cloudz wrote:
What information do you actually have about this, if there is research available I'd love to read it. I get the feeling that this is just speculation and story telling. I mean that's fine if you like, but it can't be thought of as a sure thing. I have heard of one guy that competed in one of the big tournaments organized in the early twentieth century and that's it.
I'm sorry I don't quite understand the questions as I've provided links and thought it was common knowledge
reflected in either historical accounts or family accounts of the past.
After the first martial arts competition in Nanjing [October, 1928], it was noticed that those who specialized in Taiji Boxing often did not win. But among challengers from Beiping who did win, although seventy-five percent had trained in Taiji, those participants had not stated that Taiji Boxing was their specialty. (During the Martial Arts Institute’s tournament, participant’s had to declare what martial arts they had trained in and what their specialty was.) Consequently, ordinary people tend to be skeptical about Taiji Boxing, and in fact are so critical of Taiji boxers that, sure enough, they are on the verge of mockery.
When Taiji Boxing is not trained to the point of applicability, it is risky to go compete with someone. Not only would you not be able to attack the opponent, sometimes you would not even know how to protect yourself, rendering it all useless. Or if you stay in the same type of posture and receive all of his attacks, you would be like the mediocre boxers described in old novels, who have only the skill of parrying, no word of them achieving any counterattack.
As for practitioners of Taiji Boxing who have never practiced it properly, they do not even have skill in parrying attacks.
This is because within Taiji Boxing there actually are no techniques specifically for parrying. But without techniques of parrying, how would an opponent’s attacks not be getting through? To explore this question, we first need to gain a clear understanding of Taiji Boxing theory.
Yang Chengfu and Wu Jianquan are equally renowned in Beiping as Taiji Boxing experts. It has been said: “Yang Chengfu is good at shooting people away but not good at neutralizing, whereas Wu Jianquan is good at neutralizing people but not good at shooting them away. Therefore both of these men have a shortcoming, but if they were strong in both qualities, then they would be at the peak of Taiji skill.”
https://brennantranslation.wordpress.co ... xperience/
a good read and also addresses some of the questions asked here.
I originally posted some of the history because of the questions concerning chen style, naming, why and how did YLC learn it ect. hoping to provide context for some of the speculation with things that were written from an historical perspective by either families or others.
As for past contest and present contest ect.
While it is interesting it is also way off topic for "willies" thread
The pro's and con's of external influence. AKA peer pressure created from main stream media.
Pro's. Because of the courageous efforts of modern day fighters we have the very fortunate luxury of seeing how things work in the ring and learn different skills and defenses.
Con's. If you train an art like taijiquan. You can not just go ask Iron Mike Tyson how to improve your taiji. He could definitely teach you to fight, But he's not qualified to teach you how to fight with taijiquan. You have to learn each and every move and train to actually use it.
So where does taijiquan really fit in with modern times and in a modern world?
"As a young teenager, and later a young GI in the US Army I would have many encounters with people who practiced different styles correcting what I felt were misconceptions about CMA. In the traditional way the style white crane spoke through me in answer to their questions. What I used was what I trained with no modifications " I've worked with those who did compete but never felt the need to compete myself not my thing...
This is what I did. Had taiji been my first style I might have done the same its hard to say...
I would say CMA fits into the modern world provided that people understand what they'er training for, and train for it.
