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Outliers?
Have you read the book
Outliers?
Or Robert Greene's Mastery? These books explain how successful people did not just become good at their
art
through the ordinary idea of
hard work.
Usually there was a whole range of background factors in play...
Typically they sacrificed in ways we cannot remotely imagine (time,
money, effort,
wrong turns, bad
teachings, career, family, security, social life
etc).
Black belt
Very few people get a black belt in any
martial art.
They do not make the necessary degree of effort.
It is that simple.
Those who do pass a black belt often treat it like some sort of
graduation and quit the art immediately, never to train again.
Sifu Waller went way past black belt decades
ago...
I feel extremely lucky to have
found a martial arts school where integrity and being a nice person matters,
this is missing from every school I have ever attended.
(Dave G)
Life
In Sifu Waller's case he was pretty much obsessed with martial arts as a child,
trained as often as he could and established a daily training regime when only a
boy.
His skills are the outcome of a lifetime of martial arts classes,
daily training
and an impossible number of hours
partner work.
Active
As a youngster, Sifu Waller attended Cub Scouts, Scouts, Air Cadets, karate and
judo classes.
He went hiking, fell walking, running, orienteering and
camping.
His daily cycle circuit was a steep 20 mile route.
Sifu Waller also loved to cycle in The Yorkshire Dales every Sunday morning - a
punishing 80 mile round trip (to and from Halton Gill).
Started work in 1982 (21 hours a week) - whilst still in school
- at the local green grocers
- lifting sacks of potatoes, carrying boxes and doing manual chores.
Whilst studying 5 x A-levels at college he worked as a part-time postman and ran the
route with the 40lb sack.
External martial artist
Sifu Waller was already a martial
artist when he started tai chi.
He had trained externally (judo,
karate, ju jitsu, aikido, pencat silat, tangsoodo, wing chun, pak mei,
yiquan) for a decade.
He was well accustomed to practice,
rigorous training and combat.
Instead of starting with an advanced
martial art, Sifu Waller practiced less sophisticated
external systems first.
Partners
For a period of at least 20 years Sifu Waller had a wide circle of martial arts
friends who served as his practice partners.
He was able to train combat
most days of the week.
His teacher
From the 1980's through to 2004, Sifu Waller was training with Peter Southwood
3-5 times a week. He had more than
500 private lessons with
Peter,
along with weekly classes and workshops.
After 2004 they trained together less frequently but shared insights most weeks
by e-mail and phone.
Traditionalist
Traditionally, in China a martial arts instructor was very reluctant to take on
new students. How come? If the student's skills were inadequate it
would directly reflect on the teacher.
On a mild level, this made the teacher look incompetent and affected their
reputation. More seriously, it could mean that the teacher would be put to
death for failing in their responsibility.
Consequently, traditional tuition tended to be harsh and severe. The
teacher hammered the student and adhered strictly to Confucian terseness.
Peter Southwood followed this method.
I feel stronger and much more
supple. Get less aches and pains, flexibility greatly improved. Also feel
mentally stronger and more relaxed.
More relaxed when dealing with attackers. Unlike other martial arts, Sifu
Waller's tai chi is extremely pragmatic with regards realistic attacks.
The training is friendly and relaxed yet still effective. There is no
pressure put upon the individual. You train at your own pace and progress as
you wish. Everyone in the class is treated the same, there are no favourites
or cliques like most martial arts classes.
(Paul B)
Tai chi &
bagua
Peter Southwood required Sifu Waller to study both arts simultaneously.
In the first year Sifu Waller learned:
Every qigong exercise in the syllabus
Bagua palm changes, mother palms, circle walking, figure of 8, 9 palaces, direction changes etc
Weapons drills
Leg stretches
Pushing hands
He was encouraged to
stand for 20-30 minutes each day, train every qigong exercise, form and
drill (each day).
For bagua Sifu Waller was told to take
1000 steps each day (this takes
17 minutes).
This training took place before and
after full-time work every day.
Conditioning
For the first 5 years of tai chi tuition, Peter
Southwood offered no martial training at all.
It was all about strength-building,
coordination, mobility,
stamina, accuracy,
whole-body movement,
whole-body power and patience.
This traditional approach was designed to
test the resolve of the student and ensure that
the necessary fundamentals were
established.
No tai chi combat
In lieu of internal combat skills,
Sifu Waller had to make do with his existing external martial knowledge and
practice that with his friends.
Application
After 5 years, Peter Southwood was satisfied with the training.
He told Sifu Waller to start applying the art against his
practice partners. He provided no guidance or examples.
Sifu Waller was required to show an application and it was
assessed: a
simple Yes/No with no explanation.
If a lion could speak, we could
not understand him.
(Wittgenstein)
6 more
Once Sifu Waller could apply every movement of the Long Yang form adequately
he was asked to produce another 6 applications.
It was only after Sifu Waller had successfully applied the Long Yang
form in its entirety did Peter teach him martial sets, along with
shuai jiao and
chin na applications.
This teaching method is the traditional Chinese
method designed to ensure that the applications are unique to the
individual, valued by them and bespoke.
Martial skills
Sifu Waller was expected to perform every form/chin na/shuai jiao
application 100% accurately before learning the
next one.
The opponent was to be uncooperative
and actively try to impede the application.
Chin na in particular has many types of skills and Peter stressed the
importance of competence in all facets of chin na.
Sifu Waller was told to counter his own applications and figure out how to
escape from every chin na.
Neigong
Neigong was not explained. It was simply shown.
There was no verbal instruction until Sifu Waller could
identify what was
taking place in the body, how it worked and reproduce it in his own practice.
Watching Sifu Waller with the higher grades it struck me how he uses minimal
movement and effort, it makes other martial arts seem very clumsy and
disjointed, the more I see the more I am starting to appreciate the beauty
behind the tai chi art. I have on my messenger "There are no ordinary
moments! especially in tai chi" and each lesson with you two does not
disappoint.
(Damian)
Other schools
Sifu Waller was given addresses and dates for other martial arts/tai chi classes
in the region and expected to try out the class.
Peter indicated that he should explicitly state that he was a tai chi student
but not use any tai chi skills whatsoever in the new class.
This is an old Chinese method that was designed to show the student just what
they are being taught.
Only by comparison to other approaches will the student fully appreciate the
value of what they are
learning.
More...
Page created
18 November 2007
Last updated
16 June 2023