"Martial Tai Chi"

[Ben]

So I was waisting time online today and found this site:
http://www.martialtaichi.co.uk/index.html

It may have been brought up here before so just move it on to BTDT if thats where it belongs.

Has anyone met these lady's in person? Theres a few short videos that I find myself underwhelmed by but they talk tough enough to make me curious.

[TaoJoannes]

If you aren't relaxing, and aren't tapping into the healing or meditation benefits, why bother learning taiji at all?

[Ben]

Thats kinda my thought process as well...

[Bhassler]

.

[klonk]

If you aren't relaxing, and aren't tapping into the healing or meditation benefits, why bother learning taiji at all?

Now, I do not agree with anything you say, on principle, but you may have a point here and not know it.

Just kidding, TJ!

Now, I have long asked, and gotten very few responses sensible or oherwise, to this question following: If you are only interested in health and chi and harmony with yourself and the universe, what on earth is the matter with Eight Brocades quigong? It would seem to offer everything taiji does, except the odd and inexplicable designation as a kind of boxing (ch'uan/quan). We know what boxing looks like and this isn't it. I have not asked it of the nice English ladies in the clip, but have asked it on occassion elsewhere. It goes over like a spider in the cucumber sandwiches. To use another metaphor, it is the proverbial Republcan in the room, that no one mentions, but no one can ignore.

I cannot find this school's Iron Shirt demo on Youtube any more, but it showed a good and humble spirit, that they were not taking themselves too seriously, and I think, they honestly want to know what taiji is about as a martial art. Any flak you want to throw at them belongs, I think, to the people who purported to teach them and did not.

You ever know anyone who learned anything--anything at all--who did not start with a hat full of questions and half formed answers?

I will not criticize anyone who does not have the right answer, if he, or in this case she, is asking the right question.

[DeusTrismegistus]

This alone completely puts me off.

The Martial Tai Chi Association (MTA) requires all of its Instructors to:
1) Only ever teach Tai Chi with the purpose of developing fighting skills, without any exceptions.
2) Never teach Tai Chi for any of the following (false) purposes - relaxation, therapy, healing, meditation or spirituality.
3) Sincerely teach all of their combat knowledge to all of their students from the outset of training and not just to a select few "inner door" students.
4) Make their teaching as understandable as possible. They must never pass on exercises they do not fully understand the meaning of, or are incapable of explaining the purpose of in plain, anatomical, scientific, or martial terms.
5) Never employ deception or trickery of any sort.


I don't give a hoot what an association says I would never join anything as an instructor who would tell me how to do my job. Thats just asinine.

[chrislomas]

Why can't people ever get balance. Qi huggers bug the sh1t out of me too, but to say 'we must not do this for relaxation blah blah blah" just makes her sound like a stroppy 14 year old writing her first rock band manifesto.

Just out of interest, I was trying to find out who her teachers were on the website but couldn't find out, anyone know?

[mixjourneyman]

The weirdest thing about this group is that you expect it to all be macho manly men, but the leader is actually a little waif like woman.

[JoseFreitas]

I think she trained with Dan Docherty, among others. I don't like the way they practice, and I certainly hate Joanna's rants on qi, religion, whatever. But... they show some pretty good, straightforward, elegant applications to Taiji Xingyi and Bagua (admittedly delivered without an ounce of martial spirit...) and they have a sense of humor. I will state that I think their applications seem better than the (poor) average we get to see nowadays.

But personally, I have nothing against Taiji for health. We hahe a costudent here. She started training at the age of 65, she could hardly lower herself to any kind of stance, couldn't stand on one leg, etc... Nowadays, you wouldn't believe she is 70 if you saw her doing the forms, or swordwork. She has zero interest in the martial aspect of Taiji, but I suspect that if it wasn't "Taiji!" she wouldn't be exercising at all. Is there anything wrong with that?

Here's her infamous (and good) Iron Shirt demo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HdqtIsf-dI

[qiphlow]

Here's her infamous (and good) Iron Shirt demo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HdqtIsf-dI

that's the best goddamn iron shirt i've ever seen! and i'd also like to add that i appreciate what she's doing for taiji, but i could totally choke her out.

[steelincotton]

Joanna Z. doesn't believe in chi, energy, gigong, etc., and doesn't even think TCC is an internal art.

She's chased away many people from the MAP forum (martial arts planet) who disagree with her, so she mainly preaches to the choir now over there in the UK. She also has some sort of religious overtone to her TCC lessons, so she lost me right then and there. I haven't been there in a while, but she use to talk alot about all her "fighting" experience.

[DeusTrismegistus]

I will state that I think their applications seem better than the (poor) average we get to see nowadays.

I am not impressed with her app vid I watched. But then again I am rarely impressed with application vids.

[Josealb]

Clearly the only way to settle this is for Graham to go challenge them to a death match and post the results on youtube....

I dont get it. If Graham is the cameraman...who will fight?

[Darth Rock&Roll]

There was a guy in the city i grew up in. His name was Brian Coxx. He trained RCMP in D Division what he referred to a Combat Tai Chi. Lots of hard hits, step ins, throw downs. he produced a manual and I think it can still be had at the hippy bookstore "prarie sky books" on wolseley. It's a good manual for applied bad ass tai chi.

his tai chi aint the same as your average old lady tai chi.

It was drawn from Yang style.

[jafc]

There are some issues in the world that, because of their moral content, people choose extreme black & white viewpoints. Whether or not TCC is a health exercise or a combative art is not one of those issues. In my experience, people who treat mundane, recreational issues as life or death,black & white or severely polarized are either A.) ignorant or B.) advertising. This person will prove to be one or the other on close inspection.

I personally think she is probably taking that stance to generate controversy & free advertising as a result.

JC