Відео

Thanks for taking the time, on a cool crisp day, to provide this discourse. I couldn’t have done it better!

I take an almost historical perspective on my own Taijiquan practice. From this view, I feel the main weakness in most traditional and modern forms is their emphasis on Taijiquan as an exercise, rather than as a martial art. This, IMO, makes it exceptionally difficult to understand the energy and focus behind each posture, and it is much easier to perceive the correct force application if you combine both an "energetic" interpretation of force generation as well as an applied one. In my opinion, you derive the greatest understanding of deeper elements of the art once you embrace it as a martial practice and engage with the form in that way. I don't personally think you can divorce the martial from the other elements and retain all of the secondary benefits. Chen Xin has a reference to this in his works. I'd say the CMC style Taijiquan of people like William CC Chen are good at least in large part because they've actually tried to use it or understand its use when they do the form.

A thoughtful, balanced and open explanation of what's available within the study of Tai Ji Quan and how to go about looking for those elements that you are looking for. Really refreshing to hear such advice without dogma. Thank you.

Cmc is the first and only taichi style I've ever practiced, but having trained in several martial arts, I always had a problem with dogmas and zelots who worship masters like gods. We're all different and have different physical, cultural, social, material constraints. So if taichi is a universal principle, then it should be adaptable to everybody and every context. For an art of change I find the taiji community very reluctant to change.

At 65 years of age I'm finally getting around to earning a sword form from a teacher who really knows about it. He is very particular about teaching each movement and training the appplications. I've sometimes trained with his teacher in "sword play" workshops and it's another world completely! It definitely helps to understand how the sword is used in two-partner sword drills, although it requires a lot more time and dedication. I've been learning a 54 Yang sword form similar to the Cheng Man-Ch'ing version, I'm only about two-thirds complete, as my teacher lives in another city here in Spain, and he insists, quite rightly in my opinion, not to learn it online or from videos. His unique insights, corrections, adjustments and training of applications make it a slow but thorough training process. We usually traing with wooden swords. On my own, I use a retractable metal sword which has a realistic weight a feel, so it's not a cheap one. I have a fully weighted metal sword for practice when I can do it in a hall or gym, because in Spain these type of swords are not allowed to be used in public places, despite the fact that it is a practice sword with dull edges. It's a beauty though, I must admit I've fallen in love with it, but don't let my wife know I said that...

Not a fan of CMC’s Yang form.

My first teacher Min Pai was a student of CMC in NYC. My second teacher Michael Gilman learned from Master Choy in Frisco. They both made modifications to the Yang Style. The Yangs modified the Chen Style as did other Masters who creaeted the Wu, Sun, etc. This guy acts like a TV salesman trying to sell some new gadjet. Big ego, big mouth, lots of hand jive. Not for me, thanks.

From what I know from the Yang Family CMC was an indoor student but not a recognised master. It doesn't matter though. He popularised tai ji quan and spread it far and wide.

And meditation.

I am sitting in my armchair with some popcorn - I am an armchair polarising comments audience member!

Thanks

Come on dude, you talk a great game show some skills

I am currently training with the greatest master.

A gem off the beaten track. Brilliant ... and thank you!

Amazing!

I can't understand what is being said. Poor audio and heavy accent.

I have one of these retractable swords that I bought of eBay a while ago. I us it for home practice as I don’t have much space and I use my proper sword when training with my class. These retractables are useful too if you are travelling and want to practice while you are away.

No, not even close

Jack of all, master of none

😂

lol probably the worst. His students have the least ability and the least concept of health. This only from reality not from imagination Kung fu perspective

Personaly I changed my prefrence from Yang Taiji to Wu. Not the Family Wu Style, but from Liu Caichen who learned from the founder Wu Quanyou. I like that the movements are more compact and not as over exaggerated.

Great as always! Thanks for the comment on my video! Got stuck in the last part of the 37-form, do you have any suggestions?

Nice form and nice flow

Really useful! Thank you.

Great explanation and easy to understand modifications. Thank you!

Learned something new. Thanks 👍

Thanks Paul.

Unfortunately, many of Cheng Man Ch'ing's "outdoor" students began teaching beginners and of these so-called instructors they only learned the form. The obvious result is "form without substance" and for that reason what they are teaching is merely empty slow dance totally devoid of the true principles of Tai Chi Chaun. Only a few of the professor's disciples who are qualified Tai Chi Chuan Practitioners on their own are left. Maggie Newman may be the last of the remaining few.

From my experience, something you must get your head around at the start is that, for the first few years, and I mean years, _everything_, and I mean _everything_ that you are doing will be wrong. This is unavoidable. Until you grasp concepts like intention (yi) and sunkenness (sung), and get a proper idea of what you should be doing during the postures and transitions in forms and other exercises, everything you will be doing, while possibly looking superficially like Tai Chi, isn't. Everything that you learn that is wrong needs to later be unlearned and relearned. And of course that means pretty much everything you have learned in the early years. If you practise twice as hard in the first few years, you'll burn those wrong ways of doing things in twice as hard, making it four times as hard to unlearn and relearn them. Thus, don't be too eager to get to the forms and the 'standard exercises' of the particular lineage you are following. (In my case this would be the 37 posture Cheng Man Ching, 108 posture Yang, and forms, and Huang's five loosening exercise.) The first exercises you learn should be viewed as 'throwaway' exercises, in the sense that you practise them temporarily in order to get a better idea of what you're supposed to be learning, and get a better idea of what you're looking for, and feeling for, both in your practice and when watching the teacher. So the more you use preparatory exercises to make and clear up all the mistakes and misunderstandings, the less wrong stuff you'll accumulate in the actual forms that you'll later need to unlearn and relearn. Importantly, provided you have a teacher that knows what he or she is doing, they will be able to observe your practice, and make suggestions and corrections, and you can learn, and they can help you learn, through physical contact, by showing you in their body what things feel like. Over a webcam view, even a good teacher will be able to do little, and you will be able to pick up far less than if in person. Getting back to the forms, if all you are doing is putting your hands and legs approximately in the right position, moving slowly, and trying to be relaxed, you will be doing little more than a kind of spaced-out arm-waving. The result will look superficially like Tai Chi to someone with no experience of it, and kind of like a slow dance to anybody with some kind of dance training. So the first thing you need to learn with the forms, in order to learn them properly, is not the choreography, which is the easy bit, but what your mind and body are supposed to be doing when they move from posture to posture. Years down the line, I look back at how I do the attention preparation posture (the first one where you just lift and lower your hands side by side), and think how badly I misunderstood even that one. I'm actually quite grateful that life circumstances led to me taking a 5 year break from the practice, and then rediscovering it, as while the actual practice had faded a bit, so had all the wrong stuff, which meant that, oddly enough, I'm better placed when relearning as I have a better idea when relearning the forms than I had when I first learned them. And as you might gather, I'm quite sceptical about learning from videos. If you have been taught in person, then a video is a useful guide to remember what you've been taught. But you really need to be taught in person by someone who knows what they're doing, and is close enough to you to observe your practice closely, and also show you things in a tactile way through physical touch.

Very interesting!

I read once that there were originally 7 sets in the Taiji Form and that only 2 survived. So even the art had evolved by the time Yang Lu Chan was taught by the Chens.

11:12 I agree with you. I studied from the direct yang family lineage for 30+ years. In my later years I deconstructed the form. Original Tai chi it is said is only 13 postures. Even with the yang family the forms differ from brother to brother and yang sau chung added additional movements to Yang Chen fu form. I have made changes toy own form practice based on practical martial experience. I was a bouncer for 8 years. Tradition teaches the principles and concepts. These are the important things. I hope your message reaches many more teachers and students.

I learned the CMC form from Bob Smith a long time ago in Maryland. We just watched Bob and followed along as best as we could. His wife and senior students spent more time in actually teaching. Bob did say that all references to martial arts were removed in describing the positions. I was not a senior student so I don't know if he taught the martial arts applications, at least he didn't in the class I was in.

Thanks, this a relevant to me right now. I subbed.

Thanks, needed this today. Feel like not enough time to learn all that I want. I decided to organize what I want and thus it is not just free floating thoughts about it. Also the old adage, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

CMC made beautiful contributions with Tai Chi for health, social interaction, moving meditation, stress relief and exercise. Bravo!

Great to see you still flowing, mOnk! Happy 2024! ☯️

It is possible to learn online 😀 I have done it 👍 is not easy. I learned the Yang Short Form of Cheng Man Ching, with a video tape done by Terrence Dun. One movement a week, for perhaps more than 37 weeks. Now is easier ❤ with internet. Cheers

excellent!!!👍👍👍😊

If you understand what Taijiquan is, it requires movement of the body from the dantian. All of the true neijia arts control the body from the dantian and its connections to the extremities. CMC's martial art doesn't move from the dantian, so no matter what art it is, good or bad, it is not a bona fide Taijiquan.

Absolutely agree, the world of Tai Chi is a broad church, so any approach that encourages acceptance, rather than criticism, is a breath of fresh air. My current teacher, my second CMC Tai Chi teacher, has his own way of teaching and through his teachers the CMC form has evolved in a particular way, just like my previous CMC Tai Chi teacher and his teacher. This is not "inventing something new", nor "straying from the path of tradition"; rather it is an evolution of Tai Chi to suit a different world to when it was first developed. Not all change is necessarily good or bad, but it is different in some way. Obviously, there may be some inventions or adaptions that result in Tai Chi forms to suit many purposes, e.g.: sport, self-defence, mindfulness, wellness, spiritual development etc. The hard core fighters will seek the version that suits them, or not. The new age searchers will choose the version that suits them, or not. In between is a whole spectrum of schools, teachers, lineages etc. My personal experience is that the CMC approach to Tai Chi Yang style was to distill its fundamental principles. In so doing, I have found that the focus on those principles is what helps to see the same principles at work in all other styles, systems and people who practise them. If we all did it the same way, then we'd be robots and not human. If we only focused on technique and applications, then we might never really know our true nature beyond that. It's an interesting journey that has some grim practice mixed with hearty laughter, we should never take ourselves too seriously - it's just Tai Chi... An annecdote about belts and certificates: I remember someone asking a teacher of mine, John Kells, about the chance of some kind of recognition, such as a belt or certificate. The answer he got perhaps wasn't what he wanted, as he was told that the only belts the teacher had were his and used for holding up his trousers! Regarding the certificate, he pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and asked "What would you like me to write on it?". It was a moment of realisation that these things are worthless, because what really matters is what you have inside of you and how willing you are to work at it for no reward or self-gain.

Very, very jarring to hear Austin Powers coming out of CMC's mouth xD Nice insert. I find when I can't be arsed to run through any forms, I'll just stand and do sink reeling for a few minutes until my breath sinks to the dantien and I start feeling a little flow. Once I'm warmed up, it's a much smaller jump from standstill to working on stuff. Like going for a stroll before the gym to get the blood flowing so when you get there you can jump right in ^_^

JEZZA!!! How dare you M0nkman! I think I bowed down in front of this Grandmaster at some point in the 80's. If you can have Goat Yoga (a real thing - look it up!) then why not Lama Tai Chi and all that comes with it? I am running down to the bank now to withdraw all my money and give it the Grandmaster for his teachings.

You make some good points, and it goes to show that CMC had a huge influence on Tai Chi today. But as you say it is a different direction, one that is notably very liberal relative to traditional teachings. The reality is that the traditional methods offer things that are deep and significant in their own way, which can't be easily accessed by such a liberal approach. There is nothing wrong with tradition. It doesn't mean one is better than the other, and it may sound like a marketing point... and it is :) just like the CMC approach has its own marketing points. Tradition has its good points. Traditional lines can also be "relaxed" and "playful". Traditions are always working on that balance between evolution and preservation. It's a mistake to think that traditions are so rigid... you can see the opposite is true by looking at generational differences in the forms of "masters". If things were rigid, they would all look and do everything the exact same. Further, if traditions relied on this exactness to survive, then arguably they would be impossible to sustain in the long run when teachers are unable to pass things on. Evolution and innovation is there, but obviously it is within a bounds. The people who are perhaps most vulnerable to the pitfalls of tradition are those who think traditions are by nature unchanging. To avoid the trappings people need to learn the culture, for example, so they can be able to identify when the term "master" is being abused and misused, or when foreign or extraneous ideas are introduced. Note that Taiji originates from farming villages, but the elites introduced the classics, and now people worship them. If they questioned the origins and learned the history, maybe that wouldn't be so.

Always a pleasure Paul. Summer here in Canada has been preety horrid as weeks of wildfire smoke, again. Looking forward to winter and some quiet hibernation practice of taiji. Strange question, do you have any tattoos? If not, what tattoo would you get? A teapot? Bamboo stalks? A posture in the form? A dragon or snake or crane? Something zany?