Kaitain(UK)
03-11-2001, 01:33 PM
I was considering taking up Bagua or Wing Chun last week - spoke to my instructor about it and his attitude was one of 'if that's what you want to do'. He didn't criticise me (he has 20 years of Wadaryu behind him so it would be a bit rich) but his tone made me think on things a bit - after a long weekend I came to the following conclusions:
a)Taiji is a complete system
b)eventually :P
c)training another style is possibly going to corrupt what is so far a very solid foundation
d)*if* Taiji isn't giving me everything I need then I should leave it altogether and train something else
e)why am I training?
Why am I training took me a long time to answer - I train because I love the art, I don't train to be able to fight - I love sparring/pushing hands etc but I didn't start TJ for any reasons other than health after having my spine cracked in Muay Thai. Once I saw what an intelligent system TJ was I became hooked on it.
My reasoning for looking to other styles was that I wanted to progress even faster - yet at the same time I understand that technique comes with practice and time. Spreading myself thinner won't do anything but slow down my progress imho.
So I'm content at the moment that I can find the openings in pushing hands and sparring and that practice will bring the offensive tecbniques up to a similiar level.
Thanks for the input I received from some of you over the last few days
a)Taiji is a complete system
b)eventually :P
c)training another style is possibly going to corrupt what is so far a very solid foundation
d)*if* Taiji isn't giving me everything I need then I should leave it altogether and train something else
e)why am I training?
Why am I training took me a long time to answer - I train because I love the art, I don't train to be able to fight - I love sparring/pushing hands etc but I didn't start TJ for any reasons other than health after having my spine cracked in Muay Thai. Once I saw what an intelligent system TJ was I became hooked on it.
My reasoning for looking to other styles was that I wanted to progress even faster - yet at the same time I understand that technique comes with practice and time. Spreading myself thinner won't do anything but slow down my progress imho.
So I'm content at the moment that I can find the openings in pushing hands and sparring and that practice will bring the offensive tecbniques up to a similiar level.
Thanks for the input I received from some of you over the last few days