robert wrote:I agree with you, but I think within the context of the video, as training, Ian makes a good point. The student doesn't neutralize, he collapses and Ian points out that you want to maintain peng jin, not collapse. In training I don't think a person just does full blown taiji. I think there is a step wise progression to learning. There is something of a chicken and egg problem. Do you teach neijin first or neutraizing first or both together? Teaching both together seems confusing at best. Ian seems to to be teaching jin first which I agree with, but if you're working on jin and haven't learned how to neutralize then you will be bounced out and I think that is better than collapsing. Once you learn how to maintain jin then you can learn how to neutralize while maintaining peng jin.
Hard to give a straight answer. There is a learning problem, I can agree with that and understand that argument. At the same time, I think that there's a wrong mindset in tai chi schools. The problem for tai chi practitioners is not about maintaining structure, the problem is how to relax and not letting the structure get in the way... while at the same time not collapsing. I don't believe that the answer is about clinging to pengjin, keeping angles etc. That's all good for learning, but it's just a very basic step and what is shown in the vid is not exactly how you use it. Too much concern for structure and evident pengjin will prevent you from change or make your changes slow. If you are going to be able to react quick enough you need to be formless, shapeless. I think much of the mistake people do comes from what Ma Yueliang describes:
"People misunderstand Peng. There is another word with the same sound and only one stroke different that means something like structure or framework and people often think this is what is meant by Peng.
If you base your Taiji on this incorrect meaning of Peng then the whole of your Taiji will be incorrect. Peng Jin is over the whole body and it is used to measure the strength and direction of the partners force. But
it is incorrect to offer any resistance. It should be so light that the weight of a feather will make it move."
If you offer any resistance, if you offer any solid surface or let your opponent feel your peng, then you are doing it wrong. IMO, starting to teach a solid structure and teach students to feel strength of structure is the wrong way to go. It's wrong from the beginning and you will need to re-learn your whole mind-set to get it right. That can be harder than to teach the correct way from the beginning.
Edit: You can see in the vid, about from 16.00 onwards when they play more free like PH that Ian is often using his structure straight against the other person's pushes, like he is "testing structure", offering his partner to feel the structure like a solid surface. So now when you have Ma's quote above you can make your own conclusions about Ian's tai chi...