Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

Louis, lob & Co., The undesirable aspect I am referring to as not taught by traditional T'ai Chi is indeed an extraordinary way of draining an opponent's ch'i that lob is accurately describing; not physically immobilizing them with good gongfu, a skill which I'll agree is desirable. In the old d...

Greetings, I was indeed talking about, as lob describes, "someone (who) uses special methods to drain energy from people." Regarding Louis' observations, such a practise isn't taught as a desirable technique in the style of T'ai Chi that I study (there are drawbacks for someone who might t...

DavidJ, Yes, I am aware of the syndrome you (accurately) describe. Admittedly, we teach that way for some classes, mostly for seniors or group classes in community centers that run once a week every, say, 8 weeks. For those classes the facility hosting the class decides the rate, usually about $75 U...

Greetings Such things are indeed possible, but I am really very surprised that someone used them on you in a training session without explaining to you exactly what they were doing. They are not the sort of techniques to be played with lightly! They are dangerous and you can easily make yourself or ...

Greetings All, I'll agree with you Michael, an interesting discussion that has little to do with breathing anymore! Regarding the practicality of learning techniques from different styles, I've never seen a technique (that I'd practise anyway, more below) from another style that isn't contained in t...

Greetings All, I'm glad to see that it seems clear that what I said was mere opinion, not gospel. As Michael says, one couldn't forget previous training physically, of course, but my point in reply is that one has a power of discrimination that may be applied to the matter. A competent teacher will ...

Greetings All, This does get us to Yang Zhenduo's statement: "Whether you do Chen style or Yang, or the two different Wu styles or the Sun style, they are all different. You can say that each one is unique, that they are all different. In China, there are different tastes: sweet, salty, sour an...

The "reverse" breathing also trains the abdominal musculature differently than "standard" abdominal breathing. In standard breathing, the diaphragm rises up and down as a unit to move air out of and into the lungs, with reverse breathing the diaphragm folds in the middle, the mid...

It should play in Quicktime (that's what my machine uses).

The 24 posture Wu family spear is much more complex than their 13 posture form, as it uses both ends for strikes.

Yeah, I know what you mean about the resolution. I'm glad that wall was behind him!

-P.

13 and 24 are also the numbers used in the two Wu family spear forms. They came through the Yang Pan-hou lineage, according to my Sifu. Here is a link to a video of the late Ma Yueh-liang performing the 13 posture spear, which, with a few small differences in directions and other emphases, is essent...

We'll all die of something...

People who run traditional martial schools should have quite a body of knowledge on the subject of using specific healing techniques to repair their students' mistakes, the two go well together. I have learned practical approaches to nei kung, acupressure and other energy work from my T'ai Chi teach...

Greetings, The various fists do have different internal stretches, to be sure. In the 1st, 2nd & 3rd generations (and some branches of the 4th generation) forms we do, the fists are definitely vertical, and the new 54 posture "competition" form the Wu family are promoting lately the fi...

Audi & Co., In Wu Ta-kuei's 4th and Eddie Wu's 5th generation Wu style, the downward punches are indeed with a horizontal rather than a vertical fist. In previous generations family members consistently displayed vertical fists in the same forms. I'm told it is up to the discretion of the differ...