the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

Quigga wrote:Tbh I was looking for a course to sign up. Will give Rasmus a shot, thanks for pointing me in his way.

Unfortunately it's still kool aid, only with Rasmus it's labelled hermetic. Charles Tauber put out some videos that demonstrate the body mechanics without the cool aid.



You can describe what's being done in terms of jin or qi, but you're still doing the same thing. The idea is pretty simple, but it takes a lot of training to develop a taiji/xinyi/bagua body. FWIW.

With the exception of verifiable reports of personal scandal or criminal wrongdoing in the mainstream news media outlets, all other publicity is essentially good publicity, as it keeps one's name and personal enterprises before the public eye.

Thus, even mostly disparaging threads like this are ultimately beneficial to whomever is being targeted by their detractors, as nothing changes and the intended target simply carries on with even greater notoriety than ever.

I suspect that guys like Adam Mizner, B.K. Frantzis, and others, deliberately intend for their public videos and writings to be controversial, thus insuring widespread discussion and debate. This in turn ultimately promotes their respective gigs more than it harms them. Meanwhile, their businesses flourish and their incomes soar even higher. Ain't it great!

Spot on, they all fell into the trap

The critica eye is only for those that see
For the rest a thousand lives with the best teachers will yield no crop

Trick wrote:

. Again, people seldom have the interest to actually learn and know things, but rather they want magic and watch things they have a hard time to understand.

. Well those who looking to learn how to punch someone in the mouth will of course not turn to Taijiquan. TJQ offer something different -an over all awareness practice applicable in ones daily duties making those easier.
As an “martial art” practice it’s suited for those who already know mouth punching and the practice might fine tune their awareness so to they will not risk hurting their knuckles and opponent mouth

Kinda like what Trick is saying here... (even if it's not what you meant ) It almost sounds like you're alluding to the saying:

"Taiji makes whatever else your doing better" .

Of which I agree. Learn the hard ways 1st, sparring/fighting and then later Taiji can bring you to another level.

If you have a good teacher you need no kindergarten
Don’t come along with a bunch of things the teacher has to erase
My best students were women because they came along with no pugalistic garbage
I remember one well known teacher who came to watch often
He looked at one female student and said she looked to square
The next time he came she was fighting and pushing
He said that the best tai chi woman I have ever seen
He demands big money on the European circuit

. He said that the best tai chi woman I have ever seen

reminds me of that Aussie bands song

. She was a fast machine she kept her motor clean
She was the best damn woman that I ever seen

anyway, tai chi woman ! that’s the first time for me.........................I’ve heard “woman tai chi” before, referring to the standardised 24 form.....

Formed in Australia but I don't think there is an Ossie amongst them

Everybody will prefer a different flavour of kool aid. I can recommend Rasmus wholeheartedly. He cleared up a lot of confusion, lot of doubts I had, even in the first week. Or rather gave me confidence that I wasn't that far off. What I like is that he clearly shows that the foundations one builds in the beginning stages of Tai Chi are stepping stones for later work. The serious spiritual kind.

For me, IMA and spirituality are inseparable. What others think of this, I'm not sure if I care. Discussing / arguing / explaining are good for practicing. Maybe if there was money to be made from this for me, I would care more about what others think. If people want to deepen their practice, there are enough pointers all over the place.

Looking at rasmus I can see some skill
Don't you think his size is a major factor in his ability to use it
He looks like a heavyweight against a flyweight in most cases

Quigga,

That is the whole thing. Most people who complain about this simply haven't had access to the specific methods of training the esoteric. It is all quite simple really. In fact, 99% of the time it is boring as hell. Very mechanical. And FWIW, after looking at the various systems out there over the last 30 years, I'm increasingly seeing very little difference in the techniques employed. What I do see is that openly teaching them is quite rare for any number of reasons.

Glad you enjoyed working with Mark. He is a rare individual.

I'm enrolled in his Elastic Force Chi Kung course, if that counts as working with him. Another person on my 'want to meet list. The more I practice, the more I agree with the mechanical view... lots of beliefs just exist to control the person.

I wonder what makes him so rare? What personal qualities are there that could be emulated?

..."For me, IMA and spirituality are inseparable...."
I like term ->energy< more, than spirituality if we speak about MA (IMA particulary ).
Speakin`so -
If you`re able clearly read/feel the flow of body internal energy - means, that you`re made 1st step in the journey of using it for the art.
There is a lot of ways to achieve it, qigong or sitting in the cave, it doesn`t matter, ( some of the techniques can works better, than another It`s vary, depends of personality).
However for using it in real encounter lot of "standard " MA training has to be done .

Spirit will manifest itself one day...

Oh well, I got plenty of time

Time is construct of your mind,
so,
it is something with beginning, and ending in the same point.
You`re unable to keep it, then >plenty< means - nothing in this case, or now, if you prefer .