middleway wrote:Actually it's more of a personal trait. Some people grabs on and release very easily. Some others tend to lock up themselves easy and can have it difficult to release or unlock, especially if they are unbalanced (not only physically, but also mentally). It might be hard to put yourself into another person's shoes because insome respects we might sometimes be more different than we think. But I know this from personal experience because I have had this problem myself, that I in different situations have locked up my body, more or less involuntary, and have not been able to "unlock". So some of what the teacher in these clips does might work differently depending on what person he demonstrate his things on. You might say that he has an ideal opponent to demonstrate certain things on or maybe that he is very good to adapt his things to this person.
IMO if this trait is seen then other training should stop and the teacher should do everything they can to get the student out of this problem. This is a huge weakness.
I agree, it's a weakness. Sometimes though, it's not easy to re-learn, because you are what you are and sometimes your body just behaves like it behaves. Why I started to love my tai chi practice and why I continued was because of that my body was very tense. I had a very strong muscle tone/residual muscle tension. When I started to practice, I saw the benefits right away, but it still took many years to really teach my body how to behave differently.
I have had a few people i have taught who would 'overreact' / have a strange reaction to something i did very regularly. It is something that i wont allow and will tell them they have to work to stop acting that way .. i never see this in people who spar or free grapple alot though
So what I referred to is not something that is taught, it's something you have and can be hard to get rid of. But I do agree that some responses are taught and that there is a behavior of over acting that is taught and can also be hard to get rid of. It's not just in Tai Chi, where some people are taught to literary push themselves away from the practicing partner, just like they push themselves away from a wall. Just look at Judo and Aikido or any kind of throwing art. If you prepare yourself to fall and roll when you practice throws, mostly you instinctively help the opponent to complete the throw because you already prepare your body to fall or roll as soon as the opponent grabs old of you.