willie wrote:Now, if you would like to take the floor, please offer evidence that supports your position, Not assumptions...
Sure. First, if your teacher's son plays college football I am not surprised he lifts weights. What's wrong with that? Your teacher's teacher, OTOH, has commented on this subject with respect to Tai Chi (see:
http://www.nickgudge.ie/5.c.ii.-intervi ... l-yao.html). My position is that I agree with what Chen Zhenglei said in that interview.
Anyways thank you for bringing up a CFK story. I love to discuss CFK stories! First thing I can tell you is that weapons training is functional, and 20-30 pounds while heavy for a weapon is not like pressing 200+ on a plane you will not use. Please see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD6X3SpYCWY -- this kind of training still goes on today, for sure. The weapon is well-known -- it was featured in a fight scene in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (
https://youtu.be/DFH6lXJ6c4k?t=138). Incidentally, it's my favorite scene in the whole movie. I plan on making it my signature weapon when I get a chance to learn it. Anyways since I just brought up a CZQ video, I will note that CZQ is quoted as saying "Lifting heavy stones is done as a means to training the waist and lower body. The strength training method is highly specialised. You are not training to develop “stupid strength” (brute or localised strength)." Whatever you do, never let the weights interfere with fangsong -- if you find yourself sore or in recovery the next day, you are doing it wrong with respect to tai chi.
These answer are pretty much in line with my personal experience in the matter. I've done experiments where I do 100 kettlebell swings a day for up to three months, or 100 military presses a day, or long periods of walking (up to 10 hours a day) for months, or running gym machine circuits just to see what kind of effect these kinds of exercises will have on my body. I can tell you without any bias (after all, I did the work for extended periods of time) that the weight exercises simply do not help. The closest it ever came was with the kettlebell swings. But in the end, I decided to stop doing them because they were pulling me off-axis (among other problems).
The goals are different. The goals being different the results are different. You just have to remember what your goals are.