Scott M. Rodell wrote:I have one serious question for practitioners on taijiquan. Are we going to continue to allow those who lack any real martial skill continue to define our art?
Absolutely not, though they are so prominent that it is no easy task.
The other day I was at a bookstore, I found a dozen books on taijiquan in the health and fitness section and two in the martial arts section. As for the martial aspects of the art, the books in the fitness section contained scarcely more than a passing mention of them as if they were some antiquated and trivial aspect of the art.
A lot of people are selling the art as a metaphysical practice in some new age manner, usually this form of the art has no push hands, but when it does people approach it as if it is not martial in nature and never seem to take it to a level where they practice free fighting using the methods.
Sadly one famous teacher is often quoted as saying that you don't even need push hands, the idea being that if you just do the form enough you will "get it" and be able to use it in a martial way. I've met people who claim to be teachers who say not to do push hands at all.
My teacher has had hundreds of people interested in the art for health purposes alone, they have no interest in the martial side of it. A lot of people don't even have faith in the art and many with decades of experience complain that they must be missing some secret teaching or aspect because they cannot use it in a martial way, and yet they have never even practiced using the art with a duifang who is throwing real punches at a fast speed and it never even occurs to them that such forms of practice are important to the art.
For those who care about the martial aspects of the art the situation can be incredibly frustrating.
There are a lot of tricky aspects to the situation, some teach external applications with no understanding of the 8 energies, some sell the art as if it is based on some magic power like the force in Star Wars. Many practice for health alone and do not even have an interest or a conception of the art as martial. Some teach applications concepts without practicing them and then claim they the know the martial side of it, which is like hearing an orchestral work and then claiming to be a composer or a musician without ever practicing to play music.
Some even say that all the taiji out there is fake, that Cheng-fu was terrible and that the real stuff is a secret taught only to and by chauffeurs in Australia... or something like that.
A lot of teachers even go so far as to say that one cannot learn the martial side of it without ten to thirty years of practice. Many forms of practice are so low impact and easy that it is not a suprise that those who practice them have virtually zero martial skill.
Very few young people take the art seriously and often those that do have a very hard time finding a decent teacher. I have seen people try to teach the art having never learned from a teacher hands on, they read a couple of books, buy a DVD and then start teaching! These bad examples claim the art is martial and yet are as much a detriment to the reputation of it (as martial) as anything else is, including those who teach zero applications and martial methods.
I have almost given up on the idea that the world will ever come to realize taijiquan for what it is, an amazing and unique martial art.
I know a man who wanted to use his style of 'taijiquan' (Australian chauffeur death touch style) in the ring against MMA style martial arts typical of today. He scoffed at the idea that he should train with or against MMA people using taijiquan against them, his teacher told him not to practice against the martial art he would face... needless to say he lost and was totally unprepared.
I have also seen people teach applications that do not work, a friend of mine would be taught something in class, which worked with his fellow students, and then come to train with me and it would not work at all, and when he went back to class and the fellow students tried it on him it wouldn't work either.
What a complex and frustrating situation for those who enjoy taijiquan as a martial art.
I don't know what to do other than continue to practice.
it bothers me that he teaches actually, but i have not said anything, i just quit the club. My teacher and I were founding members but this fellow has become convinced that he does taiji and can teach it, so we just stand back and let the magic happen.