salcanzonieri wrote:Why do you think that the first 3 generations (or more) were super cool? Because they knew WHY they did what they did in a form, and is because they already had a firm foundation in something that already taught them why (Hong Quan, Tai Zu, Liu He Men, Tong Bei, Yue Fei, Rou Quan, etc).
Now, I would I would think that everyone, no matter how long they have been doing tai ji would indeed want to learn WHY so that they can better do HOW.
One problem is obviously Tai Chi for health only practice. People who learn forms with no substance what so ever. Another problem is Tai Chi teachers who teach in stages of first teaching forms/standing/jibengong without applications practice. Then, first after learning solo practice, they go on to pushing hands. And even later they start with applications and more combative training. This is very common. The attitude “self-defense comes naturally from form practice” is also common. If you look at history, well yes, the “tai chi masters” of old all knew what fighting was about and most of them had background in “harder” styles.
Many teachers nowadays believe that “jin” should be learned first and come from solo practice. To not teach applications or teach jin without application is frankly ridiculous. Until you have tried doing things against another person, you have no clue about how your body will react when trying to apply things against another body. You have no clue about when or why you will tense up, how different you need to use your body when using leverage against something or when something is disturbing your balance. If you believe that you have learned “jin”, you still need to re-learn everything from the beginning. Better to learn from the beginning as it was meant to be used, and start to search for jin from there.