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Tai chi as a martial art
It is not about
anger,
It is about peace.
It is not about power,
It is about grace.
It is not about knowing your enemy,
It is all about knowing yourself.
(Bulletproof Monk)
Self defence courses
A two-day
self defence course may teach you all
manner of tips and pointers, and
boost your confidence considerably.
But nothing has fundamentally changed. You are still the same
person who started the
course.
Only now you have a few more ideas in your head than before.
Do you earnestly believe that you are now capable of defending
yourself?
Whole-body movement
Every tai chi exercise should offer
you an opportunity to gain internal power and move in a loose but
fully-integrated manner.
This is your foundation level of skill in self defence: whole-body
movement.
If you cannot move in a
soft,
relaxed, connected fashion, then you will have no internal power and will
resort to muscular
tension
when put under pressure.
A variety of standing and moving qigong exercises, along with pushing hands,
intuitive escapes, yielding and other partnered exercises will develop this
ability if taught correctly.
This constitutes the
beginners syllabus.
How?
Neigong
is the next area of skill to be considered.
Each movement you make must be internally infused with additional power, so
that even the slightest turn can affect the opponent.
Your
attention is
placed upon the
means,
the
process
- for they are responsible for the end result.
Only when you understand
how
the body is generating every single
movement can you use your body
effectively.
What?
Martial
drills train you to move without thinking, without
dithering or hesitating.
You learn to stay
composed
when faced with the unknown.
Then, the challenge is to handle
multiple attackers who aim to grapple, punch and kick you.
It is imperative that you can deal with being hit by an attacker and possess
the ability to gravity strike them in return.
No
aggression.
No
anger.
No muscular tension. No
techniques.
No plans. No doubts.
This constitutes much of the work a student undertakes as they move through
the grades.
Pressure-test
A student undergoes challenges that test their ability to successfully evade and
counter multiple attackers who are
exuberantly
attempting to strike or grapple them.
Stylised practice that requires conscious thought will leave you
floundering.
Muscular tension will fail you and prevent smoothness.
You have to give in and rely upon your conditioning.
Nobody leaves a grade without confidently completing the
challenges.
Unnatural naturalness
Our students must train to a point where unplanned responses
occur.
Instead of thinking, the student instinctively moves.
They evade, counter and complete.
This may be referred to as 'unnatural naturalness' and is an unconscious level
of competence.
The student does not think about what they are doing.
They just do.
Until you can simply 'do', you are not an experienced exponent.
You must transcend
the point where conscious thought intrudes.
Subtle
Lao Tzu wrote that great skill goes unnoticed.
This is the aim of tai chi self defence: to avoid being hurt without
drawing attention to yourself.
Ideally, you should avoid having to even hurt the attacker. You only
want to deter them.
Tai chi for self defence
When you have obtained your black belt, you should be capable of
defending yourself using tai chi.
This is not the end of your training. It is just the beginning.
Your use of tai chi in self defence changes how you view tai chi and how
you see the
curriculum.
You must learn how to defend yourself against a
knife and incorporate
increasingly subtle
skills into your training.
Gravity striking must give way to
fa jing and your
practice must continue to soften without any loss of power.
Syllabus
If you want to use your tai chi in self defence, your training
should include:
Chin na
- cavity press
- sealing the breath
- dividing the muscle
- misplacing the bones
Conditioning exercises
- seasoning the body to combat
- strengthening joints, bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments
Countering punches, kicks and grapples
- solo attacker
- multiple attackers
Countering a knife
Energy work (qigong)
Escapes
- from a wide variety of holds, locks and situations
Floor work
Form application
Gangs/multiple opponents
Internal power
- neigong
- reeling silk
Self defence
Striking
- fa jing
- using body weight
- striking bags, target pads and people
- punch, palm, finger, elbow, shoulder, knee, kick
Weaponry
- sticks, knives, swords
- improvised weapons
- modern weaponry (rather than ancient)
Page created 1 August 2000