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| Partner work mistakes | ||
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Have perspective
Partner work is not
combat.
In fact, it is the opposite of combat.
It is a means of safely practicing fundamental skills in a safe,
predictable, controlled manner.
Partner work is an opportunity to carefully
refine basic skills.
To train positioning,
leverage, balance, centre without worrying
about fighting.
Learning
difficulties
A lot of the learning
difficulties encountered by students are of their own making.
The most obvious being the lack of home practice.
The less obvious is confusion concerning the
nature of what you are doing in class e.g.
applications...
In the lower grades the
student is learning how to combine a variety of principles in order to learn
how to apply a given application/movement.
This is not combat. Actual combat is not addressed
until the higher grades.
The movements are difficult and often performed in opposition to a fellow
trainee. Because of this, students quickly become disciplined and aware of
the need not to be hurt or to hurt others. The aggressive urges that brought
the student to the training hall are soon controlled, and guided into
constructive activity by the instructor. Under this guidance, the student's
confidence grows and fear recedes. At the same time an awareness of physical
being, of the body's shape, size and potential ability, is born.
(Howard Reid)
Time wasting
If your partner is being awkward
then not only do you have to think about the principles,
range, positioning, peng
etc...
You also have to deal with your partner's
attitude.
This wastes time and hinders learning.
Context
Why is application training not combat?
Easy.
In combat you never tell your attacker
what you are going to do.
If they tense up and fight you,
you do something else.
Fighting during partner practice is pointless
and retards progress.
It is not realistic.
Martial arts are dangerous
The British Medical Association Guide To Sports Injuries states:
Combat sports such as boxing, judo, karate or kung fu make tough demands on the body; training is intense, and participation requires all-round fitness. Regardless of the fitness of the participants, however, the aggressive blows traded between opponents means that these sports always carry a serious risk of injury.
Common mistakes
Avoid
these errors:
(i) Defender
You must never force a rooted person to move. This is just strength against
strength and is not tai chi.
If your partner does not move you must change your relationship relative to
them by stepping or turning.
Make it difficult for the person to balance.
Stay slightly out of range, so that your attacker must step to reach you.
Stepping involves commitment.
Timing is essential.
If your partner is awkward and resistant, strike them, but do not push into
them. Make the strike percussive.
Feel the physics: when you exert force, much of it comes back into you.
What is the sense in that?
(ii) Attacker
If you are playing the attacker, do not be too awkward. Ask yourself: are
you being realistic? An awkward attacker is still vulnerable to striking, no matter how strong
they think they are.
The human body has areas of fundamental weakness. When you are struck, your
body will weaken.
Being awkward may prove difficult if you are in pain or otherwise
compromised.
Exuberant play is the key. Have fun. Do not turn a training exercise into a
contest.
(iii) Peng development
drills
Certain exercises require you to test a person's peng by pushing against a
connected student:
4 directions (with a partner)
Palm at 3 distances
Posture testing
Solo qigong exercises that need to be tested for structural stability i.e. plate exercise
The connected student must not tense-up or push back. They
should maintain the posture without collapsing. Ideally, you should feel soft and springy, with a notable 'give'.
You
yield, but maintain connection.
Do not mistake these exercises for application.
In all other exercises, drills and partnered sets, you must yield when force
is exerted upon you.
The connection should be internally maintained but you follow the line of
force in order to borrow its energy.
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Many beginners like to 'try it on' during
a training exercise. They apply throat holds and techniques, and refuse to let go when their
partner has performed a restrained counter.
Drills are not fighting.
They serve a simple purpose: to teach a principle, skill or sensibility.
If you make every game into 'life or death', then what are you learning?
What are others learning when they train with you?
When training a
drill, do not ask about the combat component or what
you would do next in a 'real life' situation.
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Tai chi avoids
locks and holds. What is your partner doing with their other arm, or their legs?
Restraining the attacker is risky.
You are also holding yourself... are you not?
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The striking methods of tai chi are not
suitable for full power training. We are learning combat, which means that restraint is your primary
concern.
If you cannot regulate how much power you are using, then you are clumsy and
will not advance very far through the syllabus.
People who are desperate to practice full contact work are naive about
consequence.
There is no honour in injuring somebody or beating them down with your bare
hands.
Students learn to always make contact and never pull their punches short of
the target.
Every blow must touch the opponent and have power. The degree of power is
carefully controlled.
It is important to respect your practice partner and avoid harming them.
Full contact work tends to be upon target pads, not other people. Although
learning to hit and take a hit is important.
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There is no use of muscular tension in tai chi.
Until you understand this, you will never make real progress in the
syllabus.
Bow tension, inherent peng and groundpath involve no tensing whatsoever.
Only the least experienced student continues to use muscular tension as they
progress through the syllabus. But you cannot go very far until you have
shed this misconception.
Tai chi uses jing, not li. Do not perform it like an external art. Your
touch must be feather-light.
Imperceptible.
The art is predicated by yielding. Yielding is everything. Without it, you
are not even doing tai chi.
If you are found to be using tension at any point in the syllabus you will
be placed in a revision group in order to get rid of this bad habit.
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Tai chi speed is not accomplished by being fast.
It is about relaxing the nervous system and being smooth. Seeing
opportunities and doing only what you need to do.
This requires sensitivity
and awareness.
Subtle. Try never to alert you attackers nervous system by using jerky movement.
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The lower grade training lays the foundation for combat.
Experienced takes it further.
A beginner should not be 'sparring' with people outside of class
(friends/family) or otherwise fighting.
You are simply not ready for this.
You are only studying a limited percentage of the
overall syllabus. There is plenty of vigorous combat work ahead of you. So be patient
and learn the
basics.
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Remember that a beginner is only exposed to a
fraction of the overall syllabus. What assumptions can you make based on a fragment of the whole?
Can you earnestly claim to have mastered any of the drills you are learning? Mastery means that you can perform it effortlessly; without thought, without
trying.
It does not mean that you have finished learning. There is always more to
learn.
Some beginners make the mistake of thinking that they have 'got it'. All knowledge is provisional and subject to change.
One is taught in accordance with ones fitness to learn.
(The Silent Flute)
As you change, your insights change. What you know now will seem naive in 5
years time.
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There are no techniques in our tai chi. External techniques
and applications have no place with Sifu Waller.
Please leave your past at the door and open your mind to the new.
We are teaching options, variables, possibilities, openings, opportunities
and physics. A technique is a fixed response. It involves deliberate planning and
conscious thought.
Can you commit to a technique when the attacker has
friends?
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(i) Teaching
Do not ask other students to show you material unless they are a recognised
teaching assistant. If somebody asks you to do this, decline.
Leave the teaching to Sifu Waller.
If he wants you to show something to your partner, he will ask you to do it
directly.
Only the most naive person asks another novice to teach them. The
blind leading the blind?
(ii) Advice
You are quite welcome to give the following advice to
your practice partner:
You are tense
You are using force against me
You are banging against me
You are just using your arms
You are being clumsy/rough/brutal/holding my throat
You are trying it on
You have lost your composure
You are leaning
You are off-balance
You are not making contact when you strike
These are easily observable faults and you do not need to be
an instructor to see them.
If you choose to ignore somebody who wants to help you, then that is your
choice and also your shortcoming.
(iii) Teaching assistant
If a teaching assistant offers to show you something, that is alright
providing Sifu Waller has expressly directed them to do so. Remember:
there are no tai chi teaching assistants.
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A student cannot get very far without working on their
brain.
There is a reading list that you might consider
studying.
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If your first instinct is to use your hands, you are already
failing.
Move the body first.
Place your hands by all means, but do not use them. Use the body and let the
hands connect as part of the whole.
High-level material looks more hands-oriented, but this is an illusion. The
internal is simply less apparent.
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Be patient with
yourself. Ploughing through the syllabus will not work. Take your time.
Understand the aim of the drill. Learn the skill being taught by the drill.
What’s the rush?
Without the basics, your progress will be slow. You will only comprehend tai chi if you understand the basic skills. The ongoing syllabus will elude the impatient student.
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It is quite easy to fall into bad habits
during partner work. The training needs to remain crisp and purposeful.
Each exercise is designed to train particular skills.
Sloppy practice
reduces the effect of the exercise.
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Consider the purpose of any given exercise: what skill are
you training? If in doubt, ask - there is no point fumbling with the drill.
With the purpose clear in mind, it is possible to consider the way in which
you are addressing the partnered exercise.
Are you practicing the fundamentals?
Is your positioning good?
Do your muscles contract at any point? Have you come to rely upon speed and
strength?
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During pushing legs practice you should be practicing
yielding and neutralising. Often, people simply neutralise.
It is important to let your partner yield to your leg and in turn, yield to
theirs.
Build-up from the initial skill and then make it more complicated.
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People usually rush this exercise and the redundancy is very
high.
Most of the opportunities are lost by not taking the time to work around
your partners limb and experience their tension and balance.
Yield.
With practice, this drill will enable you to see without your eyes once
contact is established.
Do not waste the exercise by being careless.
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Do not push against a stationary opponent and do not allow
them to exert force upon you.
4 ounces of pressure must be maintained at all times during every partner
drill hands and tai chi application.
If the exercise feels difficult or your partner is stiff, then yield.
Be very careful to connect through your body and aim at your partners
centre.
Do not get caught in a 'circling hands' game.
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Page created 2 March 1995
Last updated
16 June 2023
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