Greetings

[ZillaBilla]

Hi All,

I’m new here. The reason I'm here is that I got banned from the last forum I was at because some moderator was trying to convince me that the MA I practice is BS and everything I know is also BS, so I called him an Ignorator and some other crap, he did not like that and banned me.

Anyhow I practice Tai Chi, most of the people I have spoken to on the last forum, mostly concentrated on doing forms, or that’s what it seemed like to me. That’s all good and stuff, but I think that is more for health reasons, and IMO unless you actually concentrate on 'putting your mind in your body', the rest is useless, more or less.

I hope I can converse and share ideas with more likeminded people on this website, it seems a lot less pretentious and more with reality.

Cheers..

ZB

[Tom Yum]

Welcome.

I am interested in taiji as a form of excercise, but also because it teaches you how to relax and develop focus.

Can you give a breakdown of the taiji styles and their differences?

[eXcessiveForce]

Welcome,

I hope you find what you are looking for. This forum does have a bit of resistence towards Traditional arts but if you can put up with the people that feel that way you should be okay.

Here most people get there chance to state what they believe, for good or bad. And just to let you know some of the posters are a bit harsh on new people in the beginning.


Good Luck,

ExcessiveForce
Moderator

[ZillaBilla]

Welcome.

I am interested in taiji as a form of excercise, but also because it teaches you how to relax and develop focus.

Can you give a breakdown of the taiji styles and their differences?

Hey Tom Yum,

Well I must say I'm no expert, barely a beginner, will do the best with my limited knowledge.

I think all the styles are based on the same internal principles, the things that vary are the training methods and external appearances.

Yang Style - Nowadays, the stances in the forms are more upright, apparently this was modified to teach the aristocracy in their fancy pants dress in China's royal hangouts, or something like that. However, I have seen low stances too, as mentioned earlier the emphasis is on internal movements, so the external appearance is less relevant. But generally the movements in Yang are less obvious then Chen style. I think this style suits most type of people.

Chen Style - The stances are often very low, and the movements are obvious and very round. This was the predecessor to Yang style. I think this style is more suited to younger people, because of more strenuous movements, particularly in the legs.

Wu Style - The movements are more condensed then Yang style, placing the emphasis more on internal movements. Yang in the predecessor of this style.
This style is more suited to older people, as there is less external and more internal movement.

There is also Sun style, this was founded by Sun Lu Tang, he was known as a very high level Ba Gua master, so his Tai Chi is more similar to Ba Gua or something like that, don’t know much about it.

There are also Combination styles, and probably others that I have missed. But generally, the basic idea behind all Tai Chi styles is the same.

I think if you want to do Tai Chi, the style is not too relevant, the important thing is to find a teacher that will show you all the proper body alignments and methods/techniques of coordinating mind, breath and movement. In our school this is done primarily in standing postures, for quite a while before any form is learned. After one has some competence in correct body alignment and coordination as mentioned, one can pretty much learn any Ti Chi form and imbue these principals in to it. I think that is what Tai Chi is about, not a flowery dance that I see a lot of people practice, not that there is something wrong with that, that’s good for your physical and mental heath, not martial though.

Well, I think that’s my two pence worth, hope its what you were looking for.

Cheers..