RAW Tai Chi

[middleway]

Chris -

Didn't we do a similar drill with Serge...................................?

i dont remember .... must be all the smacks in the brain i sustained throughout the seminars ... lol

[Bao]

When you come in a and push why let legs get in front of you centre in the first place ?

If you get pushed, you can not really control your legs, or how you stumble. If you stumble you stumble, if you hop, then you hop. What you can do and should do if you get pushed, that is relax. If you relax your chest and legs, your weight will sink and the feeling might become like trying to move a sack of potatoes. Then you will not get pushed far away and it will be easy to regain balance. You should never practice to willingly jump or hop backwards. That is really a counter productive practice, with no value what so ever. It will also foll the one pushing and teache him a false sense of his capacity, similar to the "Aikido Uke-syndrome". If one really wants to practice pushing, the partner you should attack or stand in a most neutral manner, not trying to make it harder or easier for the pusher.

[cloudz]

When you come in a and push why let legs get in front of you centre in the first place ?

If you get pushed, you can not really control your legs, or how you stumble. If you stumble you stumble, if you hop, then you hop. What you can do and should do if you get pushed, that is relax. If you relax your chest and legs, your weight will sink and the feeling might become like trying to move a sack of potatoes. Then you will not get pushed far away and it will be easy to regain balance. You should never practice to willingly jump or hop backwards. That is really a counter productive practice, with no value what so ever. It will also foll the one pushing and teache him a false sense of his capacity, similar to the "Aikido Uke-syndrome". If one really wants to practice pushing, the partner you should attack or stand in a most neutral manner, not trying to make it harder or easier for the pusher.

Agree with everything there.
sorry my post wasn't that clearly written. i meant the guy who comes in and pushes (taking the run up) - I know he gets pushed/bounced away. But the way his body is placed to push at the point of contacts is awful. If I come and push you and as i do so my rear leg is posted back and I push up and forward through it - it's also in a good position to catch me when I'm bounced off. If i was more square on I would be more vulnerable - my dead angle etc. my pushing that way, I wouldn't describe it as "legs getting in front of my centre".

I took that to mean that as he was running in he was catching his top half on the guys upper arm/torso and his legs were getting ahead of his centre a little - putting him at a immidiate disadvantage in his structure/ posture in that moment.

I realise you can be pushed/ off balance even if your form/posture is good. But the effects will look 'normal' rather than the ministry of silly backward walks as seen in clips like the Raw one here..

I completely agree with what you've said about relaxing when you get pushed back. I was just saying' it would also be good/ better if the ones doing the coming in to push took more care in how they position etc.

cheers

[cloudz]

Chris -

Didn't we do a similar drill with Serge...................................?

i dont remember .... must be all the smacks in the brain i sustained throughout the seminars ... lol

I know dude, i was feeling for you, especially this years.. I took one kick in the leg from Serge and it was total agony.. you took/ were taking a heap of kicks (and the rest) as I remember this year.. OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!

but yea at the tai chi seminar the year before we did something a little similar.. it was more of an absorb than a bounce away i suppose - the point wasn't to consciously bounce the other off/away, and we were walking in.. I think we even paired up for it.. maybe that jogs your battered brain cells a little lol..

There are a lot of similar types of drill in tc styles working the same sort of thing in different ways..if you catch my drift.

best

[cerebus]

Awwww, I was expecting Robert Anton Wilson doing taiji....

Heh, heh, the first thing I thought when I saw the title was "Robert Anton Wilson Tai Chi", then I thought "or maybe it's nekkid (in the "raw") Tai Chi", then I thought "Hell, I hope it's not Robert Anton Wilson doing nekkid Tai Chi... "

[johnrieber]

i only made it five seconds into the clip.

but ''hopping like a sparrow" is right up there with the four corners, in terms of dealing with your taiji deficiencies without sustaining any permanent damage to your skeletal system.

(it's also one of the mysterious bridges between taiji and monkey style, IMHO.)

the tricky (and valuable) part is to interpret and use the opponent's force to hop into a more advantageous position without making yourself more vulnerable (as opposed to less), and not allow your intention to disconnect from the opponent.

this kind of gets into john wang territory, i think. you can give up your center without losing it.

though--don't get me wrong. if your taiji is good enough, you'll never have to go there. but it's a good (and martial) skill to develop on your way there. and it's fun to train in two-person.