Fa Xing wrote:So I listened to the interview and definitely liked some of the things he said, and definitely did not like a lot of other things he said. That being said his comments about Sun Lu Tang, and his daughter are way off base.
My teacher, ... studied with Sun Jianyun, and got quite a bit of the goods on Baguazhang and Taijiquan, which is evident from the videos that Tim produced on Sun Style Taijiquan. Who cares if she wasn't in "class," she was Sun's daughter, and she had older brothers who were quite good, I'm sure she got plenty of useful training in.
I have heard quite a few stories about what Mrs. Sun could do. She seem to have had very good skills. For instance, an Italian student told me that she used her hip to strike with, for defending against a rear bearhug, sending him quite far away. So she seem to have had some combat Kung fu skills all right. But still, there's something to what Pittman said. First, Sun Lutang was traveling everywhere around when his daughter was young. And in later years, Sun Lutang didn't want to teach IMA as a martial art and combat, and taught for health only. But still, she lived in a martial arts family and had it around her all of the time, and often watched his father and other practicing. Of course she still learned a lot from many different people around her. The thing that concerns me most is that there's a whole lot of politics into this picture. Just like many other teachers, Mrs Sun was watched over. There was an agreement on what could be taught in public and not. Anyway, there are many things usually done differently in Sun style that goes against principles of structure and movement taught in other Tai Chi styles. Whatever you call this, watered down, health version tai chi or just style and lineages differences, doesn't matter. It's still the students own responsibility to explore Tai Chi as an art, it's principles and it's potential.