body this also helps with listening and following their intent.
In almost all submissions trying to engage the full body and having relaxed connection to your center contracting to close space and make really tight effortless submissions. (i'm not good at this in live rolling but in drilling I focus on getting really tight powerful submissions with minimal effort)
10. Elbow power. When someone is in closed guard Can keep heavy elbows to listen to someone's legs and open their guard while using your hands to control their grips.
Unbowing and bowing of the spine and limbs helps with escapes and power generation.
One thing to mention, initially I got submitted as much as anyone else my body felt "different" and I had decent "movement" I got submitted as much as the next white belt due to not having any knowledge in the intricacies of ground fighting and not being familiar with the positions and submissions.
A lot of what i'm discussing might be quite basic from your perspective but I'm curious to hear how i can keep learning and getting better in this environment. I'd like to be able to learn how to use spirals more effectively in this environment. I've been having a lot of fun doing this so I'd love to hear from more experienced people if i can get what I want following this path. Some other body improvements i've had is with my hips. My hips are more flexible and powerful I can close and open my qua more.. My spine has a lot more mobility and movement to it and my lower back is openning up more; it's improving my standing exercises and my form as I feel much more stable and stronger ( i am able to engage more of my spinal tissues for rooting). I'm hoping these two practices will be complimentary.
Downsides:
Mattburn, sometimes too much testosterone in the environment for my liking, might've broken a pinky toe. Wish there was a little more self defense emphasis. I still practice standup just wish I could do it at the bjj gym more.
Cheers