subject: Tai Chi Chuan Instructor Has Not Had A Lesson In Tai Chi! [print this page] This is going to be the oddest article on tai chi you have ever read. I've never had a lesson in the art of Tai Chi Chuan, you see, but my tai chi is the best. I don't mean to be self serving, but let us see if you can argue with me after you have read how I came up with my tai chi.
I began my study of tai chi with a book, Lee Ying Arng Modified Tai Chi for Health. I spent hours a night memorizing the form, trying to figure out the applications, trying to figure out what it all meant. And, it didn't mean much.
So I went through books by Chen Man Ching, and I read Chen and Yang and Wu and Sun, but they all spoke this gobbledegook that didn't make sense. So I began doing my Karate, I had near ten years experience in Kang Duk Won karate, and the thing started to resolve. I was using good, old karate power to juice up the form, and it worked, and then I was able to make what was happening into Tai Chi power.
More important, I was neglecting all the bushwah philosophy and mysticism in the books and using physics. The martial arts, you see, are taught through the memorization of random strings of data. In physics you look for a reason, and a logic, and you define a concept.
Now, ancient stories claim tai chi was created in a dream by san feng after he watched a fight between a crane and a snake. Or, it was created by an old, retired general in a village who wanted to make up games for the children. Neither of these concepts can be proven, but we can't just discount them out of hand.
Maybe the general was old, couldn't do the martial arts proper, and so he moved slowly, so as not to hurt himself, and actually came up with something. And the vision of the snake and the crane, though I like physics I would not dare to disclaim the value of visions, which are dreams and inspiration, and at the heart of mankind. Still, whether rehabilitation of the infirm, or big dreams, tai chi does not make sense without physics.
So this is what I want you to do, I want you to go to a library and get a book on physics. Make it a simple book, kids pictures for illustrations, that sort of thing. It would really help if it was about a motor.
Now, read that book, and start asking yourself what terms are the same as in tai chi. Rooting is grounding, where is the generator, and so on. Do that, and when the face and guts of your tai chi chuan start to alter, do not come whining to me.
