I'm discovering the importance of warm up and stretching. In the old days, before moving to Taiwan, I would simply launch into vigorous training with little or no warm up and rarely do any stretching. I had started to take an interest in stretching before I left the UK, but only in an experimental sense, not as part of my daily exercise routine.
Warm up and stretching prepare the body for exercise, which makes the tougher exercises easier to do and consequently more of a pleasure.
I'm learning how to respect my body a bit more these days, I hope, but it's hard sometimes to remember to do everything, especially if there is not much time in my daily schedule for everything. Life just gets in the way of doing good Taijiquan sometimes, but then that is all part of the challenge, right?
23 January 2008
14 January 2008
Some energy and vigour please
I like the Wu style fast frame that Ma Yueliang was famous for, and this appears to be a very nice performance. The Wu style fast frame is said to be a development of the frame that was taught to Wu Quanyou by Yang Banhou. And it certainly does contain many characteristics that were typical of Yang Banhou's style, so I see no reason to doubt the Wu family claim.
It is full of energy and vigour without being too theatrical like some Chen fast frame styles. Taijiquan is meant to be energetic and vigorous, fluid and powerful, just as it says in the classics "like a surging river flowing without ceasing 如長江大海滔滔不絕也". Wu style fast frame is certainly more authentic from this point of view. We must try to get away from the fixed idea that Taijiquan frames are all meant to be performed slowly; the floating meditation theory. Slow performance has its benefits, but it's not the whole story.
Having said that nice performances can simply be just nice performances and it's not certain that there is any real gongfu inside, but enjoyable to watch nonetheless.
Better than watching ducks in the park at least. That's not to say that I'm anti-duck watching, it has its own merits, just that watching gongfu for me is more enjoyable.
13 January 2008
Language gongfu
Being an English teacher here in Taiwan has naturally caused me to draw comparisons between the nature of language learning to the study of Taijiquan.
With the internationalisation of the English language, the language has become more complex and many new variations have appeared, and as we all know this has also happened to Taijiquan over the last one hundred years or so, as the martial art has become popularised around the globe.
Below are just a few of the varieties of English that I've encountered in my short time as an English teacher. And just as with the various styles of Taijiquan most of these different stylists would have some justification as to why their own variation is somewhat more legitimate than another.
Britain = Britglish
America = Ameriglish
Australia = Ausglish
India = Indglish
China = Chinglish
Singapore = Singlish
Taiwan = Taiglish
Taijiquan just like the English language is continuously changing and developing; this is inevitable as its usage becomes more and more widespread around the globe. But we shouldn't necessarily consider that process as a negative, although for us puritans and control freaks it is sometimes a little difficult to swallow.
Discussions about authenticity either in the world of Taijiquan or in the world of the English language are purely academic; the reality being that once we move on from being a beginner our own expression of Taijiquan becomes a personal one, influenced by our knowledge, experience and natural abilities, just as when we learn another language.
Once we start to learn Taijiquan or a new language it becomes a part of us, a part of the way we think and behave, it becomes our own individual variation, for good or bad it is our own particular style.
So remember we are all doing our own style, so we must make the best out of it and develop it to the best of our ability. The only important point is that we are not lazy and are diligent learners, this is the only way to be good at anything, right?
With the internationalisation of the English language, the language has become more complex and many new variations have appeared, and as we all know this has also happened to Taijiquan over the last one hundred years or so, as the martial art has become popularised around the globe.
Below are just a few of the varieties of English that I've encountered in my short time as an English teacher. And just as with the various styles of Taijiquan most of these different stylists would have some justification as to why their own variation is somewhat more legitimate than another.
Britain = Britglish
America = Ameriglish
Australia = Ausglish
India = Indglish
China = Chinglish
Singapore = Singlish
Taiwan = Taiglish
Taijiquan just like the English language is continuously changing and developing; this is inevitable as its usage becomes more and more widespread around the globe. But we shouldn't necessarily consider that process as a negative, although for us puritans and control freaks it is sometimes a little difficult to swallow.
Discussions about authenticity either in the world of Taijiquan or in the world of the English language are purely academic; the reality being that once we move on from being a beginner our own expression of Taijiquan becomes a personal one, influenced by our knowledge, experience and natural abilities, just as when we learn another language.
Once we start to learn Taijiquan or a new language it becomes a part of us, a part of the way we think and behave, it becomes our own individual variation, for good or bad it is our own particular style.
So remember we are all doing our own style, so we must make the best out of it and develop it to the best of our ability. The only important point is that we are not lazy and are diligent learners, this is the only way to be good at anything, right?
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