cerebus wrote:XiaoXiong wrote:The key here is the word good. As in real taiji, as in soft and still.
Jess
Your experience with the CMC Tai Chi seems to be the exact opposite of my own. Never have I found any Tai Chi which was softer or more in accord with the Tai Chi principles. Just by the simple difference in body mechanics, the Yang family style will automatically be less relaxed and have more tension in both form and push hands. No other form of Tai Chi seems to have taken the Tai Chi Classics as literally and taken rooting, relaxation and correct body mechanics to such a highly refined level as Professor Cheng's, but that's just my own experience.
in my own experience with the CMC and yang forms, they both seem to use different ideas then many of the things "jess" has talked about and what I work
with now that seems to be quite similar to what he has mentioned. they dont use intention in the same way, again from my experience.
soft is relative, its more then just being soft, imo it really depends on the timing and use of intention.
I cant see the clip in question from here.
cmc in of his books answered a question posed by I believe Robert Smiths wife she asked "what was that feeling I just felt before being pushed" CMC replied something to the effect that it was his intention that she felt, and that others would feel it to had they been fansong enough.
as it was he never seemed to follow up on this idea, at lest to my knowledge he never took it to its conclusion although some of his later students seem to have.
some of what is perceived as softness is the ability to offer no reflection that the intent can return from. the body seeking this will tend to keep trying to find it.
as "jess" mentioned stillness in movement, movement in stillness. the intent itself must be able to move through ones own body, the body must be able to sense and follow this.
never both being in the same place at the same time.
