[QUOTE=YouKnowWho;1053400]When was the last time that we saw a Taiji master used his “advance hammer”, “bend bow and shoot tiger”, or “twin peaks to the ears” and knock his opponent down? All the clips that we have seen so far are push, push, and still push.[/QUOTE]
lol when was the last time you seen a Taiji master in actual combat? My point exactly. Those videos are demos, nothing more.
There was a Buddhist monk and his disciple walking through the woods having a conversation. All of a sudden along came a beggar, and asked for a drink of water. The disciple quickly gave him some water and some food, and the beggar ate and drank to his hearts content. Then he reached out and said “here.” In the disciples hand he placed a large diamond. The master looked at the disciple in amazement. “That diamond is big enough to buy all of China!!!” He exclaimed. The disciple qucikly wrapped the diamond up in his clotes and took off running in the woods in fear his master would steal it. The disciple, running through the woods, had no idea where to go or what to do. If he went home, his greedy wife would surely take it and leave him. People would want to steal it, his freinds would try to kill him. Where could he possibly go?! He stayed in the forrest alone. A few months later, a happy wealthy man was entertaining his guests as they walked through the same forrest telling his freinds of the time he used to be a hermit in the very same forrest. While they were walking, a poor sickly looking beggar came out of the woods and asked the happy man for some water. After drinking his share, he reached out and placed a large diamond in the happy man’s hands, and said “here, keep your problems!” The beggar was the desciple, the happy man was the original beggar.
The point is, the real applications is the diamond. The problem is people discovering the secrets and beating the “masters” and making the “secrets” wide spread knowledge. The solution is giving the secrets to the public to aleviate these misconceptions.
How can a martial art that comes from SHAOLIN not have strikes? How can a martial art that comes from WUDANG not have strikes? How can any of you believe Taijiquan is a martial art without strikes? And finally, why fajing if there is no stikes. Your missing the secrets though its right in front of your eyes.
[QUOTE=Mr Serenity;1053454]Before you posted this video, I was about to say all these “practical” taichi videos look like amateur sumo fights. Which of course a sumo would own. So I don’t really think what they’re doing is practical in a fight. A thug will come at you with fast flurry of punches.
And an experienced fighter, will use even stronger punches, kicks, elbows etc. So push hands is just like sumo, not really practical to knock someone out.[/QUOTE]
Push hands IS like sumo, not practical to knock someone out. I agree. BUT, the skills you learn in push hands is used to setup the opponent in an off balanced position or an undesirable position so they cannot defend themselves so you can knock them out a little more easily. Push hands is a useful tool to defend against grappling and qinna if done properly. You learn to feel and off balance the opponent, and avoid tricky situations after you already touch. But of course you have to learn also to make contact, and there are push hands exercises for that. Just cuz you havent seen all push hands has to offer, doesnt mean it doesnt have it to offer.
[QUOTE=YouKnowWho;1053338]Agree 100% there. The problem is most Taiji guys don’t train 100% resistence. When 2 Taiji guys are doing PH, None of them want to commit 100% of their force.
The worse opponent is the opponent that just running around you and don’t want to commit on anything. The more that your opponent resists, the easier it will be for you to do your stuff. In the striking art, if your opponent comes in toward you with full force, you may just put your fist in front of his face, and he will run uinto your fist and knock himself out (head on collusion). In the throwing art, the harder that your opponent resists, the easier for you to change direction, borrow his force, and take him down the other direction (rear end collusion).
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True.
As far as the opponent not commiting to anything, then that means they will probably run from you if you advance. If you run, you cant run forever, you will eventually be caught. Hence moves like the chicken kicks in Chen style Taichi, advancing movements like Walk Obliquely, and Brush knee, and hammer fists, etc. So you can chase the opponent as they run. It is also important to combine external with internal, and external is to advance and overwhelm your opponent. You do not have to wait for the opponent to strike first. If you have to protect your life, not advancing can sometimes be suicide, and defense is offense, just as well as offense is defense.