the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

Think this performance of Yang style taijiquan is one of the nicest I have seen on the internet, really shows the sunken connectedness which is required from good taiji:



The performer is Li Zyi, one of the senior disciples of the famous Yang style teacher Li Yaxuan,

Can't agree this is pretty basic stuff

Too many stops and starts, due to an absence of circular transitional movements at the completion of individual postures, imo.

"Your opening is not opening, your closing is not closing." That results in the stops and starts: opening commences from closing and closing commences from opening with no gaps between them. He also rises and falls too much in his stance work breaking continuity/connection. imo.

you guys are so external in your mere eye observations, it not an forms competition youre watching here

Trick wrote:you guys are so external in your mere eye observations, it not an forms competition youre watching here

That gets to the heart of what Taijiquan is.

IF Taijiquan is, at least in part, a method of using the body, then one can look to how the body is being used, what the movement entails, as one means of assessing the quality of a practitioner. One can't see "energy" or "qi" and, hence, can't use that as a means of assessing a practitioner. All one can see is the "external" motions of the practitioner, be they large or small.

If one ignores the "mere eye observations", what would YOU suggest is a meaningful way of assessing someone demonstrating a solo form? Otherwise, the grandmaster and the beginner are indistinguishable from one another?

Anyone who can do more than mere eye observation on a video is a magician

I must admit that I feel a bit puzzled and don’t know exactly how to approach the performance. I can appreciate that he is sunk and seems to be very relaxed, yet I find a bit unorthodox details as leaning too much to the side, lifting the shoulders and more. But I don’t believe that it’s necessary to make too strict conclusions. I would prefer to meet up with someone like this to figure out his focus and see for myself if he has the goods. Maybe he just doesn’t care too much about “rules”?

Begginers must master low stance and postures, natural body positions are for the advanced

Gichin Funakoshi said

wayne hansen wrote:Anyone who can do more than mere eye observation on a video is a magician

Agreed

So I take it you are the magician who can see his internal development
Perfect form is just the first step
Internal development is very difficult with imperfect form
Saying that there is a point beyond perfect form
Then there is formlessness

wayne hansen wrote:Perfect form is just the first step
Internal development is very difficult with imperfect form
Saying that there is a point beyond perfect form
Then there is formlessness

Agreed.

A couple of the best practitioners I've met, including one of my own teachers, have a really ugly looking forms. One of them does it sloppy and don't care too much about details. They have of course learned the form correctly and know how to do everything after their teachers instructions. But somewhere in time they found out that doing it strictly according to rules wasn't enough. So they discovered their own ways that worked for them.

Now I still believe that it's a good thing to teach in a detailed manner and let students follow basic conventions. However, one or two that I know about doesn't, and you can see that their students are missing some important things due to lack of proper instructions.

each teacher have their own flavor....



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik9dTzLtzdc

It matters little if form varies or is ugly
It is how it varies or why it is ugly
If it breakers yangs 10 essential points that is another manner
CMC is a perfect example of this ,many would see his form as ugly
William Chen goes further down this path
Once interperative energy is understood form is deceptive
The adage keep your vitality hidden within comes to mind