a couple or three taiji drills..

[cloudz]

Ah well, for my sins I put up a few clips last night. Hopefully they''ll show something useful and constructive.

The first drill shows an 'evade, deflect and parry drill' as I've called it with a restricted step - the back foot is fixed in place. The drill makes use of two of what i think are fundemental defensive movements in t'ai chi chuan and are found throughout a lot of forms - deflect and parry. No - they're not just in deflect parry and punch!

technically a parry moves inwards towards your body and deflect moves outward/ away
there are lot's of variations and no fixed technique. the restricted step is to promote and focus on upper body movement and defending and evasion in close range. Due to the restriction a few of my attempts at deflect / parry turned into jams, In one instance my partner punches my elbow for example. It's all good - enjoy.



The second clip shows some basic fixed step push hands (free pushing). the goal of the drill is to off balance your partner while remaining balanced or rooted yourself. Amongst the things being trained in this drill are listening skill/ sensitivity, neutralizing as well as balance.



the third clip breifly shows how you can combine these two idea/ drills being shown into one drill and hopefull can give a better idea of how the attributes trained in push hands may possibly be used for a self defence situation and in conjunction with other techniques, in this case upper body movement, deflecting and parrying.




the direct links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fTnVPwUPn4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myz4Rn3Uvps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p1a6nBznaQ

[Dmitri]

Thanks for posting George.

I noticed that both people aren't moving their feet in all three clips -- is that aspect (stepping/footwork) trained separately, in some other drills?

[bruce]

it is cool that your partner in the first clip is throwing punches at i good distance.

i would want to build the habit of attacking after the parry. i know the scope of the drill you are showing is limited. but maybe as another drill with each parry comes a attack.

keep on sharing your practice videos.

[cloudz]

Thanks for posting George.

I noticed complete absence of moving your feet in all three clips -- is that aspect trained separately, in some other drills?

yes certainly, there are other drills both solo and two person that train various footwork and stepping. Two person examples the tcc I train would be seven star and nine palace moving step push hands

The pushing drill is fixed step - so no stepping at all on that one. The other two allow you to step or move your front leg only, in the first clip you can see just the one clear side step though.. This is just one way to do the drills which I think promotes more training of your upper body movements and makes it a little harder if you like (forces you into it really, rather than using distancing for example)), letting the partner come in close to you. Naturally these drills can evolve to incorperate more free stepping methods as well as other responses.

these are showing a limited format - isolating and focusing on certain techniques and skills, and I see them as the baby steps or precursors to other drills, leading up to full sparring.

Sure Bruce i have used a drill that involves some counter strikes with the defensive movements, if I get the chance to post it I will.

Appreciate the feedback.

[mrtoes]

Thanks for sharing George, look like good drills! Just wondering how do you find it with the combination drill when the punches are coming in fast and being quickly retracted - Does it work the same way except you have to be quicker, or do you need to add in stepping in order to get close for the clinch?

Cheers,

Matthew.

[cloudz]

Good question Matt!

You can move your front leg so that can be used to vary up your distance a bit. You can attempt to smother your opponents arms and perhaps follow them back. For example if you partner advances you can retract a half step, defend then move back toward him taking a forward half step for example and tie him up. I'm not sure it's a matter of being quicker so much as making contact with the arms and attempting to bring them under control, like in the free pushing clip.

Hope that makes some sense.

[mrtoes]

It does, thanks! So you're meeting the strikes and given an opportunity following up and stepping in to shut him down.

Look forward to seeing more when you get around to it!

Matthew.

[cloudz]

Also with that combined drill you can free yourself up from the rear foot restrictions if you like - nothings written in stone. It was a while a go and I'm not even sure if I stuck to that restricted step that much when doing that. It kind of just evolved from the first drill. As i remember i did have to lean in a bit too much sometimes for my liking to get a tie up sometimes, so allowing some stepping there isa good idea. I may well have abandoned the restricted rear foot myself. Sorry - poor memory!

A lot can depend on what your training partner is feeding you, their footwork, distancing etc. Variety is the spice of life, as they say. So don'r worry about keeping the rear foot in place for that - no big deal.

Maybe we'll get the chance to play around with these between us sometime soon. I'll shoot you a pm a bit later, I had an idea i was going to put to you anyway about hooking up for some training locally at that acorn place..

[mrtoes]

Sounds good mate let me know!

Matthew.

[middleway]

Nice work George! good training!

Cheers
Chris

[cloudz]

Cheers Chris

I noticed that both people aren't moving their feet in all three clips

Sorry Dmitri i missed the bit where you mentioned both people, the partner feeding the strikes can move around for sure in the first drill(deflect&parry) and the combined drill, it just so happened that he didn't move around much for me there - damn him

[neijia_boxer]

nice progression in the clips. however i think you should edit the clips- instead of three separate clips- add concept #1- blocking/parry/defense, then concept #2- tui shou and then add Final result: #1 + #2 = parry and counter pushing into one youtube clip. I used pinnacle studio to cut and edit the clips into a progressive concept. there are a few other softwares out there. Ulead is another one.

[ashe]

nice! i've always enjoyed your stuff mang. thanx for sharing.

[Dmitri]

the partner feeding the strikes can move around for sure in the first drill(deflect&parry) and the combined drill

Hmm... interesting. How does the footwork work out in that case? I mean, if one person is allowed to step but the other isn't, the attacker could just walk around and tattoo his name on the back of the guy's neck...

[cloudz]

Not really - seeing as the defender can move their front foot (step), they can turn/ swivel the rear if need be. Whilst your rear foot in this drill stays in position (no stepping) it can still swivel/turn around on the spot. You can imagine if you want that you're holding the centre of the circle type thing if the attacker wants to circle round.

the parameters are flexible, so you could just set it up to work in a ring (why are they called rings when they're square!?) were you take a corner, or the centre of a circle if you wish - it's all good as they say. We were just happening to use a square sort of set up as you can see from the gloves on the floor there, with the defender taking the corner. We were using that square set up continuing from previous drills we were doing I think.

Neijia, thanks for the tips. I swore I replied to you but it seems to have disapeared! Good Idea, I'll see if I can get it together.

Cheers Ashe