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Old 11-03-2012, 02:01 PM   #19
DH
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,394
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Re: Taichi and IP/IS

Phi
Care to explain how your answer:
Quote:
you could do a search for folks in your city who teach Chen style taiji and check them out. check to see if they focus on zhan zhuang (standing post) and silk reeling or not. if they focus on doing the forms, then you can skip. the good one will make you do standing post until your legs fell off, then having you doing silk reeling until your body fell off. it's not pleasant.
Was in any way more helpful than mine?

Quote:
Quote:
Ryan Schoelerman wrote:
I agree with what Lee said and would add that you could;
1. post a question over on the Rum Soaked Fist Request a Teacher forum and you'll probably get some recommendations.
2. My experience is most of the gym and community center teachers are doing the flowy/qigong/health by moving type of Tai Chi and lack the real meat and potatoes of IP/IS.
Good luck!
#1 is almost guaranteed to produce #2.
And if you find the good ones?
Experience keeps demonstrating that their students didn't get it-and are never-the-less convinced that they did!
I love...LOVE a quote given to me by a ICMA Chinese grandmaster taiji teacher.
"There are...only...CHINESE grandmasters." Implying that there will ONLY be Chinese grandmasters.
It's not a a very comfortable thing to hear, but for a short sentence, it say quite a lot!
Dan
Quote:
I have trained with too many guys who lived in China and trained with top level Taiji people. They had zero understanding and no power and a supposedly correct "form."

When does someone "get" that they were never going to "get it" from a given teacher?
I think it is important....way more important.... to feel someones students to what ever level they trained with someone. If you are feeling someones students who trained with Mr. Bigshot for ten years and they feel like any other Tom, Dick or Mary...what the hell does that tell you?

I long ago stopped caring who trained with whom and for how long, and who does what or what their rank is. All I keep seem to be repeating these days is:
"Really?" So what happened to you?"

If the teacher has power, and none of his students do? Walk away.

Dan
Your choice in replying would lead him where?
Quote:
Phi writes:
dan's reply might be true, but not helpful. the OP asked if the local taiji at the YMCA worthwhile to try in helping him learn more on IP/IS. an answer of "highly unlikely" would be suffice, because folks who know both taiji and IP/IS are rare.
Yes folks who know taiji and IS are rare, so? You sent him on what is all but sure to be a wild goose chase by someone who doesn't know the difference. Just go ask people who teach Chen taiji? What about Yang taiji? Bagua? Xing -I? Xin yi? Yi chuan? Good God man, how was just asking and if they teach standing going to help? Do you have any idea how many people who stand....have no idea what they're doing?
I cautioned him that;
It was not likely to produce good results
2. Why it most likely would not produce good results
3. How to judge if the teacher was teaching

I would certainly be interested in your answer, as other than sliding in jokes and providing a good laugh...I don't see you as adding much benefit to any serious discussion. And I certainly don't slide jabs your way because of it. I just sit back and laugh and appreciate your efforts.

Quote:
Phi Writes:
..instead, dan went on his usual spill about IP/IS and martial artists, i.e.
1. most martial artists, including high ranking, don't have much of a clue about IP/IS
2. find the teachers of IP/IS that have students who have demonstrable IP/IS skills
3. only very few teachers out there have the goods and most of them aren't/weren't westerners
personally, i think dan should just cut and paste that to all of his posts to save time.
You don't agree that what I said was in fact correct and that people who understand taiji and IS are rare as well?
We don't have to agree, but we can choose to be nice.
Dan

Last edited by DH : 11-03-2012 at 02:09 PM.
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