the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

Neil Rosiak
Published on Feb 18, 2018

Rob is prepping for a San Shou/San Da competition so we decided to do a little drilling practice.
We are practicing some of the simpler practical tai chi chuan applications, the ones that work well with gloves.

A lot of spontaneity within the practice of set drills is an absolute must. Over coaching is to be avoided as it stifles experiential learning- diminishing the practitioners natural creativity.
The objective is to achieve a high level of familiarity with each drill in a lively environment whilst internalising the fundamental Tai Chi Chuan fighting principles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfu_mR2KGLE

Please excuse my ignorance, but what about this distinguishes it as "Tai Chi Chuan" rather than any other type of boxing?

Gloves might have its use, like practicing punches on a movement target or practicing your sense of distance and overall timing. But applications practice is not one of them. Tai Chi combat methods were developed around the concept of “ting”. As soon as you put on gloves, you can’t use the main concept for Tai Chi combat strategies.

1) Relying on Ting:

Enter ——> touch ——-> take control ——> finish by using any of the seven stars

2) Relying on gloves and a limiting rules set:

Chase body ——> trade punches ——> chase body ——> trade punches ——> etc

If you believe you can practice 1 and 2 together at the same time... I’ll just wish you good luck and admit that you must be much more gifted than me if you make it work.