the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

Schroedinger's Tai Chi

Tai Chi can be an insular art. 'Masters' appear from nowhere claiming to have been given all the secrets from a lineage but are not prepared to have it tested or reviewed by their peers.

If you are not prepared to show that what you do works, to teach on open seminars, mix with other martial arts, to not publish, film or demonstrate, if your 'magic' only works on your own indoctrinated students, how does anyone know you have the goods?

What you have is Schroedinger's Tai Chi.....

You tell 'em Stevo! Agreed

Not true
I know people who only teach their students
Don't make a buck out of tai chi
Never taught a semina
Not tested their art in the ring
Don't mix with other arts
Never filmed themselves
Yet when their art has been tested in real life situations it has not been found wanting
I say those who do all the above are Pavlovs Dog

wayne hansen wrote:Not true
I know people who only teach their students
Don't make a buck out of tai chi
Never taught a semina
Not tested their art in the ring
Don't mix with other arts
Never filmed themselves
Yet when their art has been tested in real life situations it has not been found wanting
I say those who do all the above are Pavlovs Dog

Hi Wayne, I agree 100%
My teacher does not promote himself, refuses to do the youtube thing, No video and "IS", But he has taught seminars, Including the tai chi farm
where experts gathered from everywhere.
I do like to share video's with people, but I would prefer only to show my video's to people who know what they are talking about.
Also, when you consider what some truly demonic people are doing with photoshop...any sane man who's not making money
from the exposure would be smart to just say "no thank you".

This kind of "thing" comes around every now and then and I don't understand it. Why would those who have the "goods", those who show what they have "works" ,teach on open seminars, mix with other martial arts and publish films and demonstrate even bother with the small communities of "Magic Masters"... I mean don't you have a full time schedule teaching seminars mixing with other martial arts publish films to spread your own gospel

To be fair, Steve wrote: "If you are not prepared to". You guys all mean the same thing, so you can kiss and make up now.

BTW, I know my master can fight...
.
.
.
... because he told me so!

Well over 30 years ago I was talked into teaching seminars
They were at the Chen Rezig monestry and in the Byron Bay Area
Even though I enjoyed it I was conflicted
I had the chance to show people a better way to train but had to leave them to their own devices
A realisation I had was that it was better to put the effort into my own students
Teaching all over the place is great to build an empire but it is not about real teaching
I got given a tape of the tai chi farm
The name was something like American tai chi I couldn't believe how poor the quality was
It must have been a bad year

Bao wrote:To be fair, Steve wrote: "If you are not prepared to". You guys all mean the same thing, so you can kiss and make up now.

BTW, I know my master can fight...
.
.
.
... because he told me so!

Prepared for what? Getting his/hers(magic masters) ass kicked?? Are we going back to the Dojo-bashing days that I heard was around slightly before I got started in martial arts

What are “the goods” Steve?

taiji seminar group

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=taiji ... 20&bih=454

Mma seminar group

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mma+s ... 20&bih=454

Hi, I just popped in to say my teacher and I are really great, amazing, in fact, but we don't like to mention it

RobP3 wrote:Hi, I just popped in to say my teacher and I are really great, amazing, in fact, but we don't like to mention it

CMA and RMA same same

Trick wrote:Prepared for what? Getting his/hers(magic masters) ass kicked?? Are we going back to the Dojo-bashing days that I heard was around slightly before I got started in martial arts

Read the OP.

Bao wrote:

Trick wrote:Prepared for what? Getting his/hers(magic masters) ass kicked?? Are we going back to the Dojo-bashing days that I heard was around slightly before I got started in martial arts

Read the OP.

So I did, and I don't get the point of it

Trick wrote:So I did, and I don't get the point of it

"If you are not prepared to show that what you do works, to teach on open seminars, mix with other martial arts, to not publish, film or demonstrate, if your 'magic' only works on your own indoctrinated students, how does anyone know you have the goods?"

=

If you are not prepared to show that what you do works,
If you are not prepared to teach on open seminars,
If you are not prepared to mix with other martial arts,
If you are not prepared to not publish, film or If you are not prepared to demonstrate,
or if your 'magic' only works on your own indoctrinated students, how does anyone know you have the goods?

He didn't say that you need to do this or that, but you should be prepared to do something if you are asked, if you want to show someone that your shit works. And it doesn't mean that it doesn't work if you don't do this or that.

Where you got that you need to kick or get kicked, or dojo-bashing, I have no idea about.

Personally, I don't get the point of writing all of this, it's all an obvious thing and doesn't need to be said again. But maybe repeating the obvious could help some people out there to become more critical about their own teachers who hide behind fancy words, using rhetorics to keep their students' eyes and mouthes wide open and admiring the teachers show-off skills inside the class.
... though I doubt that people in need to hear this is interested in reading what people write on the RSF.

The point is, like Schroedinger's cat it could be dead or alive, good or not good, but to talk about having all the 'secrets' is meaningless to us until you put it up for review. If you never say anything, it doesn't matter.

And it doesn't just have to be about fighting, after all, Tai Chi is a multi faceted jewel and sharing is always appreciated.