Form
The older athlete regards form as a means of energy conservation and the great athlete saves energy because his extra skill makes each motion more effective – he makes fewer needless motions and his conditioned body uses less energy per movement.
(Bruce Lee)
Movement
Most people have seen groups of
tai chi students moving together
in a dance-like sequence.
This is referred to as 'form'.
The definition of the word 'form' is: "shape, appearance, the
way in which a thing exists".
Form
The sequence of moves, the pattern - this is not form.
Form is
how you move. Form is the
quality/nature/character/essence
of your movement.
Without
shen, without heart, without
intent - you have no form.
Students sometimes perform the sequence and you can see an absence in their
eyes.
They are either
staring,
conceited or distracted. They are trying too hard.
An accurate pattern of moves is not enough. It must be alive. It must have
spirit.
Form is the expression of
wholeness and this integrity should be evident in every movement
you make.
Posture
The tai chi 'form' is one long movement in which the body
explores a variety of different shapes.
It serves to train mind and body to move in the
tai chi way.
For
beginners, the form is split into segments referred to as
'postures'.
The definition of the word posture is: "the
way in which a person stands or moves".
Unfortunately, for many people the word also has the
connotation of fixity which can be very misleading.
Tai chi chuan form is not yoga - we want to move - not hold a
position. Tai chi chuan is the movement
itself rather than a sequence of held shapes.
Embryonic
The rounded abstract tai chi form was designed to
contain all the applications of the system without the need for additional
sequences/forms/katas.
Form postures are embryonic moves teaching the underlying principles, not
set responses.
Bruce Frantzis successfully extracted three to four
hundred applications from the first 5 postures of the
Yang Cheng Fu
form.
One form
Yang Cheng Fu and the other famous historical tai chi teachers did not
collect forms and styles.
They trained one form and focussed on that.
Form collecting
is a modern habit which arises when a student is unwilling to commit the
necessary practice to mastering a form.
In short, the student gets bored.
A form is a complete record and repository of the system.
It contains every strategy, skill, movement required to gain a good sense of the
art.
Our students learn the small circle version of the
Yang
Cheng Fu form.
This uses economical postures, easy stepping and features a great deal of
internal movement.
Most of the tai chi syllabus is drawn from the teachings of this form.
Two forms?
Students learn pao chui,
which means 'explosive fist'.
It is a 2 person set,
although it can be trained solo as a form.
Pao chui does not replace the small circle Yang Cheng Fu, nor does it repeat
the postures.
Instead, it explores ways in which ideas from the form can be applied in
combat against another tai chi practitioner.
Structure
For
self defence and
health reasons the form has certain restrictions that
we place upon the movements.
By
limiting how far the body can turn we can build up internal tension, like
a spring waiting to be released.
This massages the internal organs and can be harvested for self defence.
The structural parameters also ensure that we cannot over-commit ourselves
and lose the
centre.
Our aim is to establish and maintain the optimal framework for health and
combat.
Through water
It is commonly said that the body should move as if through water.
This is to encourage the student to establish
groundpath by applying slight pressure in
the hands during every movement.
Quite often, this just leads to postural tension because beginners use too much
strength.
Page created 2 May 1998