Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

Audi, I'm sorry to have taken such a long time to reply. In fact I have not had internet access at home since around 12th September which must have been around the time I posted this message. I had a dispute with a former ISP which has now been resolved and I am back online from home again. In the m...

Audi: In fact, I hadn't speed-read what you said and misreferred myself to the wrong paragraph on Yu Nu. This is the paragraph from your message that I was thinking about in my immediate response: 'Yu Nu Ch'uan Shu/Fair Lady Weaves at Shuttles: I would characterize your torso as showing a slight lea...

Danny: this is interesting, showing perhaps that forms in general are never entirely 'set in stone'. There seems to be some evidence that even Yang Cheng Fu changed some details in his own form, too. Kind regards, Simon. <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</fo...

Bob: I'm very interested to find someone who trains this way and it gives me encouragement to go beyond single movement training on both sides. But I must say, I find the idea of the sword form particularly daunting from this point of view. I'm very right handed and I can't imagine the weakness I'd ...

Bob: glad to hear you've recovered well and I'm pleased to say my own self-inflicted wounds are virtually cured now too. I'm interested in the idea of White Crane in the Wu style as being executed from behind the opponent and I'm wondering if that involves somehow evading an attack, then quickly cir...

Audi: yes, you're quite right. I said there was a lot to take in and in making too hasty a reply I referred myself back to the wrong paragraph of your message so took the comments there to refer the Yu Nu which of course you went into in the previous paragraph. A bad habit of mine, I'm afraid -speed...

Thanks, Audi, for the reference: no problem with your computer skills and I have now read the discussion and followed the 'pros and cons' of the idea. I might just add here the quotation from Yearning K. Chen's book which he appends as a note to the end of his form descriptions (p128 of my edition):...

Danny: apart from the moves that Da Liu put back into the CMC version and that I have mentioned, the following are also left out of the Da Liu form and also the CMC form: Step Up and Punch Downward, Turn and Kick with Right Heel (a 360 degree turn with kick), and Yeh Ma Feng Tung (Part Wild Horse's ...

Steve: With respect, I have to differ slightly - that is, if I have understood your point correctly. In fact, the Da Liu and Cheng Man Ching sequences are different. Basically, CMC's contains as you say, about 50 postures which include repeats (though he numbers them usually as 37) . Da Liu's form a...

Yslim: I have indeed had to learn nearly all of what I know about these more arcane aspects from books by authoritative Chinese Masters translated into English as this seems more reliable than anything an English teacher can offer and also, my teacher of T'ai Chi is Chinese and doesn't speak a great...

Thanks, Danny: I always suspected a connection between CMC and Da Liu given the very great similarity in their form postures and this definitely 'sets the record straight'. Kind regards, Simon.

Audi: Thanks a lot for these further comments and again taking time to consider the photos once more. There's a lot here to think about and I've only just seen your message. In Yeh Ma I'm really thinking of my left wrist being under the opponent's armpit, which might perhaps explain why it looks lik...

In Yearning K. Chen's book on Yang style Tai Chi, he recommends ultimately practising the form in mirror image to develop a facility for using both sides of the body as necessary. Of course, many movements are repeated in the form both right and left but not all - not even Lan Chiao Wei, although in...

In Western fencing, in a lunge, the movement starts with the point of the blade and is likened to a string being attached to the blade at one end and the leading foot at the other so that the tip of the sword arrives fractionally ahead of the foot and as the string quickly tautens, the knee is pulle...

Bradeos: also, Yang Jwing Ming in his 'Taiji Sword, Classical Yang Style' states at p.16: 'Northern characteristics were as follows: ....2. Sword guards face forwards so that the swordsman can lock the opponent's weapon ... Southern characteristics, on the other hand, were: ...2. Sword guards slant ...