Tai chi is not sport | ||
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Competing
Taoism sees no purpose in competition.
It is regarded as being hostile, conflictive and
ultimately without purpose.
Competitions serve to demonstrate something that has no meaning in terms of
tai chi.
Who are you fighting against?
The notion of a 'tai chi competition' is a contradiction in terms.
How can you employ tai chi in competition
when the art is predicated upon the principle of yielding?
What purpose does a competition serve?
What really is being proved?
Does a short-term gratification actually
have any positive long-term benefit?
There is no concept of an
enemy or opponent in tai chi.
Likewise, the emotions associated with either - anger, hatred, friendship -
also have no use and therefore play no role in this art.
(Scott Rodell)
Egotism has no place
Arrogance,
ignorance and pride are vanities that a tai chi student should not
indulge in.
Tai chi is about what is happening inside your
body, not how it looks.
Then there is the mind...
What is taking place in there?
Aesthetics
A lot of people learn tai chi and never realise that they are actually
learning a competition form.
24 step, 48 step, Peking, Beijing and the other numbered forms were devised
for the express purpose of demonstration.
A competition form is about the accuracy of the execution, the fluidity and
crispness of the appearance.
It is not about substance.
The true forms of tai chi are all about substance. Aesthetics is a
minor off-shoot.
Modern
Competition forms are a fairly modern invention.
They have little to do with the martial art of
tai chi.
The training was were never intended to be a viable vehicle for the practice
of combat skills.
To perform a competition form well, a student needs to be exceptionally
supple, good at choreography and keen to practice 'moving
yoga'.
Dead forms
There is no neigong in a competition
form.
You cannot reasonably learn any credible
fighting skills from such a form.
Martial art
Complete tai chi is more than a form; it is a
system.
The training methods associated with the art are extensive and diverse; they
teach you how to move, how to
strike, take a strike, evade
and counter.
Sifu Waller seeks to embody the
principles of tai chi as expressed by The
Tai Chi Classics.
No competition form syllabus offers
this.
Students of the martial arts in
the West feel that they must use their art to fight, or at least to compete,
to show people how good they are. In tai chi, this is unacceptable,
because that is against the principle of tai chi.
(Gabriel Chin)
Pushing
hands
Pushing hands competitions are an amazing spectacle.
They embody all the absurdity and misguided intentions that arise when
people stray from Tao and The Tai Chi Classics.
Ungrounded, people drift into bizarre endeavours.
It is difficult to discern the point of such enterprises; competitors often
behave more like sumo than tai chi players.
There is a lot of aggression,
force and grunting.
And no evidence that the participants have even heard of
4 ounces of pressure, let alone
understood it.
Fighting competitions
Self defence, martial combat and fighting are
all different.
In self defence, your aim is to escape unharmed, whereas fighting is about
winning.
Martial combat includes the practice of weaponry
and the ability to inflict serious harm.
Rules
A fighter must follow certain rules.
They are concerned about beating somebody and gaining praise or recognition.
A person who practices self defence
has different values in mind.
They have no desire to hurt anyone and only employ their skills if they have
no other choice.
Given the risk of prosecution, they
would rather avoid conflict than seek it out.
Such a person does not want publicity or a 'name'; they want to remain
anonymous and unnoticed.
Who are you fighting against?
Martial arts are ultimately more
than combat.
They are a means by which the individual can identify and work to overcome
their own shortcomings, their own demons.
This is a very challenging process which
asks a lot of the exponent.
Tai
chi is now evolving into a sport of tawdry tournaments and trophies in which an
internal form of moving meditation is judged by the criteria of external dance.
(Robert Smith)
Self defeating
One of the aims of tai chi is to allow the aggressor to essentially defeat
themselves.
This is why exercises such as pushing hands are not competitive.
Sensitivity drills serve to identify and work
on your own weaknesses, not those of
somebody else.
There is no one to compete against and nothing to
win except freedom from
tension.
Your idea of what training constitutes
If you see tai chi training as being akin to the
gym, you are still a novice.
There is no strain, no forcing involved in
tai chi.
The exercises are not strenuous or painful.
Weight training, cycling, swimming or any other
sport - they drain your
energy.
Tear & repair mentality
The drawback of sport is that the emphasis is not
always upon
good body use, optimal alignment,
emotional, physical and
psychological wellbeing.
The onus is upon the outcome rather than the process involved.
There is the pressure to win, to succeed, to perform, to be the best. Or to look
good; muscular, trim or sexy.
People push themselves and the body can
suffer.
Seeking to repair the body afterwards is not as smart as avoiding
injury in
the first place.
Coaching
A sports coach offers learning guidance and support; gearing the practice
towards the acquisition of defined competences.
This is quite different from being a tai chi
teacher.
In tai chi, you cannot retire from active practice and share your
knowledge
as a coach.
A master of tai chi or
qigong does not enjoy the luxury of many coaches in modern sports like
football and athletics who often cannot dribble a ball or run a race half as
well as the students they teach. As mediocre instructors are so common
nowadays - some even start to teach after having attended only a few weekend
seminars - finding a great master is like finding a gem in a hay stack.
(Wong Kiew Kit)
Tai chi for health
Faced with a major health crisis in the 1950's, the People's
Republic of China turned to the old Yang style tai chi for a solution.
They wanted a workout that could be
performed by students of all ages.
The simplest way to achieve this was to remove
the more demanding fitness component
and the combat.
Most modern tai chi classes are
teaching an art that an old person could cope
with...
By definition this cannot
conceivably be a
martial art.
Learn from sport
Many people who undertake sporting activities invest a lot of time in
thorough training designed to promote good body use, muscle growth and
recovery.
These same concerns apply to martial arts training, including tai chi.
All martial arts require the student to be fit
for combat.
Tai chi students train: massage, leg
stretches, qigong, neigong, form, partnered work, martial
sets & drills, combat and weapons.
The training is done carefully, gently - in a
controlled manner - without exertion or
strain.
A martial athlete?
Combat is not easy and there is a risk of injury if the student is unfit.
This is true of any martial art. To reach a high level of skill, the student
needs to take a lesson from sport.
They must become a lot fitter, but not necessarily a martial
athlete.
Page
created 3 June 1998
Last updated
14 August 2023
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