The Cult of the Good Student.

You can come across Tai Chi instructors who will single you out as a Good Student. Or a Good Chap / Girl. Or you have Good Energy.

Sounds good, doesn't it? We all like a bit of praise.

But it is flattery. The " Good " label only lasts as long as you go along/agree  with or help the Instructor.
It is a form of manipulation. If you no longer "jump" or respond as expected you are quickly relegated to the " Bad " student category. This can cause you to become disheartened and possibly give up your Tai Chi. If you are still there the Instructor will get round to you again to give you the chance to become a "Good " student. And so the cycle continues.  It  has a taste of Pavlovian conditioning about it. I also believe it stems from some form of insecurity on the part of the Instructor.

As an Instructor one should strive to avoid labelling. All students are on their personal journey. They may continue to study with you or not. This is the natural way. You do your utmost to teach everyone what you understand to the best of your ability. Learn from all students. It's a two way process.

For further reading, I suggest Martial Arts Madness by Glenn Morris, Chapter 4 - The Gurus of Death Archetypes.

Step Back to Repulse the Monkey

A quick look at Step Back to Repulse the Monkey.

The waist has to turn both ways fairly tightly, like wringing a wet cloth. It is this action that causes the front foot to turn straight.

Cheng Man-ch'ing's 37 form application

Don't Yield

Here's an interesting take on Yielding from the Weakness with a Twist blog.

See http://www.northstarmartialarts.com/blog1/2015/1/19/dont-yield.html

Same Difference

Here is a short clip contrasting Punch under Elbow and Waving Hands in the Clouds from the Sun style and the Short Form John Kells taught me.

Anyone else do two different tai chi styles?

Tai Chi and Weight Training

For as long as I can remember there has been a debate about the pros and cons of training with weights if you are a Tai Chi practitioner.

Some say it impacts negatively on your Tai Chi, others that it helps. When I first began Tai Chi at John Kells' place in London, I used to train regularly on a multi gym. I stopped  for a while when a senior student told me it would not be good for my " Chi ". I resumed because I enjoy the positive energy gained by lifting weights.

My then Teacher, John Kells, had a number of weight training machines in a basement room. He used to practise with a focus on cross energy. He was building a dynamic connection between opposite foot and hand.

Examples of this were bench pressing and lat pulldowns. For the bench press machine he would have his feet on the bench and push one foot down whilst focusing on the opposite hand as he pushed the bar up.

When performing the lat pulldown he would pull with one hand, the body moving diagonally down towards the opposite foot. The other hand was on the bar as an assist only.

To begin with the movements were small and short, gradually getting bigger over time. I asked him why he trained with weights. He said that he started to develop power by using a heavy iron bar to do his sword form and then the penny dropped!

He also had a Tunturi exercise bike. If you want to fight with Tai Chi, then you need to train like a fighter. He said you had to be able to take a blow. It was no good being weak.

It was interesting, then, to come across the following article by David Gaffney on his Chen style blog about strength training in Taijiquan - http://chentaijiquanworld.blogspot.co.uk/p/strength-training-in-taijiquan.html which supports the need for a good physical condition and strength in order to develop.

For myself I now use mostly dumbbells and very light weighted gloves by Golds Gym. As I age stretching has also become more important. I would welcome any comments positively addressing weight training with regards to internal martial arts and methods used.

Master Hsieh Chi Sheng Part 2 (Sword)