Just One Form

[pazman]

This month I took a break from Sanda training. Besides stuffing myself full of dumplings and liquor during Chinese New Year, I also had the opportunity to train the Yijinjing from a local master and it has re-ignited my interest in more traditional gongfu practices. I've always thought taolu useless with regards to fighting ability, and yet, I really enjoy taolu for solo practice. I think it is quite possible to traditional Chinese martial arts without taolu but then again taolu is one of the its hallmark features.

So here's my hypothetical question: If you could choose only one taolu to teach people, which would it be and why?

Karate folk can answer this question, too ;)

My answer: The Xiaohongquan from the Shaolin curriculum. It's simple and short, yet contains a coherent set of principles that are very relevant to my current sanda practice and had a lot of relation to my aikido and judo practice when I lived in Japan.

[uki]

i train the same form everyday... it's called, "freeform"... all things change, attempting to confine practice to one set of movements goes against every principle of nature, as nature cannot be confined or contained because it is everything and anything around us... the only true constant of nature is to change. :)

[David Jamieson]

not a martial form but neigong is what I would keep.

[SPJ]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ArhPNuYkjw

each style has its own basic skill set. that is the one form that has to be practiced everyday.

In Ba Gua, single exchange palm--

In Yang Tai Chi, grasping the sparrow's tail, cloud hand, repulse monkey etc.

In Ba Ji, the small frame 16 to 24 postures

---

[uki]

not a martial form but neigong is what I would keep.yet all form has the martial in it... all movement has the martial in - change your intention and you'll change the form. :D

[cerebus]

Only one form? My Cheng Man Ching Tai Chi form. It has everything in it that I need.

[bawang]

heian shodan is best form in universe

[Shaolin]

i train the same form everyday... it's called, "freeform"... all things change, attempting to confine practice to one set of movements goes against every principle of nature, as nature cannot be confined or contained because it is everything and anything around us... the only true constant of nature is to change. :)

Nature does change and evolve I agree, but it still has a base, a template, a blue print from which it works from. As martial "artists", we must first learn the rules, then we can break from them and become free.

[uki]

Nature does change and evolve I agree, but it still has a base, a template, a blue print from which it works from.a blueprint defining adaptation.

As martial "artists", we must first learn the rules, then we can break from them and become free.i most wholeheartedly agree. :)

[SPJ]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYL2dsHO_wA&NR=1

a cool set of palm change 4 postures

liao, chuan, pi, chuan, dai---

we may do these back and forth (left and right) AS MANY TIMES AS WE WANT--

with various speeds, slow and slow first, and then faster

---

forward chuan, upward chuan on and on

:cool:

[David Jamieson]

yet all form has the martial in it... all movement has the martial in - change your intention and you'll change the form. :D

nei gong has nothing martial in it.

really, it has nothing to do with it. :)

[kfson]

i train the same form everyday... it's called, "freeform"... all things change, attempting to confine practice to one set of movements goes against every principle of nature, as nature cannot be confined or contained because it is everything and anything around us... the only true constant of nature is to change. :)

I read somewhere that a Bagua practice has got to change with the weather... it took a few minutes for that to sink into my thick skull.

[uki]

nei gong has nothing martial in it.

really, it has nothing to do with it.i think it's all in yer head man. :)


I read somewhere that a Bagua practice has got to change with the weather... it took a few minutes for that to sink into my thick skull.it also changes with the surface, the terrain, the angle(like walking the circle on the side of a steep hill or something), and the intention... are you walking aggressively?? as a tiger, as fluffy-faerie-love bunny?? is your form a cross between a headless chicken and a cat chasing it's tail?? LOL... so many factors involved. mind is the path. :D

[David Jamieson]

i think it's all in yer head man. :)



one could say that about anything really.
Seeing as after your head is gone, so is everything else and before yoru head appeared, there was nothing as far as you're concerned.

so, yeah. :)

[uki]

there was nothing as far as you're concerned.yet nothing comes from something...

[David Jamieson]

yet nothing comes from something...

Describe "cold"

[Lucas]

i would actually choose xiaohongquan as well. i practice two forms, xiaohong and dahong.

[sanjuro_ronin]

heian shodan is best form in universe

I disagree, I once did tekki on the beach and caused the water to open up and a bunch of ragged hebrews walked up and called me some weird name...
Anyways...

[David Jamieson]

I disagree, I once did tekki on the beach and caused the water to open up and a bunch of ragged hebrews walked up and called me some weird name...
Anyways...

no no no, that was the dirty hippy swim club.

they were saying "yeah whatever"

it's different.

:D

[uki]

Describe "cold"the inflectional state of "hot"

[kfson]

Why isn't absolute zero colder? If absolute zero can't get colder, then cold can not be the absence of heat. So, what really is cold?
By international agreement, absolute zero is defined as 0K on the Kelvin scale and as −273.15°C on the Celsius scale.[1] Absolute zero is also defined as 0R on the Rankine scale (similar to Kelvin but measured in Fahrenheit intervals) and −459.67° on the Fahrenheit scale.

[Tao Of The Fist]

Why isn't absolute zero colder? If absolute zero can't get colder, then cold can not be the absence of heat. So, what really is cold?
By international agreement, absolute zero is defined as 0K on the Kelvin scale and as −273.15°C on the Celsius scale.[1] Absolute zero is also defined as 0R on the Rankine scale (similar to Kelvin but measured in Fahrenheit intervals) and −459.67° on the Fahrenheit scale.

In a nutshell, science says that when particles are in motion, heat is generated; the more a particle is moving, the warmer that thing is; inversely (glad that popcorn commercial used that term) the slower a particle is moving the colder it is. Absolute zero is the closest a particle can get without ceasing to stop altogether. SO HOT AND COLD IS ALL ABOUT MOTION!

Oh, and I'm not sure what one form I would do, either Beijing 24 or Dingshibazhang, but there are so many cool forms out there...

[kfson]

In a nutshell, science says that when particles are in motion, heat is generated; the more a particle is moving, the warmer that thing is; inversely (glad that popcorn commercial used that term) the slower a particle is moving the colder it is. Absolute zero is the closest a particle can get without ceasing to stop altogether. SO HOT AND COLD IS ALL ABOUT MOTION!

Oh, and I'm not sure what one form I would do, either Beijing 24 or Dingshibazhang, but there are so many cool forms out there...

Are you saying nothing stands still so there is always some amount of heat?

[Tao Of The Fist]

Are you saying nothing stands still so there is always some amount of heat?

Well at the most basic level there is still energy at absolute zero, but not enough to transfer from one particle to another; so technically no. At least from modern sciences standpoint. No one has been able to reach absolute zero through any means, although we have gotten awfully close, so who's really to say what happens at absolute zero?

Why has KFM.com gone from Martial arts to science and politics all of a sudden (not that there's anything wrong with talking about both)? Are we all running out of ideas to talk about or all we all burnt out?