Pushing Hands...like,cosmic dude. Really.

The captain of our fine Monkey Army is really coming up with the good stuff at the moment, and this new approach to pushing hands is no exception. The problem is, it's difficult enough to explain in the lesson, let alone in print. I expect you think that now I'm going to quote that Lao-Tzu thing about "he who knows doesn't speak" and all, but I'm not if only because it's becoming like a kind of disclaimer for wannabe -Taoist types trying to be mysterious. The idea is this (and it's not a new one,only to us....) you line up for Pushing Hands as per normal, except that this time you apply the bit from the Classics "Do not move befeore you oponent moves; when he moves, move quicker." And so you wait, and I mean really wait...
You have to keep your own intent and movements slight enough to catch the slightest whisper of effort from the opponent but you're not concentrating on what he/she is doing you are merely maintainng your own structure. You have the intent to push but you aren't pushing, you are letting the opportunity to push arise from , well, wherever it arises and then suddenly it happens, the push comes...
Bah, I knew it wuld be useless to try and explain. Give it a go. And don't come round here bothering me anymore, pesky kids...Try reading "Zen in the Art of Archery" by Eugen Herrigel overlooking his worrying later tendencies in life.

Procrastination rules...

Sorry for the lack of posts: I have been moving house and getting deeply involved with flatpack furniture. Normal service will resume soon...

Will the real tai chi chuan please stand up...?

Tai chi is known primarily for the handforms, for the particular way they look and the slow speed at which they are often performed. As I practise more, becoming ever more cantankerous and opinionated, I feel that this is one-hundred percent wrong. These aforementioned qualities are indeed part of the syllabus; but they are not the most salient characteristics of tai chi chuan: rather, it is the way we apply ourselves martially as guided by the tai chi ethos which stands out in comparison to other martial arts.
I have discussed before (see the post underneath) the notion of styles or trends of violence and of fighting, and part of the problem with tai chi chuan justifying itself martially is that few seem to be able to work out just what it should look like when someone "uses" their tai chi. This is how we end up with tai chi being tacked on to kung-fu syllabuses, or why tai chi-trained full contact fighters sometimes resemble bad kickboxers, or appalling wrestlers (there are of course many exceptions to this...)
The fact is that the competitions designed to showcase the art, by their very design, encourage training that is not particularly relevant to a tai chi syllabus. Pressure testing, conditioning and fitness aside, sparring on a large matted area with gloves and headguards on goes against the great majority of the skills we acquire in our training. The same goes for fixed and moving step competitions, if not even more so. The very movement approach of tai chi is unique: looking to close down the opponent, looking to make contact at the earliest possible moment, then using our sensitivity to spot holes, strike and go for the throw or sweep, all the while maintaining superlative evasion skills. I think I would go as far as to get rid of fixed step as an event altogether. Moving step would be amalgamated with the full-contact, with much smaller matted areas, the removal of gloves and starting from a non-contact position. This approach would allow grappling and evasion skills to come to the fore. Controversial or not? Give me your thoughts tai chi fans...
Here's a video of the late Chen Tin Hung showing us what his tai chi looks like...