When the "advanced" students did our own thing, we spent some time on something the most senior student asked us to do. He asked us to spend five minutes figuring out how to use one form to prevail over another form.
I chose "Needle to the Bottom of the Sea" followed by "Fan through Back" to disengage from "Roll Back." It isn't perfect and the timing needs to be just so, but it works.
...kinda.
To the topic of this post, we worked with partners later on where one partner was coming after the other with a baton. My partner has been with the school for longer than I have but I don't think he's been doing tai chi as long as I have - his intellectual understanding of the art is deeper than mine but his movements are less "song," if you understand what I mean.
When it was my turn to use the baton against him, we ended up wrestling. Not Good, but I didn't know quite why. Then I asked him if we could swap; and when we did, I just moved him out of my way or just got him all crossed-up and in my control. It took a couple tries before we both figured out what I did, and what I did was based on single whip.
He had always considered the "hook hand" of single whip as a strike using the wrist. I used to as well, but also see how it can trap an arm and set up the opponent for being controlled with the other arm and/or the leg, in addition to striking the opponent's face (which is something few people with a weapon expect you to do). We also saw how critically necessary it is to move toward the opponent rather than away. I knew this not only from tai chi but from bayonet fencing - if the tip of the bayonet is past you, your opponent's weapon is less effective. It still has the other end which is very effective if your opponent has the presence of mind and the space to use it.
When I was coming at him, he retreated from me. This allowed me to gain momentum and more importantly retain initiative. When he had the baton, I started moving toward him the instant I saw him set up. It didn't seem to matter whether he was coming at me backhanded or forward-striking; I just seemed to instinctively position myself where I belonged, but always on the principle of closing the gap between us rather than disengaging or reacting to the weapon. He said it felt like trying to fight air.
Single Whip is "powerful medicine." It makes sense it's repeated so often in tai chi chuan.
We also learned a bit about how limiting a weapon can be. It essentially forces its user to think only (or primarily) in terms of the weapon. One of the things I've come to appreciate about swordplay in Chinese martial arts as opposed to, say, kendo, is its understanding that the sword is just another tool in the toolbox, just like the fists, feet or body. Very open-minded and imaginative.
When we had at each other with the baton, we were role-playing as someone who is only thinking about striking his opponent with it, and I suspect this is the mindset of most people with a weapon of any type. In this sense, the baton limited our options; understanding this, it liberated us to think more openly when we were being attacked with it. Likewise, we both learned how important it is to think beyond the weapon when we have one at hand.
It made me think about riot cops and Roman soldiers, and how truly powerless they are when they are not in tight formation.
gvi