WHAT YOU LEARN AT THE INTENSIVE TAIJIQUAN COURSE
The video clips released in this series serve four main functions:
- To provide resources for those who have taken the Intensive Taijiquan Course to review what they have learnt.
- To provide material for those who wish to prepare for attending an Intensive Taijiquan Course in future.
- To provide some guidance for those who may wish to benefit from our teaching.
- To provide some reference for those who have read about Taijiquan principles but have no idea of their practical manifestations.
Part 1: Fundamentals of Taijiquan
To us the basics refer to those aspects of Taijiquan training upon which all future development depends. They include:
- Entering Tao
- Stance Training
- Footwork
- Body-Movement
- Fundamental Patterns
- Six Harmonies
- Exploding Force
- Breath Control
- Rnergy Flow
- Internal Force
Part 2: Developing Combat Skills in Pushing Hands
Pushing Hands is a very important aspect of Taijiquan, but it is often neglected. One main reason for its neglect is that it is seldom explained in Taijiquan books. Pushing Hands is an ingenuous method to develop many combat skills in Taijiquan. While such methods are also found in other kungfu styles, like “Sticking Hands” in Wing Choon and “Kneading Hands” in Wuzuquan, it is in Taijiquan that this method has evolved to be most sophisticated. The video clips below show course participants to the Intensive Taijiquan Course of January 2006 in Malaysia develop various Taijiquan combat skills.
Applying Techniques for Combat in Striking Hands
Merely practicing Pushing Hands itself would be insufficient to be combat efficient — a fact some Taijiquan instructors or even masters may not realize! Pushing Hands is an ingenious way to develop combat skills, but we have to apply these skills to techniques for combat. This is trained in another aspect of Taijiquan called Da Shou, which literally means Striking Hands, which does not refer just to striking, but to all the four categories of striking, kicking, felling and gripping.
Learning the Twelve Taijiquan Combat Sequences
The video clips below show how participants of the 2006 Taijiquan Intensive Course learn the twelve basic Wahnam Taijiquan combat sequences. It will be interesting to compare this video series with the video series showing a review of these 12 basic sequences later in the same year.