What does your Taiji curriculum consist of ?

[Frank Bellemare]

Our Yang taijiquan has two forms: the 108 (or 85) movements and the Old Yang form. In beginner's classes the warm up is baduanjin, in more advanced classes it's posture holding, fajin training and silk reeling exercices. We have single, double, figure 8 and freestyle push hands, but we mostly do freestyle. The applications we do are imbedded in our push hands. Then there's the weapon work, the most useful of which is pole shaking.

I started Chen taijiquan a year ago, so I've only learned basic silk reeling exercices, posture holding, the first 40 postures of Ma Hong's XinJia Yilu, the sabre form and part of the long pole form, plus chen style figure 8 push hands.

My head feels like exploding at times.

[DeusTrismegistus]

I have never done push hands in class, whether my teacher will ever have us do push hands I have no idea. I personally think that the skills push hands imparts are already being learned through our sparring practice.

If you've never done the exercise, then how do you know ? Tuishou is a vital exercise for TJQ. You shouldn't discard it from an outside view. There's more to it.

I have done push hands with Iwalkthecircle and with some friends. I just haven't done the exercise in class.

[mixjourneyman]

This may seem unrelated, but my teacher has just started pushing with me a lot more. Its fecking awesome!!!! He throws me around like nobodies business and any time I think I'm about to get an attack to land, he reverses me and throws me like a bitch.

[cdobe]

This may seem unrelated, but my teacher has just started pushing with me a lot more. Its fecking awesome!!!! He throws me around like nobodies business and any time I think I'm about to get an attack to land, he reverses me and throws me like a bitch.

That sums up the purpose of Tuishou pretty well

[mixjourneyman]

This may seem unrelated, but my teacher has just started pushing with me a lot more. Its fecking awesome!!!! He throws me around like nobodies business and any time I think I'm about to get an attack to land, he reverses me and throws me like a bitch.

That sums up the purpose of Tuishou pretty well

I love the new smilies!

[ppscat]

The curriculum in my yang related school is:

beginners' form
long form
fast form
two-man form
sabre form
sword form

2 warm-up sets
stretching set
static postures and fast loose (but spiralling) drills
fajin set
yi chin ching

push hands (progressive) drills
2 Da Lu
free sparring

Additionally I practice:

FZQ qigong set
Xingyi staff form
meditation

I plan to learn in the future from HK Wu Taiji lineage both sabre and sword forms, but perhaps learn all Wu's curriculum, either HK, Shanghai. Also Aikido Jo. As a foot-note, I practice tango too, which really complements taiji in connectivity, dinamic rooting and timing.

[Shanghaijay]

Shanghai Branch Wu Style Curriculum as taught by Qian Cao Qun and Shen Tiegen

Numerous Jiben gong sets
Ba Shi
2 Qi Gong Sets
Tree and Sandbag striking/kicking

Slow Form
Fast Form
San Huang Pao set

Weapons
Jian 3 sets
Double Jian (Has been Lost)
Dao 1 set
24 spear
13 Spear
Sticky Sticks

Push hands
Fixed Step
Moving Step
13 Shoufa
5 Bufa
Da Lu

Advanced sets
13 Palms
Lan Cai Hua

[Yin]

24
double sword

[cdobe]

Hi Jay,
nice to hear from you. This is the Ma Yueliang curriculum I heard about from other sources as well.

I've seen Gerald Sharp's (http://www.chiflow.com) DVD about the inner door sets. He presents a Bagua like solo form, while other students and MYL himself in some interviews give the impression that it's a sparring exercise.
Would be nice to hear your perspective.

Best
Chris

Shanghai Branch Wu Style Curriculum as taught by Qian Cao Qun and Shen Tiegen

Numerous Jiben gong sets
Ba Shi
2 Qi Gong Sets
Tree and Sandbag striking/kicking

Slow Form
Fast Form
San Huang Pao set

Weapons
Jian 3 sets
Double Jian (Has been Lost)
Dao 1 set
24 spear
13 Spear
Sticky Sticks

Push hands
Fixed Step
Moving Step
13 Shoufa
5 Bufa
Da Lu

Advanced sets
13 Palms
Lan Cai Hua

[JoseFreitas]

My teacher has a combined curriculum: Yang and what I call Xuan Wu Combined Taiji (Wu Xuan is his name ). Xuan Wu Combined is just a bunch of forms he developed over the years by combining stuff from all the arts he studied.

Qigong (developed by him, ten exercises, stretching, spinal twisting and rolling are emphasized)

Short Form (40 postures)
Long Form (if student is interested in learning)
Tui shou (emphasis on fixed step two hands circling, most students aren't too much into martial stuff, but has all the range of exercises)
Two person set (seldom taught, not many students interested)
Sword set
Broadsword set

The above being the classical sets. Below the Xuan Wu stuff.

Single and Double Fan sets (not sure if developed by him)
Natural Step Taiji (natural, agile stepping, strong Xingyi mix with Taiji)
Yin Yang Taiji (symmetrical form, can be done inside a square of about 2 yards to a side, strong Bagua influence, twisting, coiling etc...)
Xuan Wu Taiji (challenging form physically, lots of squatting, etc, a mix of techniques)
Cane Form (kickass form, we're learnin it now)
Swimming Dragon Sword (combines XY, Taiji and Bagua)

Other sets he developed, not strictly Taijilike, as well as a mix of other stuff for students interested (ie. two person Qinna sets if that's what you like, etc...)

Our classes generally have the following structure:

Qigong warmup (c. 15 mn)
Forms practice (we do Yang Short, Natural Step, Yin Yang, Xuan Wu and a set called 64 Flowers Fist, takes us about 30 mn - students jump in and out depending on whether tehy know or not the sets)
Review of set being learned (currently, Cane for instance - my teacher shows new moves and apps on saturday, and we practice all the days of the week what he showed) 20 mn
Review of other material (he may call us to do the Taiji Sword, for instance)

After the group forms and the reviews, students practice on their own and form sub-groups. We may do the Bagua form, or practice two person sets or push hands etc... My teacher generally oversees PH practice on Sundays.

[Formosa Neijia]

Wow. I'm a bit shocked at the amount of material you guys are practicing.

For those interested, the Chen Pan-ling system is much smaller. There are only three elements: 1. 99 posture form and applications 2. taiji sword. 3. push hands (single, double, moving, and dalu)

That's it. You'll be home in time for dinner.

There is a 42 posture competition form, but that's just the first 42 moves of the 99 form so no need to learn anything new.

Dave C.

[Feihu]

What's your Taiji curriculum?
I'ld be interested to hear what forms and exercises you practice and maybe what forms and exercises do exist in your TJQ that you haven't learned (yet). Would be nice if you added where the exercises come from (like 'this is an exercise I have adopted from the XY branch/teacher X'). Did you add something to your personal curriculum (heavy bag, kettlebell- or dumbbell training, drills from other arts) ?

I practice Chen family Taijiquan (from CXW, CXX, and Chen Bing). Here's what I have learned so far there are other weapons offered which I have not learned:

warmups/stretching
standing post
silk reeling exercises
19 Form
38 Form
Laojia Yilu (75 movements)
Laojia Erlu (40 movements)
Xinjia Yilu (83 movements)
Xinjia Erlu (72 movements)
double edged sword
saber
double saber
spear
quandao
long pole
bang
push hands: the 5 levels of Chen push hands
shuai tuishou
body conditioning exercises (arms, shoulders, back, hips, legs)
applications/usage training
qin na training

[novamma]

Wu De- Martial Ethics

Warm-up and stretching sets

Physical strength training

Qigong

Body and hit conditioning

Forms- Traditional Taijiquan- 37 short form, 108 Long form (fu zhong wen version), 56 sword, 13 saber, 24 spear.


Two person Drills: self defense, research of applications, and Qi-na: joint locks. 88 two person set.

Boxing-
Bag, Pad, and Glove work: punching and kick training

Weapons- Knife, broad and straight Swords, Staff, Spear, Flexible weapons

Fighting- light sparring, full contact, push-hands, Shuai Jow- wrestling,Takedowns,and MMA.

Meditation

[TaoJoannes]

I'm not all that interested in learning the sword form as I don't see any real practical aspect to it.

but sword form is so much fun! you ought to reconsider...

Plus, after learning the whole thing, pretty much anything else is easy. I damn near cried myself to sleep at night from frustration while getting it down.

[CaliG]

I basically try to be scientific about my training/jibengong.

Along with some of the things Jay pointed out, I also do sambo and bjj.

I see it as applied qinna, shuai jiao and tuishou. Also I just like it. My trainers are all about leverage over strength.

At home I work on my striking using different palm/fists strikes from the Wu on the heavy bag with combinations.

Among other things I also work with the speed bag, kettlebells, and jump rope daily. I keep my workouts fast paced and more intense than the workouts at the grappling gym.

When my teacher was teaching fighting we'd always sweat and work hard, so I always try to apply that same ethic to combat training too. I believe this is how they did it back in the day when taiji was all about combat.

I believe that when taiji and it's principles are trained with the the same intensity as other combat arts you will get a fighting style that can deal with anything.

I'm still looking for push hands partners who live in the Contra Costa area of the bay area, if anyone's around let me know. Maybe we can do some pad work too.