When I was reading the “Tai Chi classics with extra commentary” By Wayson Liao I noticed he said he taught the original way and that his Tai Chi was called temple style. It also says this on his site. I do know he studied from Cheng Man Ching and before that he says he studied TaiChi in a Taoist temple in Taiwan. My question is What is temple style Tai Chi and what does “single form” Taichi mean?
It means that someone figured they could make more money by putting the word Temple in front of the word Taiji. I’ve seen Liao’s students do form. Looks like the Chen Man Ching long form with more extended postures. Uses the same body mechanics though.
So the Taichi he teaches is basically Cheng man Ching TaiChi then right?
Would the fact that they do the “single form training” make it a good school to learn TaiChi in depth(assuming his taichi is good)?
If I were to decide to take up study in Taichi I would like to learn it as a martial art, would single form be the type of training I would want?
Yes. It is essentially Chen Man Ching form with some of the more martial aspects added back in, specifically in the second and third sections. The last section was also lengthened a bit. It is also done on both the right and left sides, so by the time you go through it twice it’s fairly good…no substitute for the original YCF long form (in my opinion), but a great way to learn. My teacher also spent a lot of time working on getting my transitions smooth before I was allowed to move on. My teacher was trained by one of Waysun Liao’s first group of students in Chicago back in the 70’s I think.
Hi.
Single Posture Training is done quiet often.
You can bassically take any Posture and repeat it to make it into single posture training.
Like Whip Horse Mane(R), Whip Horse Mane(L), Whip Horse Mane(R), etc.
These days more styles worry about form practice and only do selected single posture training, kinda reverse to the old method.