GrahamB wrote:
1. All styles of Tai Chi definitely pay lip service to the dantien (of course they do). But you only need a pair of eyes to look to see that the way Chen style and Yang style use the dantien is quite different. Chen style goes for a "reeling silk" approach, while Yang style has a "drawing silk" approach. These two are different in how much dantien control is actually involved. Just look at Yang Jun in the video posted twice now on this thread. Of course, if you can't see it, you can't see it.
It might be more interesting to look at the Yang Sau Cheung lineage for comparison, Yang Jun and co are largely "official" taiji. I'm not saying it is or isn't silk reeling, but it's a different flavour to the popularised forms