Interview with Adam Mizner

[origami_itto]

Are u sending video of your progress to Adam for correction or is it all one way and Facebook chat

You can set up private Skype sessions

[Trip]

Greetings Itto,

Glad you’re getting a lot from an online Taiji course.
The online Taiji teaching thing is new for me.

I hope you don't mind but...I’m super curious and have many questions.
Like, could give more details about this quote?

Every day is leg day now and I can definitely tell that it's improving my knee condition.

What condition was your knee in before taking the online Taiji course?

Are you saying the old way you did Taiji caused your knee condition? Or, are you just saying that the adjustment you followed from his online course improved your knee?

Lastly, how were you moving, when doing Taiji, before your knee improved?
What are you doing now that you feel improved your knee?


☮☮☮

[origami_itto]

So I trained for about seven years and then I blew my knee out in a BJJ exhibition match at a local bar. A knee bar/pry/sweep from the outside directly against the joint.

Couldn't walk for a month, literally, all I could manage was a bow stance and some shifting back and forth with something to hold on to. No medical attention beyond an x ray and a hand full of pain pills.

So I quit training for a while and just started back about four months or so ago.

I started with the warm up routine from my previous teacher just to address some chronic pain that was creeping in and that progressed to forms, weapons, and push hands, yeehaw. The thing that made me start was elbow pain and a habit of hyper extending the knees for no reason.

Right before I started his course I re injured the knee at push hands, not as bad, just five minutes on the ground and some wobbly soreness.

Wobbly is the best word to describe my knee. It feels like a South Park Canadian's head, where the top is just sitting on the bottom.

So the course.

The standing work has helped. It's a little different than what I had been doing and the first few sessions made that abundantly clear. There was some sharp pain at first, and after all this time I realized I was hanging my weight between my legs. So now I spend part of my time in each stance reviewing the hip knee foot alignment. It feels like I am reconditioning the way my knee sits in the joint.

The difference between the two is mainly the width of the stance and the order of the postures. Something about the combination of those along with the specifics (each standing posture gets a 15 minute video), along with corrections I'm getting from my IRL Sifu who knows and respects (and is respected by) Adam, is bringing me to new places in the practice.

So now I don't get the pain, still a little unsteady after long periods of moving around, using a knee brace during forms and partner practice. The pain I am getting now is all good pain, and the only "risk" is that sometimes after 20-30 minutes of standing I need to rest because my legs are shaking.

[windwalker]

Right before I started his course I re injured the knee at push hands, not as bad, just five minutes on the ground and some wobbly soreness.

It might be a good idea to not doing any pushhands.

Injuries through the practice of push hands is usually stems from those not understanding
“emptiness” working with others who also do not understand it.

Many teachers in working with others from different practices who come to them to learn,
advise against doing any type of pushing until the body/mind work has had time to change, and adapt.
Its quite hard to break old habits or deal with others of greater skill with undeveloped skill sets,
more often then not the case for most.

[origami_itto]

The last time it popped out like that, I was changing a lightbulb.

Trick knees are tricky.

[wayne hansen]

A series of knee injuries ended my rugby career
In 1973 I started tai chi and have never had knee problems since that day

[Trip]

...I blew my knee out in a BJJ...
Couldn't walk for a month... No medical attention beyond an x ray and a hand full of pain pills.

Blew out your knee & No medical attention? Ouch—That sounds painful!

So the course.

The standing work has helped. It's a little different than what I had been doing and the first few sessions made that abundantly clear. There was some sharp pain at first, and after all this time I realized I was hanging my weight between my legs. So now I spend part of my time in each stance reviewing the hip knee foot alignment. It feels like I am reconditioning the way my knee sits in the joint.

I am unclear what you mean when you say, “hanging my weight between your legs.”
Your old bow stance, was it similar to a traditional Yang style 60/40 or 70/30 stance? or what?

Hey, I'm not sure this will help me understand, but could you post a still picture of just your waist & legs doing the old way you use to do a bow stance?
And, a picture of the new bow stance you now do that you feel is better?

The difference between the two is mainly the width of the stance and the order of the postures. Something about the combination of those along with the specifics (each standing posture gets a 15 minute video), along with corrections I'm getting from my IRL Sifu ...

Corrections:
I'm old school so...I'm really curious how this works.

Taiji Corrections seem like a tricky thing to work out with an online.
But, If I understand you, the corrections you receive are from someone other than Adam and his online course. And, some are self-corrections from just doing the exercises. Right?

So, How much time do you get to do the form—via Facebook, Skype, whatever— where Adam can evaluate your Taiji progress with his own eyes and then offer his corrections?

Or, do you ask him only what you are concerned about; and then he corrects what you asked about?

[Rhen]

Is there a discount for discovertaiji.com if I were to go on all the martial art forums and tell everyone how awesome Adam is? This seems to be the trend every year. Some new person out to totally hype up this guy.

[origami_itto]

...I blew my knee out in a BJJ...
Couldn't walk for a month... No medical attention beyond an x ray and a hand full of pain pills.

Blew out your knee & No medical attention? Ouch—That sounds painful!

It's on a par with a testicular torsion and kidney stones. After a couple hours all you can do is cry.

It sucks to be poor, I advise you avoid it wherever possible.

I am unclear what you mean when you say, “hanging my weight between your legs.”
Your old bow stance, was it similar to a traditional Yang style 60/40 or 70/30 stance? or what?

I'm talking about in Wuji.

Basically, my weight was coming straight down between my legs which had the effect of pulling my knees in slightly and causing force to work against the side of the joint. The outside of my right foot had started to lift more and more.
Again though, this was mainly due to the injury and the seven year lapse and is what I renewed my training to correct.

Working on how to align and stand and then standing has helped me get the weight/force flowing through the bone to the floor instead of into empty space.
basically my weight is applied at the same place that I'm touching the floor

The difference between the two is mainly the width of the stance and the order of the postures. Something about the combination of those along with the specifics (each standing posture gets a 15 minute video), along with corrections I'm getting from my IRL Sifu ...

Corrections:
I'm old school so...I'm really curious how this works.

Taiji Corrections seem like a tricky thing to work out with an online.
But, If I understand you, the corrections you receive are from someone other than Adam and his online course. And, some are self-corrections from just doing the exercises. Right?

So, How much time do you get to do the form—via Facebook, Skype, whatever— where Adam can evaluate your Taiji progress with his own eyes and then offer his corrections?

Or, do you ask him only what you are concerned about; and then he corrects what you asked about?

Where my understanding of what Adam is presenting varies with what my Sifu is teaching I go with my Sifu's opinion and method. This is not the same teacher that I initially learned from. I take his corrections. As previously mentioned in the thread, Adam answers questions on the Facebook group and private Skype sessions are available for an additional charge . For $50 a month you get four in depth videos.

I'm not compensated for talking about this and I'm sure he would prefer I say as little as possible. It's good material and people had questions.

[GrahamB]

OI - it sounds like you need surgery to repair the tendons inside the knee. You should get this fixed by a doctor. No amount of Taichi or Mizner magic is going to fix this.

[wayne hansen]

I like what this guy has to say on a similar subject
Take note of his logic on weight transference
https://youtu.be/3OGrN4joqhQ
My ideas on the 5 sung ging are more in line with his understanding
Due to the fact that I have older sets from both yang and Wu that the 5 grew out of and the tien gan my way of practicing the 5 has a different logic
Things Adam is telling people to strive for is what I tell them to avoid
What Adam is teaching here would be of benefit to most here,if not they would see it
I am just pointing out there are other views and another way
Remember earl Montague had a large global following
Why? Because most people did not see any errors in what he taught

[origami_itto]

OI - it sounds like you need surgery to repair the tendons inside the knee. You should get this fixed by a doctor. No amount of Taichi or Mizner magic is going to fix this.

Oh yeah, that's going on next year's deductible though

[DuncanBP]

I like what this guy has to say on a similar subject. Take note of his logic on weight transference
https://youtu.be/3OGrN4joqhQ

There's some interesting things discussed by Damo Mitchell, here and in his other clips. I believe that Adam and Damo are good friends, by the by.