Eli Montaigue story so far

[cloudz]

Hi George, do you mean that Jim Uglow and Rob P learnt the form from Erle in London before Erle returned to Australia?

Not sure exactly. I saw Rob performing it in one of his clips - probably still up I think. It surprised me, when I asked him about I recall that he mentioned Jim Uglow. Rob could say more, but I think he learnt it from Mr. Uglow who learnt it from Earl I guess. Timelines I have no idea really - it could have been when he came back to these shores at some point?

Yes, I agree, it's not likely.

Indeed then and now on reflection they had a really good level of skill and knowledge and you simply couldn't get to that by learning off videos alone..

That's interesting.

I have seen video of Paul Brecker performing the Old Yang form, but are you referring to him performing the Old Yang form or the "masters form"?

Thanks

No, it was my teacher who had and performed a "higher level" form ("masters form"). I know even less about this form - next to nothing really. But from what I could gather looked part of the same system and had elements of the other ("old yang") eg. the GST sequence which made me think they were linked. I never saw anything like this anywhere else. At the time I thought I saw bagua type movements or at least one part that made me think "bagua!" at the time.

Could easily be a hybrid of some sort, but where it came from, no idea. The way he performed it was blistering, to be frank. Again the level of it, made me think there's no way they've made this up they had to have learnt it off someone.. He had a habit of making us practice our form as fast as we could from time to time and make that part of our practice. I was lucky I even got to see it that once. It still ranks up there as one of the best form performances I have ever seen and I have watched a few.

I have also seen a clip of P. Brecker doing the WTBA old yang on you tube, probably the same one - I didn't find it good, disappointing actually. I'm not a fan of what they do with it, if you know what I mean.. I went to one of his seminars on short stick years ago now, he seemed good at stick form at the time, so that performance of old yang wasn't what I was expecting. I just found it pretty strange.. What did you think ?

[Daniel-san]

The way he performed it was blistering, to be frank. Again the level of it, made me think there's no way they've made this up they had to have learnt it off someone.. He had a habit of making us practice our form as fast as we could from time to time and make that part of our practice. I was lucky I even got to see it that once. It still ranks up there as one of the best form performances I have ever seen and I have watched a few.

It's a pity there's no video of your teacher showing the form. Sounds great. Would love to be able to see it.

I have also seen a clip of P. Brecker doing the WTBA old yang on you tube, probably the same one - I didn't find it good, disappointing actually. I'm not a fan of what they do with it, if you know what I mean.. I went to one of his seminars on short stick years ago now, he seemed good at stick form at the time, so that performance of old yang wasn't what I was expecting. I just found it pretty strange.. What did you think ?

I agree with you. Too much extraneous body movement going on.

I know that in some tai chi methods that is a characteristic of the style. But I think Paul overdoes it a bit.

By comparison there is none of this type of movement in the Chen Pan-ling style from what I have seen of it.

Paul Brecher Old Yang Style:

[wayne hansen]

Just silly

[hodmeist]

Agree with Wayne.

[Bao]

Paul Brecher Old Yang Style:

Just silly

Silly...? Most things in the world are either silly or stupid ...

IMO it looks like bad Chen tai chi. It's definitely not Yang Tai Chi method. Paul Brecher use a broken shen fa with delayed jin. In Yang tai chi there is never any delay between foot and hand. The communication between foot, hand and the rest of the body must be instant and simultaneous. In this regard, Erle perform his stuff much better than Brecher.

Brecher has no understanding about tai chi what so ever, this clip about tai chi striking says it all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6XTGoJTrAc Tense, using force, exertion of breath etc...

[Bob]

In contrast to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68QahJ6UbUk

Tai Chi Striking - Lesson 1 - alignment, short power, and the mid-range strategy

Uploaded on May 8, 2010
One of the main strengths of Tai Chi is the way it trains the mid-range. The ability to stick, trap, strike and neutralize in mid-range can give a great advantage against opponents who only train grappling, or long range striking.
While mid-range is most dangerous, it is also the most profitable range to master. (If you can also function in long and short range.)

Respect the limits of your own body and that of your training partner.
Remember, if you break your training partner, you don't get another one.

Ian Sinclair




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIMu-a3_dtg

Shousanli, or the "Arm 3 killometre" can also mean "Arm 3 Regulators" or "Arm 3 Interiors".
It has many uses, and can be an excellent point to use in certain grappling situations.
Ian Sinclair demonstrates with assistance from Adrian Bhatti.

[marvin8]

A few updated videos of Eli.

Published on Feb 12, 2017
Push Hands complete basics.
http://www.taijiworld.com/MTG411-Push...
This is the much awaited replacement to MTG 5.
Covering 6 hours of instruction over 4 volumes, Eli breaks down both single and double push hands more than ever before to give the student the best possible chance of learning:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inB3xNWAgy8&t=3s

Published on Feb 7, 2017
The much awaited replacement of MTG 217 and MTG 218.
The old videos put out by Erle about 17 years ago were very much lacking in detail, they left a lot of questions unanswered, as they covered all 12 methods in just two hours. The new set by Eli covers 6 hours of teaching and demonstrating, with the help of Leigh Evans, Eli's training partner.

To purchase go to http://www.taijiworld.com/MTG409-The-...

You are taught every minute detail of these methods, exactly where the weight should be, where the centre should be turning, and also Eli goes into detail on how to gain the power in all the strikes using mitts and a kick bag.

There is a lot of info in these videos not shown on the old ones, so even if you have the old ones and you have been doing these methods for a while, these new videos will open things up to a whole new level!

Also, when you buy these new videos, you get the old ones for free!
Just so you can see things from yet another angle, also you get to see Eli learning them back when he was only 14:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7IW4G_h9Xc

Published on Jul 15, 2016
For the final part of this video please see this link
http://www.taijiworld.com/Demos-Inter...:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4raEOfkako

[northern_mantis]

I often wonder where people such as this get their insurance to teach. Whilst this system has been around for a while, as far as I'm aware none of it was ever verifiable as coming from any kind of recognised organisation or individual (albeit in a self regulating and unstructured industry). That being said, what Erle did by learning a bit of tai chi and running with it (as was well observed by another poster earlier in this thread) is remarkable, pretty cool stuff.

[middleway]

I often wonder where people such as this get their insurance to teach.

In the UK people can literally buy a blackbelt on ebay, download a 'martial arts certificate' template, print onto it that they are a 5th dan in (make up a name). and get insurance.

For much of the martial arts world in the UK there are absolutely no checks whatsoever on what quals someone has to teach adults. But when you think about it, how many people at an insurance company would know who Zhang Zao Dong, or Sokaku Takeda were ... let alone some random lineage in china with only one heir. So i guess its unavoidable.

This is one of the reasons i am going the PT, Nutritionist and Anatomy qualifications route. At least people will know i have some checked and quantifiable knowledge behind me as a coach.

[GrahamB]

From my experience insurance is possible... until you mention swords, then you've got no chance, even if you're just dancing around with one.

[Pandrews1982]

I've got £5million public liability insurance with training weapons (not sharps) included. Martial Guard cost me about £100 for 1 year. Insurance for wepaon work has been around for ages.