Tai Chi

Showing posts with label Push Hands. Show all posts

Tai Chi Push Hands: A Two-man Battle

When you came to know Tai Chi, somehow, you didn’t think of the other things and methods that it has to offer. Most often, people who are familiar to Tai Chi get to be introduced to Push Hands further in the program. Some Tai Chi schools will start on the very basic one-man show then advance to Push Hands the moment they are already familiar and adept to all techniques in Tai Chi

There is a need to discover and feel another’s energy through exercise. That is why Tai Chi Push Hands were taught. It is somewhat similar to sparring but without the hurting-each-other sort of bit. No punching, no kicking. It is a sport made so gentle wherein your only goal as a team player is to upset your opponent’s balance in the smoothest possible way.

First, participants will find a partner of their own whom they can share their talents with. The one beside you would be perfect. Bow at each other before you begin, just to show respect. Once the exercise begins, every participant’s outside hand must be placed on his or her opponent’s elbow while the inside hand is placed on the wrist. On cue, the match begins as the pair uses both their hands to push each other.

As one is pushing the other, they will have to concentrate deeply for them to be able to control each other’s energy. Shoving, in any manner, is prohibited and is not advised during exercises. The one who will win the match is the one who had been able to overcome his or her opponent’s energy and make the opponent stumble to the ground or loose his balance. Remember, this is not an exercise to of brute but an exercise of skill.

Students recognize the importance of Tai Chi in Push Hands because it complements the forms and meditations. If the task is performed in a correct way, every detail of Tai Chi can be reflected by means of the principles of yin and yang. Once Tai Chi is applied against an opponent, it instructs a different kind of balance, one that can’t be learned in any way. Push Hands participants are taught that using such minimum energy is more advisable because if excessive energy is used, it will be exploited by the opponent.

An attack is always aimed at the center of the human’s body. Diverting the attack is possible through circular movements. The body must always remain relaxed because if the body is stiff or tense, it will influence the center at any point. But if the person kept his or her body relaxed, the energy can be diverted or dissipated. At this point, reaction and awareness triumphs over aggression and force.

Push Hands aren’t used only for exercise purposes but also as a sort of competitive agreement. Chinese Martial Art now asserted Push Hands in competitions and is featured in tournaments. Match formats are always available. It is often accompanied by strict rules regarding the flow of the game and how every combat must proceed.

Practically, a person aiming out to join in such a competition will have a different emphasis on the moves and styles. Unlike a student who is just practicing Push Hands because it is part of their Tai Chi program.

Someone who is in the competition must have a certain level of strength and speed and must also be equipped with the knowledge of every movement to assert the format of the opponent.

Tai Chi used for Self Defense

Sphere: Related Content

Tai Chi or Tai Chi Chuan is a kind of exercise that doesn’t entail only meditative and relaxing states but also the martial art aspect. If can be a sort of self defense like judo or karate.

Tai Chi Chuan is also known as “Supreme Ultimate Fist”. Which means that it can be used in terms of grand styles in fighting. It uses the philosophy of the positive and negative energy which is known as the yin-yang symbol.

Tai Chi Chuan is somehow based on duality as the philosophy applies. It came centuries ago since the time of Taoism which is the basis of the martial art. This kind of martial art uses slow movements that flow through the different nerves and vessels of the body to develop relaxation, inner power (known as Chi) and leg strength.

Many questions involving the usage of Tai Chi in terms of martial art is given such contradiction. Tai Chi is an advanced level of martial. But that is all supported by backbone theories.

So the question goes, “How does this kind of slow motion exercise be a matter of self defense?” Contradictory to what other arts teaches you, in Tai Chi, you are taught to move slowly in order to move quickly. The precision of Tai Chi and impeccable coordinated movements give justice to the query. If done in a fast form, Tai Chi can doom to fail because it is equated to coordination and the sense of being one thus being done in quick but imprecise motion can end up with the crucial details to disappear.

Every posture has applications with regards to martial arts. You just have to find an instructor that is adept in explaining it all. Don’t settle with teachers that are fixed in one structure. An instructor who is skilled enough can teach you wide assortments of defenses and attacks.

Practice is a durable way of perfecting a specific move. You first start with your techniques. Through the practice of Push Hands, you can be trained about dynamics of the body and balance. It can be curtailed like that of the Judo enthusiasts.

Once Push Hands techniques are learned, you can naturally convert it as a form of martial art self defense or in an offensive manner. Now, if you already have joined any kind of martial art before, Tai Chi can be pretty effective in reconstructing your skill and enhancing it into something that can be translated as an improvement and a challenge.

Even though it was already stated several times now, people who are attracted to Tai Chi never consider it as a kung-fu type but as a form of relaxation and meditative process. And some would rather follow the crowd than make a jump out of the ordinary and consider other options that the exercise can be applied to.

Practically, Tai Chi is not a martial art BUT can be applied as one. You can’t be a black belt by being an expert in every Tai Chi strategy and movement, though the principles of fundamentality are always present. But if your teacher is really good, he or she can make you learn specific Tai Chi techniques and add-ons that will make you a better martial artist. Like the one with Push Hands.

It needs a specific kind of softness, pushing, yielding, pressing, neutralizing and rooting. These are only very few to mention but will greatly help you to become more potent.

Learning the Sword of Tai Chi

Sphere: Related Content

Usually, teachers will give the students sufficient time to practice all the basic moves first before quarrying in the more intense techniques. It will take a student at least 2-3 years of experience before letting him handle the tao (knife or short sword). If the student is really good and has already mastered all arts within a year, then he can be a candidate to learn the tao earlier than expected.

It will take a student at least 10 years of Tai Chi experience to handle the real thing. Point is, teachers take their craft very seriously. That is why some hesitate to teach the sword unless they are sure that the person can handle the blade in its essence. It is seldom to encounter a master that teaches the sword because it is a very dangerous thing to learn especially if the person in not really equipped to learn it. Some will not teach it at all.

That was before. In this generation, there are a lot of teachers that allow the students to learn the way of the sword, instantly, after knowing the basic of Tai Chi. As a sort of progression first, they would teach the students the basic things like standing meditation. Push Hands will come next. There would also be some specific moves like the Tchoung style in its fast form. Practicing these conveys a solid foundation of the techniques and movements of the body.

Weapons will be introduced. They have varieties of teachings regarding swords like tao, chien, etc. After mastering the independent use of the swords, they would continue to practice but this time, in twos. Practitioners will arrange the sword patterns then comes the moment of sparring.

When chien is used in sparring, it is like practicing Push Hands with a weapon. Similar circular movements are the ones that are used to nick, thrust, slice and cut. Chopping movements can be found in tao but not in chien applications.

Concepts
Every type of martial art revolves around concepts. An art’s methods of training must always reflect the concepts and must see to it that every movement is in harmony with the entire faculty. In Tai Chi sword, there are specifications, that wouldn’t be a surprise. Sadly, the stiff and wooden way that is taught by some instructors doesn’t reflect the energy predicted in Tai Chi.

Tai Chi Chuan derives its concepts from several forms of performing the chien single-handedly. Yang style is the most common form. It is composed of 56 – 64 movements. The variations of the standard pattern will greatly depend on the school of thought and the emphasis of each one.

During practice of the sword, a person must focus on the smoothness and calmness of the movement. The mind should be as calm as the quiet ocean to be able to reflect the innermost feeling of a person. The body must stay afloat like sailing into clear skies.

One of the reasons why people study the art of the sword is because the weapon brings the elements of the mind and the body in unity. To use the sword correctly, one must assume that is it a part of his body and not just a weapon of destruction.

He must realize that the sword is a matter of importance that when taken away is a bigger ordeal.

About Tai Chi Techniques and Training

Sphere: Related Content

Derived from the Taiji symbol which, in the Western areas know as the yin and yang, Tai Chi was said to be the practice that preserved the oldest schools of learning which study the receptive and active principles.

Core training has two features primarily: the solo form, which emphasizes slow sequence of movements maintaining a straight and firm spine, range of motion and fine abdominal breathing; and the Push Hands which involve training of the principles of movement in a more practical and convenient way.

As the word implies, the solo form of Tai Chi, requires only the one person to conquer the movements. It would take the students through a natural and complete range of motion over gravity’s center. If repeated accurately, the practice of the solo form can retain posture, maintain honest flexibility going through the joints and muscles, encourage proper circulation from any point of the student’s body, and let students be more familiarized with some of the important martial art application sequences that are usually implied by the different forms.

Major styles of traditional Tai Chi have forms that somewhat differ from the others, cosmetically. Some differ in the wave of the hands, in the position of the legs, the reaction of the body and the pace of the movement. But these are all irrelevant because what is important to Tai Chi training is that it benefits not only the body but the mind as well. Although, there are many similarities coming from the point of their common origin that are obvious enough to recognize.

Solo forms, weapons and empty-hands are movements that are commonly practiced individually in martial arts application and pushing hands. Scenarios like these are intended to prepare the students for training of self-defense.

The philosophy goes: if one becomes stiff and equally uses hardness in attending to violence, otherwise resisting it, then it is expected that both sides can be injured at a certain degree. An injury like that is a Tai Chi theory that coincides with the consequence of fighting brute with brute, which, in Tai Chi is far beyond the right attitude and style.

Unlike in other martial arts wherein force is applied to some measure, in Tai Chi, students are taught that instead of battling it out or directly resisting an incoming force, they should meet it with the must subtle movements and softness, following every attacking motion and in the end, exhausting the attacking force. This is all done while remaining at a close contact manner. This is the principle wherein the yin and yang is applied. If this method is done correctly, the yin-yang balance in combating is the primary goal of training Tai Chi.

Aside from that, Tai Chi schools also focus their attention on how the energy of a striking person affects his opponent. For example, the palm can strike physically looking the same and performing the same but has a different and dramatic effect on the target.

A palm can strike and push the person either forward or backward. It is done in such a way that the opponents are lifted vertically from the ground thus breaking and deforming their center of gravity.

After which, this technique can literary terminate the striking force within the body of the person with the dearest intention of causing traumatic internal damage.