everybody is their own person. the same movement can look different in the hands of one person in comparison to another. after a while, each person has their own "flavor" to their movement, and develops certain specialties/preferences in the tools/skills they use. dante is very good at locking, laoshi enjoys hitting you a lot, etc. but, on the other hand, we shouldn't neglect important parts of our training just because of our own preferences; someone like master hu who (no pun intended...) would probably like to throw you on your head could still knock the wind out of you with a heel kick.
the question is where do we draw the line between maximizing our potential by workiing with our natural inclinations and making a mistake in not training everything? for example, i'm not a very naturally rooted person (if you know dean, he's an example of someone who is). does this mean that i should be standing in zhanzhuang an hour a day? or does this mean that i should maybe do 20 minutes a day and just say to myself "well, i'm never gonna be like dean, but i can definitely be slippery and flexible and wirey and hit people with my boney limbs," and spend more time developing my natural attributes? or conversely, should someone who has a natural ability to be rooted devote a significant amount of time to being the closest thing possible to a human wall, or should they say "oh shit, i couldn't kick someone in the heart if my life depended on it?"
obviously this isn't a black and white thing, but specializing in one or two things and trying to take them to a high level takes enough time and effort that i think this is, or could be, an issue.
thoughts?
(edit: this issue seems more relevant if you have a limited amount of time to train. if you have 6 hours a day, well, do everything. however, i got thinking about this because, being in college, i don't have that kind of time to train. if i have an hour, i have to think about how i'm going to use that hour. do i spend half of it or more in zhanzhuang? or do i spend 20 minutes in zhanzhuang and practice stepping and single movements for the other 40 (i don't have space for whole forms, so single movements up and down the room is the name of the game)? just thought i'd explain where this was coming from.
personal style/working with what you've got
Moderator:Scott M. Rodell
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I can relate
The amount of time that I have available for practice can vary wildly from day to day, and I have physical problems (especially rotten knees) that can make some training difficult.
I try not to focus on being as good as any other person (although that can be hard when they've just pushed me through the wall!) but rather on whether I can make a particular aspect of my taiji better than it was. As the old saw says, perfection is a road not a destination.
Specifically, I try to focus my time in any given practice on one thing. It may be a principle like verticality, it may be a particular move in the form, it may be something that's giving me fits in push hands (that's what I'm doing these days, my connectedness really reeks and it's causing me no end of trouble).
I try not to stay on any one thing too long. As Laoshi has pointed out often (including in taiji notebook) all of these different things are related, so hopefully my work on verticality will have a positive impact on everything else, and so on. I hope the rising tide will raise all of my boats!
I try not to focus on being as good as any other person (although that can be hard when they've just pushed me through the wall!) but rather on whether I can make a particular aspect of my taiji better than it was. As the old saw says, perfection is a road not a destination.
Specifically, I try to focus my time in any given practice on one thing. It may be a principle like verticality, it may be a particular move in the form, it may be something that's giving me fits in push hands (that's what I'm doing these days, my connectedness really reeks and it's causing me no end of trouble).
I try not to stay on any one thing too long. As Laoshi has pointed out often (including in taiji notebook) all of these different things are related, so hopefully my work on verticality will have a positive impact on everything else, and so on. I hope the rising tide will raise all of my boats!
the question is where do we draw the line between maximizing our potential by workiing with our natural inclinations and making a mistake in not training everything?
Laoshi has made a few comments on this that I think are very informative. When working with students that have a natural inclination for rooting, Laoshi suggests using that structure as a basis for letting go and becoming softer. For students who tend to lean more towards yielding but don't have their alignment correct yet (I put myself in this category), he recommends working on "tightening up" the internal connection to bring one's structure in line.
I think this suggests that while we all start out with different strengths and weaknesses, the goal is the same. We all have a skeletal structure of bones and ligaments that would be capable of strong rooting, effortless neutralizing, and springy fajin if it weren't for misalignments that have been ingrained and solidified by our exterior muscles. I think it's important to strive for the body state that contains all the desired qualities simultaneously. I could see how training with an exclusive emphasis on one quality could lead to a body state that only has the appearance of some skills but the essence of none (e.g. bracing that has the appearance of rooting). When I look at Laoshi, Master Hu, Dante, and Serge, the same quality of "steel in cotton" is common in all four, regardless of their vastly different body types and fighting styles. I think this is a strong endorsement for the robustness of the Yang family's system, that its principles and methods are sound enough to produce excellent internal skill in vastly different body types.
Last edited by G-Man on Tue Jun 27, 2006 9:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
"Find the center of the circle and you can respond to any situation."
I've found that Laoshi's suggestion of taking a small piece of the form or a single technique and repeating it many times is a good way to focus one's practice (especially in cramped surroundings). And because you quickly become familiar with the particular piece, it's a good opportunity to try to bring all the aspects of good taiji together as one (i.e. strong root, good spring, no hollows or protusions or stops, "circle creates the square," etc.). I like to switch up among the following:
--A single deflect-strike from the hand forms (Rollback-Press, Rollback-Brush-Knee-Strike, Repulse Monkey, Fair Lady Weaves Her Shuttles, etc).
--A single deflect-strike from the sword forms.
--Basic sword cuts.
--Basic push hands exercises (including Two-hand Vertical Circle and the Four Corners)
--Half-stepping forwards and backwards with a deflect-strike or -kick.
--A single deflect-strike from the hand forms (Rollback-Press, Rollback-Brush-Knee-Strike, Repulse Monkey, Fair Lady Weaves Her Shuttles, etc).
--A single deflect-strike from the sword forms.
--Basic sword cuts.
--Basic push hands exercises (including Two-hand Vertical Circle and the Four Corners)
--Half-stepping forwards and backwards with a deflect-strike or -kick.
"Find the center of the circle and you can respond to any situation."