johnwang wrote:windwalker wrote:
In many aspects yes, good clip...
However it may not develop the same aspects that "some" taiji practices focus on...
What's the difference between a Taiji guy punches on his opponent's face than a XYLH guy punches on his opponent's face?
It’s a fun joke, but it's actually an interesting question. It would probably be better placed under a topic like, “What is taijiquan?” or “What are the fighting methods of taijiquan?” or comparing these to Liuhe Xinyiquan. However, it does tie into the “Origins of Taijiquan” a little bit.
I cannot answer about Liuhe Xinyiquan, the little I know comes through a taijiquan filter as Feng Zhiiqiang embedded principles and practices within his taijiquan system.
I can answer a little about Chen Taijiquan. It depends on where on one is and where one has gone in their training.
As one of your posts says, there were five roads that merged into what we today call the Yilu (First Road, aka the Thirteen Postures). Its training method is push hands. Its purpose is to train the student to use the body in a taiji manner and control the opponent in a taiji manner. So, if a student was on this road, he usually would not punch his opponent in the face. He would apply a push hands technique to gain control or knock him down.
Traditionally, the Second Road (Erlu) is trained today primarily with Pao Chui, but this road was a convergence of three to five older roads. We know of Pao Chui and Chen 108 Changquan, but some sources say there may have been three Pao Chui forms. What may have happened to these is for a later discussion. The Second Road used a different training method, not push hands. The Second Road also included weaponry, and its primary goal was to stop a killer before getting killed. So, it also would have been unlikely to use a punch to the face. Instead, it would have been more likely to crush the windpipe, displace the eyes, or use a sword to open the opponent’s throat.
It is far more likely today that after the First Road, a student would choose some sort of sport fighting. In this case, the rules of the sport to a large degree determine techniques used. In this case, a Taijiquan practitioner would likely train in MMA, boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, or whatever sport fighting was chosen. A punch from a taijiquan practitioner would look a lot like other fighters regardless of style, but there might be some subtle differences in how they fought.
I have made nice clean demarcations between the roads. Today’s reality is that most major teachers, including my own, draw from the Second Road for applications, although they water them down, so they are not instantaneously or obviously lethal. And, a lot of the applications shown will not work without a firm grounding in the First Road. Further, today, very few teachers know or would teach traditional Second Road methods.
Here is a clip of Sun Yang, a Muay Thai fighter in the red trunks, he started training with my teacher fairly late in his career. After he gets knocked down (0:39) and seems to be losing the fight, he begins drawing on some taijiquan First Road skills, sometimes obviously combined with his Muay Thai techniques. See if you can spot them.