willie wrote:Hi maarten, like I told you I seen your videos and I thought that they were pretty good. That does not qualify you to judge somebody who's better than you at Tai Chi.
Ignoring the substance of the argument, that logic makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. You don't need to be BETTER than somebody at a given pursuit to judge his skill. I might not be a great cook myself, but that doesn't mean I'm unqualified to judge whether the guy who cooked my dinner did a shitty job (or a great job).
I don't know Maarten and have never seen his vids, but if he's -- as you describe him -- "pretty good" at a Chinese internal style, then he's absolutely qualified to judge somebody's Taiji, regardless of whether that person is better than Maarten or not.
willie wrote:Obviously the guy has put in a lot of Untold-of hours. Pretty much anyone would have to just about break their back jumping through hoops and every other goddamn thing to become that proficient and that knowledgeable.
Marin is far from the only one who has put in the sort of work and effort you describe, and he's far from the only one who's become "that proficient." He's worthy of respect, but not the kind of hero worship you're advocating.
willie wrote: I just feel that he deserves his props for going through all the effort to get to where he got.
He absolutely does. But that's not what you're demanding from everybody. What you're demanding is that everyone acknowledge him as having achieved the pinnacle of skill and cultivation, and when anybody questions it, you just label them as ignorant or stupid without addressing their actual critiques.
For what it's worth, I actually think Marin is decent -- based on my admittedly non-existent Taiji experience (my training has been in bagua and wing chun). I also think there are a number of teachers in the United States who are at least as good. And, having had unpleasant conversations with the guy and witnessed others experience the same, I would note that you can get comparable levels of instruction and knowledge without having to put up with his bad manners.
- Kent