Combat Taiji ...*clip*

[Syd]

I would be interested to see what others here think of this clip ... personally I found the practitioners spirit refreshing and his applications sound in both form and practice - it would be great to see more of this generally within Taiji schools whereby the the schools are able to produce students of this sort of caliber in execution of various applications - the next phase of course would be to create some kind of Taiji specific international event like most other styles do that allow skilled fighters to compete ... it would require rules of course, like anything, but it would certainly go a long way towards restoring the purpose and direction of Taiji not to mention the reputation beyond push hands comps. How great would it be to see Baguazhang vs Taiji vs Xinyi and other internal styles compete on the level and scale seen in the clip below - forgetting that the clip is a demo only it gives some idea of what might be possible.

My 2c's.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=93wy9FBFP24&feature=related

Here's another with instruction.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=kf44kawWBvY&feature=related

[TaoJoannes]

Master Wong is my hero..

[sdf]

angry face guy

[Syd]

angry face guy

Eh?

[qiphlow]

the clip was cool and all, but it seems like this thread is going to be yet another discussion on why doesn't taiji work in fighting (i hope it doesn't).
wishing for more taiji players to have a martial focus to their practice won't make it happen. what will make it happen is if those taiji people that want to use their art for fighting actually start trying stuff out with their classmates/friends/random strangers/etc. like the nike slogan says: just do it.

[AllanF]

I think he is refering to this series of clips

http://youtube.com/watch?v=AattCW-DrBw&feature=related

I like how he switches for angry face to sad face (just like when i am teaching kindergarten kids) if you would blame him for you getting hurt.

I have no proplem using taiji in a fight actually i love it. Works a treat and this weekend found out how to lead the opponent into emptyness without touching them. Though i can't do it everytime, still learning afterall. (No i am not talking about the silly empty force demos)

[Syd]

wishing for more taiji players to have a martial focus to their practice won't make it happen. what will make it happen is if those taiji people that want to use their art for fighting actually start trying stuff out with their classmates/friends/random strangers/etc. like the nike slogan says: just do it.

Having Martial Focus and working applications are the same thing to me ... the two go together rather than being mutually exclusive. I'm not saying the guy is perfect, we could nit pick all kinds of aspects ... there could be a lengthy discussion regarding his use of hard jin vs yeilding, leading qualities ... all I am really saying is it's nice to see somebody teaching combat Taijiquan in whatever form that takes ... we need a balance for all the years of Granny Tai Chi classes.

[qiphlow]

agreed. i just get tired of seeing the same old stuff keep coming up. nothing personal.

[Syd]

agreed. i just get tired of seeing the same old stuff keep coming up. nothing personal.

None taken mate ... I haven't visited any MA forums for about 3 years cause I got tired of all the politics and slanging matches so you'll have to forgive me for boring the hell out of everybody if I bring up subjects that I've been thinking about but not talking about in that time.

[C.J.Wang]

Wow, how many styles does this guy teach?

[Teazer]

Pretty much all of his applications are of the format:
1.parry all the guy's attacks (probably knowing the attacks in advance)
2. then counter wiff teh deadly skillz.

Problem is:
1. There is no apparent reason for the attacker to stop attacking other than, I guess, frustration or boredom. So stage 2 may never happen.
2. To fit in the catagory of "combat" anything, the method needs to be demonstrated to work when you don't know what attacks are coming.

[Syd]

Problem is:
1. There is no apparent reason for the attacker to stop attacking other than, I guess, frustration or boredom. So stage 2 may never happen.
2. To fit in the catagory of "combat" anything, the method needs to be demonstrated to work when you don't know what attacks are coming.

I totally agree ... as I said before you could nit pick and the issue always is the same with ANY demo using applications ... in order to SHOW the application you have to have the correct attack incoming which kind of voids the whole question of natural reaction against a determined resisting attacker. I think the point to remember is that these types of things really are there to show the combat applications as they apply to certain attacks ... they aren't there to actually teach you how to fight. In order to hone those skills you need to do exactly as you say and have a partner just go ape on you with random attacks ... this is what everybody should be doing after learning basic applications. There are also any number of training methods to gain skill in various areas of Taiji fighting that are not application dependent ... in point of fact those are generally what I rely on.

It's the same as any of the two person fighting sets in Taiji also ... learn it sure but until you start departing from the routine and mixing it up you're really just performing choreography.

[Craig]

good to see another aussie on board!

Pretty much agree with everything that Syd has said so far, he's not perfect but its great to see a strong martial focus for once.

[kemper boyd]

anyone can look good when they know what moves are coming...but the man has skill

[middleway]

he is a JKD man i think and has applied it to taiji.

cheers
chris