Taijiquan (t'ai ch'i chu'an) roll call!

PREPARE TO DIE!

Guess which one is me.

We never messed with uniforms or robes or leggings. A black pair of gussetted drawstring pants and a yellow t-shirt was all we used.

http://www.taichiherb.com

You can still see pix of me pushing hands in the photo gallery.

http://breath2000.org/rites_files/image004.gif

I realized that I had relied too much on plain old western work-out routines for the past few years and I was no longer flexible like I used to be. My chest and shoulders only 'give' to the point where I can get a "u" shape, but "v" shape comes more naturally. I did add quite a bit more bulk in my shoulders, but I didn't realize it was such a *chunk* of meat. I felt like I was totally in the right position, too! The only reason I even noticed was because we recently placed a full-length mirror where I was attempting this. When I saw my reflection, I was disgusted to the point that all my hard work to get a "ripped chest" seemed like such a complete waste I immediately wished I could lose the muscle. I felt fat or something.

PREPARE TO DIE!

It's true, my eka pada kundinyasana is fearsome but asana practice, while good physical and mental training, is a poor fighting technique.

Still... if one could -- somehow combine -- Patanjali's "eight-limb path" with -- Thailand's "Science Of Eight Limbs"! That man would be -- invincible!

Mahalo, y'all. I'm much curious about the chinese disciplines, but lack for hours in the day. Xing-i seems the most practical, but so much seems to depend upon the individual teacher, school, and practicioner...

There's a group of old Chinese women and men who do tai chi in the mornings in a parking lot near my company- I walk past them when I'm walking to work through the Internation District. They're out there pretty much every morning, even in the rain.

Be like water...

Heh.

Actually, once I was doing taiji in the rain and was performing the movement "Hands separate the clouds" when the drizzling stopped. I was a little freaked out.

No! That is exactly the point! My ass hangs *down* like a V. By struggling, the best I can get is a U shape. There is a build-up of inflexible chest and shoulder muscle which is nothing but scar tissue, I'm afraid.

This was when I really started to realize that actual strength was not as closely related to how strong someone looked as I tended to think. You know, Bruce Lee, for instance. My friend Mike is ridiculously strong, but to look at him with his clothes on you would think he's a pussy, I suppose. He's been doing Tiger Schulmann for over 10 years and he can bench 300 pounds or something with ease, but he looks completely normal and has a very small frame.

Good luck, though.

I learned tjq as a martial art with some meditative properties, not as a meditative art with some martial properties, so my focus has always been on observable cause and effect type stuff. That said (granting that my mandarin is basically nonexistent) chi is a pretty ambiguous, or if you prefer "multifaceted," word so it's used in several different ways. The important ways that I've learned to talk about chi are...

1 - air/breath.

2 - biomechanical motion

and possibly

3 - caloric expenditure

That's it. I'm not interested in meridians or 5 element theory or feng shui or any of that stuff. I'm interested in aligning my skeletal and muscular structure and employing proper breathing to put as much force into my striking and grappling movements as possible.

Yeah, that seems reasonable, Austin. I was actually thinking about this notion after my last post, and I think chi makes sense as a functional principle, like "vitality" or "life value" (i.e., do this because it's of benefit), but I can't get behind pseudo-scientific concepts of it as a force of energy that has magical healing properties or that you can use to zap people or whatever-- show me the guy zapping people with visible chi bolts like in the movies and maybe then I'll believe that shit. It just seems like a case of esoteric/spiritual vs. popularized forms of religious knowledge to me. My first Tai Chi instructor had a fair bit of wack stuff that he seemed to believe in-- like the way the magnetic poles of the earth operated in determining the best time for human beings to sleep. Uh, you sure it's not really circadian rhythms that does that, sifu?

I'm more interested in meditative applications than martial ones myself (maybe I'm just too lazy to learn how to defend my ass against getting kicked, but the only hazardous street combat situation I've ever been in I could have easily avoided if I'd been practicing proper mindfulness at the time). Tai Chi seems to have obvious virtues in this regard, but formal sitting practice seems to suit me better, and isn't bound up with superstitious notions to the same extent (duh, I guess-- that's kind of the point of zazen). It's not like you need "Taoism" to "attain the Tao", anyway.

I just like rasslin' better than meditation so my favorite thing in taiji is pushing hands, and like I said in the yoga thread I'd like to get into BJJ etc. too.

Great description of the utility of the concept of "chi". When I studied I never much cared whether or not it was demonstrable experimentally, but it became more and more useful as a concept to help correct movements and stances.

"My chi's all bunched up in my trapezius, yo."

has anyone here done t'ai chi? is it worthwhile? and (this is key), what are the chances I can teach myself how to do it?

yes

yes

as far as understanding martial application, basically 0%. As far as getting some light cardio basically 100%

any tips on where to start? youtube vids? or a book/site?

A real, live teacher. There is no substitute.

ah okay...shit. another thing i'll have to wait till I have a job to do.

Preferably one who begins you on 'push-hands' excercises very quickly.