everything wrote:
I like your positive "formlessness" / ambiguity approach. you combine 8 gates and 5 steppings so a similar movement would produce different techniques. along these lines, for learning (both a mental model and actual skill) throws, I find the idea of shuai vs die and arcs vs. spirals vs. circles and some other principles much more helpful than going down a list or doing a form since opportunities arise differently and you can still pull something off or flow into the next thing, whether you have learned the textbook differences
everything wrote:As Steve pointed out on some thread, everyone agrees 99% of tai chi is fake, bad, just forms, watered down, misguided, a sham, unicorns, etc. The problem (even on RSF) is no one agrees on the other 1%. People won't even agree on 8 energies. Perhaps people think it's Taoist fluff on top of a village art.
tai chi is fake, bad, just forms, watered down, misguided, a sham, unicorns, etc.
BruceP wrote:everything wrote:
I like your positive "formlessness" / ambiguity approach. you combine 8 gates and 5 steppings so a similar movement would produce different techniques. along these lines, for learning (both a mental model and actual skill) throws, I find the idea of shuai vs die and arcs vs. spirals vs. circles and some other principles much more helpful than going down a list or doing a form since opportunities arise differently and you can still pull something off or flow into the next thing, whether you have learned the textbook differences
The 'formlessness' goes even further away than that, though. The sequences are just ideas. There are no such things as textbook applications or techniques - just appropriate tactical movement. Hitting, locks and throws are incidental to that movement, like 'rolling up your sleeves' and slamming into someone while you're doing it. Time the pop with your arrival and let it hit where it may.
The same approach is taken in exploring tai chi movement sequences. Some people are able to use a sequence for multiple purposes while others may not have any sort of acumen whatsoever with that sequence simply because their body doesn't recognize its utility - absolutely nothing wrong with that. Everybody is able to identify tactical opportunities in at least some of the form sequences, and how an individual is able to see opportunity where others don't is where the ideas contained in the sequences appeal to their own sense of timing, range, current body method, etc - it just feels natural to them. The tai chi forms contain so many ideas, that everyone will find something that appeals to their intuition and current body method, and will feel natural when they apply it tactically. Discovery of one skill leads to another. Personal evolution is true ownership, and it can't be taught.
everything wrote:I like your approach. I think it's only for advanced practitioners (of whatever kind of art), but I can see what you're saying, and ideally I'd like to get there (probably won't for various reasons, but mostly trying in another art/sport). But beginners need some templates, don't you think? Most of us need some examples to learn whatever, not just MA, but most things you learn to do.
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