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#1Why is Taiji movements are done so slowly?
#2 How do I begin to practice the Taiji?
#3 If I feel pain in doing the form, especially knee pain, what should I do?
#4 My teacher teaches a style called the Short Form and I wonder where does it originates from?
#5 What does it mean that my teacher is called a Sifu?
#6 Is Taiji a martial art or a spiritual practice?
#7 Can Taiji cure my sickness?
#8 How does one breath in Taiji?
#9 Is moving from the waist means the pelvis or the waist as in common English understanding?
#6 Is fighting or push hand a necessary aspect of Taiji training?
#10. Why is there difference in Styles of Taiji Quan, are manifestation and expression of each master's own personal profound understanding and their own needs.
#11 Why do we continue to practice the old Yang style and not the original better Chan style Taiji Quan?
Taiji Quan is done slowly as a learning speed. Once you have mastered the Taiji form, the movements can be speed up to the pace of fighting level. Remember, an attacker will not slowly throw a punch for you to apply the block in slow motion. The quickness of Taiji should be practice if one want to apply the martial aspects of the form.
I feel that for most student, they should begin the practice with a limbering stretches before doing the form. More important is to have a daily routine of morning practice before you start your day. This serves as a warm up for the rest of your day and you will find that your job would be not so exhausting.
The very first thing if you experienced any pain is to stop the exercise and consult a health professional and your teacher. Pain is often an indication that you strain your body and proper correction must be done for the posture and movement. Your teacher will help you on that. Or a competent Doctor, Physical Therapist, Movement Therapist will also able to analyses your postures. Remember pain is an indication of something is wrong, it is a message. If there was no previous injury to the knees, physical knee pain is often due to incorrect posture of twisting or weight bearing.
Unfortunately, there are many versions of the Taiji form called Short Form. However, one of the most popular Short Form is from Professor Cheng Meng Ching who created the form when he was hired to teach to the Chinese Military Academy during World War II. In three weeks he had to teach Taiji to a thousand officers. On the other hand, the other common short form is from Beijing China during the time of reformation of 1970's. A group of 200 Taiji teachers convened in the capital to revise the Taiji form to a simpler straight forward and linear pattern of only 24 movements. Both of this forms are wonderful introductory styles. But for a serious student who aspires to master Taiji, one should consider studying the classical style of the four families, Yang, Chang, Wu, Mo as well as the rare ancient Dragon style Taiji form from the Wudang Mountain.
The title Sifu means Teaching Father is a form of respect and acknowledgment of the basic Chinese concept of society as based on the family. A female teacher would also be called Sifu, not Simo which means wife of the teacher.
6. Taiji is both a spiritual, health and martial practice. But the training becomes very different is you choose to cultivate the spiritual aspect of Taiji--a student has to go deeper into Taoist meditation and the I Ching, Book of Change. While the health practice is to modify to your needs, this is the most relax and at ease form of cultivation. While the Martial training at this point I see that is too demanding, the simple Push Hand practice is not enough--for the training of fighting involves more than contact style of Push hand as a sport. To train to fight involves strategy, hard knocks experiences and real life confrontations. Just because one is a Push Hand champion in a tournament will not guarantee one to win in a street fight or even a life and death duel.
7. Curing
of diseases is a huge category. In general, you should have a competent
health profession, a doctor, to guide you in this healing journey.
Only then with this help and guidance, Taiji will complement and be integrated
to your healing strategy. Caution:
don't play doctor to your own sickness if you are not trained as one. I
have witnessed some horrific cases of misguided people in trying to heal
their sickness with self deluded convictions.
The basic premises of healing
in Chinese medicine is the unblocking of the Qi. Sickness in Traditional
Chinese Medicine is caused by the blockage of energy. In practicing
Taiji or Qigong if you can free up the penned up Qi flow then the sickness
will vanished.
8. Breath spontaneously and naturally without any effort, this is the best advice that I can give my students. All the other training of breath controls may have their merit but also danger as well. As you move, pay attention to any area in your chest that you may be holding the breath tight. Breathing should be silent without any noise or tightening the throat. A good breath is one that is free of all internal and external strain.
9. In Chinese,
moving from the waist means moving from the pelvis which is a bit lower
than most people think the waist in English means. Here is a simple
language misfiring and had misdirected many Taiji students.
10. For
example, master Yang Lu Chan, the founder of Yang style Taiji Quan was
the head of the Imperial Guard and personal teacher for the 13th Manchurian
Prince. He modified the Chan Style Taiji to fit the gentle life style
of an aristocrat, by deleting all the jump kicks and the foot stomping.
While he maintained the fighting aspects of Taiji when he taught it to
the imperial guards.
One of the most talented
Guard captain was Master Wu Gan Chuan's father, he in term passed onto
this fighting style to his son who later established the Wu Style as distinctively
different form from the Yang style.
The above is an accurate
historical analysis of the development of the Yang and Wu style.
11. The
original style of Chan Taiji is wonderful but itself had also gone through
many evolution to the modern version. Master Yang had put profound
change in the form to the demand of his time which is to practice the Taiji
for health and not for fighting. This orientation uniquely fit our
modern purpose of training in Taiji. All other styles of Wu, Sun,
Mo had evolved according to this health principle. It is not whether
one form is better than another, rather the relevant question is whether
one form serves what I need better. If you really are intend to learn
to fight, the Chan style is great but be careful, it could also caused
internal and skeletal injury if you do not practice it properly.
My own teacher Master Jou Jung Hwa, author of Tao of Taiji Quan, gave up
the Chan style practice in his 70's to focus on the Yang style for health.
A final thought, the ultimate
mastery of the Tao is formless. A great master is one who no longer
clings to form yet still can do the form without clinging to it.
In other word, one should be free of all form yet can do them all.
Why? Because at the level of true mastery, the principle of Taiji permeates
in all styles. If you work and practice with diligence and are fortunate
enough to study with a master, after serious training you can arrive at
this level of formless mastery. A living teacher Al Huang is a great
example of the formless master. I have the good fortune to see how
he move. Matter of fact, Al does not believe in any formal structure
of Taiji and challenge his students to evolve their own unique form.
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