Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

Gene, very nice. You can also use the second shift back while leading the opponent in and down to raise the knee for a face smash. This technique however, is most suited to begining with the first sift, bringing the opponent across you with the shift and pivot and finishing with the knee on the seco...

Thank you David, i forgot to mention the back fist.

SJ. Your use of the small spin or pivot in blocking a kick gives me something to think about. I am however very cautious of any technique with ONE foot high (six inches or more.) off the ground. They must be used sparingly and appropriately. If I have an opponent (who has some skill) controlled mome...

Audi, thanks for asking some of the questions that have been posed to me before and which I have been unable to give adequate answers to. Your number(3) and (4). Leg sweeps. Your Number (2) probably just to change the direction---that is all I can come up with. And I have been taught to do it on the...

I have also wondered about weighted pivots and somtimes use them in my practice of the YCF set to work on certain applications. Audi, I liked the turn from Fan through back into Turn and chop I had not used the weighted turn there before. I think that both weighted and "unweighted" turns h...

I understand the concern over bad taiji, I have seen some real bad stuff, not just so called Yang style. One place teaching "Tai Chi" was playing Christian music (no offense) with people doing contortions that could only be described as bad Chi gung. I hung around for that class just to wi...

The toe down implies a hidden kick. it also could be used more readily to step back. The toe up can be a hook, one could be using the leg for the opponent to be "helped" over or to step forward....the answer to your question about your teachers knee bends can be duduced from above. I have ...

Let us hope that it will not be found necessary to segregate our taiji. There is so much we can learn from each other. For me, practicing two Yang styles (traditional and Kuang Ping) has enhanced each. And though neither has changed the externals of the other, each has helped me look at many things ...

I just came upon this--from Chen Wei-Mings' book TCC Ta Wen p19. "Don't push your palms out past your knee; if you do you will lose your balance....When their hands push extend beyound their feet they not only can't push the opponent but, beause they are leaning forward, they become unstable. Y...

To avoid confrontation is THE first Rule, the second, if the first one fails is to diffuse. If that fails. neutralize/attack. There is no diffence in some ways between yin and yang as one proceeds the other and in our art they cannot be seperated. But in that regard defense must proceed offense, abs...

After learning the set I would suggest single movement training. This is the old way of training in taiji Chuan for combat. Here you practice a single movement, right and left versions in a long string identifying the energies and the paths that are inherent in each move and how they are used. You c...

Steve, You are right that there is no leaning in the Ban Hao style as i said earlier. And the forward lean that I mentioned is very small compared to what is found in the Wu style. Yang Zhen Duos' book show the lean, and one of his students is my teachers instructor. That same lean is performed by b...

Michael, You are right and even though i practice as i have been taught (toe down) my training in Kuang Ping where I practice with the toe up has validity in certain situations. I did not make myself clear as I wrote that early in the morning, i was thinking more of a somewhat sideward step (Toes to...

I study both the "traditional" Yang Style and the Kuang Ping Style. If I leaned forward as we are taught to in forms such as Push or Brush Knee etc. I would probably find myself on the ground (gently) or be subject to a light tap on the back of my head by my Kuang Ping teacher for breaking...

I also study the Kuang Ping Yang (Ban Hao) style and have found it very useful in understanding many things hidden in our set. The use of the feet being one of them. The roll back following lift hands depends on the extended right leg with the raised toes either trapping the opponents foot, or the l...