Getting stronger

You can undertake the hardship of the walk without undue difficulty. You need to use just as much energy to complete it.

Yet, your body has grown stronger. More efficient. Compared to somebody who does not undertake daily training you will be far more capable of sustained exercise.

What is condition?

Consider this example:

You decide that you are unfit and you commit to a 3 mile daily walk every morning. On the first day when you complete the walk, you are out of breath and your limbs are shaky.

After two weeks you can finish the walk without losing your breath and you feel pleasantly energised.

Eventually the walk feels too easy and you look to try a more challenging route. What has changed?

Full contact

When people say 'full contact' they are typically referring to no-holds-barred combat, unrestrained, without rules... But what do they really mean by full contact? That they hit one another?

That they use full-power?

• If you apply a break full-power then the bone will snap
• If you strike full-power then there will be internal damage or death
• If you throw full-power there will be concussion or serious injury

Our students are required to make contact, but are not permitted to use full-power under any circumstances.

Most people do not train martial arts in order to be injured or crippled. They want the ability to defend themselves in a varied, realistic manner. They do not want to get hurt in class.

 Our next induction course is Monday 6th July.

New starters are welcome!

Self defence courses

Self defence courses show a limited range of techniques designed to provide the illusion of genuine martial competence against a real life assailant...

The untrained person panics in the face of genuine threat. Their emotions take over and they freeze. A self defence course will not rid you of panic in just 3 lessons.

Such a course will give you an inflated sense of your own competence. This might prove fatal against a serious attacker.

If an instructor really feels that a youngster not yet into puberty is worthy of a black belt ranking in an art, what does that say about the sophistication and profundity of the art? What would you think of a college that awarded degrees to kids learning their multiplication tables?

The only people who were ever impressed by a black belt were the absurdly uninformed general public.

(Dave Lowry)

Conditioning

Being in condition entails:

• Increasing your strength

• Improving your ability to last (endurance)

• Overcoming fatigue 

• Being fitter

• Being more efficient in your body use

• Being more capable

• Overcoming stress

• Improving circulation

Low stances

Low stances are a throwback to a time when martial artists wore heavy body armour and fought battles in muddy fields. The urban sphere is quite another scenario altogether.

Horse stance training is about developing leg strength, not combat. Your body usage needs to feel as comfortable and as natural as possible.
This will improve mobility, attract less attention and protect your knee joints.

If you cannot get power from an everyday standing position, you are overly dependent upon the hips and the solidity of your base. Whole-body movement generates power in a wave-like fashion.

A low stance is simply redundant.

Wushu

The modern off-shoot of Chinese martial arts is called 'wushu'. It combines martial art-style movements, gymnastics, acrobatics and dance choreographed to look exciting.

Wushu is all about aesthetics, theatrical displays and entertainment.

Traditional martial arts are not a performance art, nor are they sport.

Name-dropping

Some tai chi people love to 'name-drop'. They travel to see all manner of visiting masters and add them to their tai chi curriculum vitae.

Collecting forms and snippets of information is a popular pastime in tai chi.
What can you really learn from one workshop or a weekend seminar? Is a visiting expert really going to bare his secrets to a room of total strangers?

Be honest about this. Training with a renowned expert in no way translates to mean that you have been given that person's skill. Do not be naive.

The only proof of skill lies with the individual. What can you personally do? Your master may be brilliant at tai chi but you might be lousy.

Similarly, your instructor may be mediocre yet your skills are excellent.

Slow martial art

External martial art schools frequently add tai chi to their syllabus because it attracts students seeking something more relaxing.

Unfortunately, these classes often have no understanding of tai chi whatsoever. Instead of tai chi, they offer slow-motion movement. And that's it.

The tai chi principles are completely absent and the instructor is unaware of their existence. It may as well be a karate class practiced in slow-motion.

This is not tai chi, regardless of what is advertised.

Judging

(i) Hidden

Chinese martial arts were usually a family or village system used for self defence. Sharing with outsiders was not encouraged.
Tai chi was designed specifically to hide the applications and skills within an innocuous-seeming range of forms, drills and exercises.


(ii) Feeling

Tai chi skill can only be determined by how it feels. Martial arts are hands-on.
If your tai chi is generating the effect using the correct means, then this will be physically evident when you partner up with somebody else.
The very definition of 'jing' is somebody else's experience of your tai chi.


(iii) The Tai Chi Classics

Tai chi must adhere to the tai chi principles. Given the internal nature of tai chi, many of these cannot be gauged through observation.


(iv) Aesthetics

The danger with aesthetic concerns is that the context is askew.
People look for particular alignment considerations based on how nice they look instead of determining how they add to your ability to generate jing.
Tai chi is a living, breathing martial art in the hands of the right person. Arbitrary aesthetics will rob the practice of any viable self defence application.

Qigong in tai chi

A tai chi beginner is not adept with tai chi so they need to do a lot of qigong. It provides the necessary fitness benefits by serving as a stopgap pending higher level tai chi skill.

An advanced student starts practicing the round form version of the Long Yang form. This increases the fitness benefits of form; allowing them to spend less time training qigong.

Neigong replaces qigong as the primary source of power. An expert is more adept with higher level tai chi skill, so they only do a small amount of qigong.

There is simply no need to stand for an extended duration since greater benefits can be gained through whole-body movement.

Standing

(i) Muscle tension

Some qigong teachers expect students to hold static qigong postures for lengthy periods of time; even up to an hour.

This may be a challenge but the side-effect might easily be varicose veins, massive amounts of muscular tension and a decrease in higher level mobility.

(ii) Stop standing

Once the student has learned the weapons form they can cease standing qigong altogether if they want to. Prolonged standing may hinder higher levels of mobility with form.

(iii) Varicose veins

If you have varicose veins you should not undertake prolonged standing qigong.

The same thing every week?

If you are practicing the same thing every week, you are not making any progress. This is not education. It is a plateau; stagnant, dead and pointless. Learning requires development, change and growth.

In class and at home in-between lessons.

Make the time

Each stage of the syllabus offers new opportunities to build strength. There is plenty of time to learn the new material.

Aim to supplement class tuition with home practice. Home practice (optional but recommended) is usually staggered across the week.

Be selfish

Life offers many obstacles, surprises and set-backs. When it comes to your own fitness and wellbeing, you need to be very selfish.

Children grow up and leave home. Jobs end. Marriages fail.

There is never a time in your life when your fitness ceases to be fundamental. Put your fitness first. Invest the time. Find the time. Make the time.

The aim is to train every day. There is no need push yourself, strain your body or perform high repetitions.

Train gently. What is needed is presence and mindfulness. Have your mind on what you are doing and train slowly and carefully.

Conditioning exercises

The main qigong exercises contain all of the fundamental movements used in tai chi. But it takes time to really understand these methods.

You must train diligently for many years. By patiently working through the exercises day-after-day, you slowly become stronger.

Your clumsiness fades. Improved body awareness enables you to perform the exercises more effectively. Layer-upon-layer of detail increases your comprehension and your fitness improves significantly.

High repetitions are not recommended

High repetitions dull the mind. Aim to train little and often instead. Be thorough, accurate, aware. Cultivate familiarity and ease.

You want your movements to be natural, relaxed, smooth and controlled.