KC Elbows
11-13-2010, 09:17 PM
Looking for input, this is a section of written stuff for the class I'm teaching to a few of the tudents of the guy who taught me taixuquan in order to replace a training partner of mine who moved. It's a free class, I only intend to teach long enough to train some training partners.
"Dropsies" are rounds of push hands where at least every third or fourth move, someone has to go for one of the drop step moves in the systems, ankle picks and such, as I found telling people to use them didn't work as well as just making them use them.
Here are the sections I'm wanting input on:
Class Structure
This class is designed to, in as short a time as possible, convey the foundational principles and techniques of the Taixuquan(Great Void Boxing- In Cantonese, taihuichuan) style of taiji and train its usage. The basis for the class is the style as I practice it, which stresses waist usage for power generation.
As such, the basic training I recommend for the class is the following:
1) Training of the form
2) Various push hands drills, including sparring
3) Shadow boxing using techniques from the form
4) Heavy bag work using techniques from the form
These are not stages in training, but concurrent practices that bolster each other. Without developing skill in each one, it is unlikely that one will develop appreciable skill in any of the four.
The main intention of the class is to fully train each of you in the style to a point at which you become my equal.
As I am the only one with sufficient experience with the waist work of this method, there are no assistants in this class. Students are encouraged to help each other, but must recognize that any such assistance may not be based around the principles of motion at work in this method.
Currently, I will not be accepting more students. I will be training you to the point where you know the entire set and can use a decent amount of the taixuquan techniques in drills involving pressure, after which point we will be doing your graduate work in The Game. At some point in that process(The Game), you may decide to invite and teach others, which I would be glad to help with.
Rules For When I Cannot Be At Class
Due to my current work schedule, there will be a period of time in which I cannot be there to teach you. It is my expectation on those days that people will pair up for pushhands and work on techniques that I have been teaching.
One point that I will be very firm on is that they do work on this material. Unless one has mastered usage of the techniques involved in taixuquan, time alloted for taixuquan should be used to hone taixuquan. Do not lose this time, and do not waste another taixuquan teacher's time getting more instruction when past instruction still needs to be implemented in push hands against varied partners.
If you are the only one to show up on such nights, shadow box to exhaustion using taixuquan(mixing in basic striking and kicking where you do not know sufficient taixuquan to use it alone, but only in this case), then go over the form, then shadow box again, until the two hours are up.
If an even number of people show up, all but two people should pair up for push hands. The remaining two will shadow box to exhaustion, then replace two others in push hands, and those two others will shadow box to exhaustion, etc. The two replaced need not be push hands partners at the time they are replaced.
If an odd number show up, the odd man or woman out will do their form once, then replace one of the others in push hands.
When there is more than one student, and most are playing push hands, with odd people out either shadow boxing or doing their form, once each person has done their form or shadow boxed once, then the push hands drill changes in this order:
1) Right foot forward push hands
2) Left foot forward push hands
3) Parallel push hands
4) Parallel, opposite stance
5) Dropsies, right foot forward
6) Dropsies, left foot forward
7) Square stance
See the rules for The Game to understand my expectations for push hands. These rules are mandatory, for safety and for efficiency of training. It is agreed between Mikey and myself that my rules apply to my class, so it is the students' responsibilities to ahdere to them, regardless of who is teaching the class that night, and especially if students are on their own doing the above regimen.
The Form
The most important thing to remember is that the form is not the style. Ultimately, it is your collective notes, in motion, of all the techniques comprising the style, done without an opponent. Those notes, when informed by practice in push hands and sparring of the techniques, can be useful. Without this information, the form will be limited in both martial knowledge and, ultimately, physical efficiency, and thus, limited in health benefits.
In this way, the form is just one training tool. Without shadow boxing, it becomes just a chain of moves that you will not be able to extract from that chain. Without push hands and sparring, it will be a body of techniques you've heard about, been told things about, and approximated based on other people's account of them, but cannot yourself verify with any surety their meaning from experience. Without use of the heavy bag, the form will contain strikes that you cannot use with real power. Without sparring, the form will contain strikes that you may understand, but cannot reliably connect with.
The style of taixuquan is a fighting style, and thus the style itself assumes something you are fighting. Thus, the form is not the style. There are always people who know a form, but do not know the style the form is a representation of. It is my responsibility to be certain that you are not such people, and you're responsibility to not see knowing the form as knowing the style, but merely access to a tool that can help know the style.
There is one taixuquan unarmed set, and it is the only set I will teach. The set is practiced three ways: slow, slow with a power generation called fajin, and fast with fajin. If the waist work cannot be done effortlessly, do not bother throwing power into the form yet. If the fajin cannot be done like thunder consistently, do not try to do the fajin set with speed yet.
At the stage everyone is at now, it is better to do the form consistently than to do it often, and must be done slowly with extreme attention to detail. Three times a day, around six days a week, is sufficient. Even with the full slow set, this is less than twenty total minutes, and it is frankly better if time elapses between each repetition in one day, in my opinion.
A necessary form related practice I call The Fives. Periodically, go through the form, doing each step five times on each side from the point in the form it begins at. Tntire form. I do this with fajin at speed, and still must split it up over various training sessions in the week in order to finish it.
"Dropsies" are rounds of push hands where at least every third or fourth move, someone has to go for one of the drop step moves in the systems, ankle picks and such, as I found telling people to use them didn't work as well as just making them use them.
Here are the sections I'm wanting input on:
Class Structure
This class is designed to, in as short a time as possible, convey the foundational principles and techniques of the Taixuquan(Great Void Boxing- In Cantonese, taihuichuan) style of taiji and train its usage. The basis for the class is the style as I practice it, which stresses waist usage for power generation.
As such, the basic training I recommend for the class is the following:
1) Training of the form
2) Various push hands drills, including sparring
3) Shadow boxing using techniques from the form
4) Heavy bag work using techniques from the form
These are not stages in training, but concurrent practices that bolster each other. Without developing skill in each one, it is unlikely that one will develop appreciable skill in any of the four.
The main intention of the class is to fully train each of you in the style to a point at which you become my equal.
As I am the only one with sufficient experience with the waist work of this method, there are no assistants in this class. Students are encouraged to help each other, but must recognize that any such assistance may not be based around the principles of motion at work in this method.
Currently, I will not be accepting more students. I will be training you to the point where you know the entire set and can use a decent amount of the taixuquan techniques in drills involving pressure, after which point we will be doing your graduate work in The Game. At some point in that process(The Game), you may decide to invite and teach others, which I would be glad to help with.
Rules For When I Cannot Be At Class
Due to my current work schedule, there will be a period of time in which I cannot be there to teach you. It is my expectation on those days that people will pair up for pushhands and work on techniques that I have been teaching.
One point that I will be very firm on is that they do work on this material. Unless one has mastered usage of the techniques involved in taixuquan, time alloted for taixuquan should be used to hone taixuquan. Do not lose this time, and do not waste another taixuquan teacher's time getting more instruction when past instruction still needs to be implemented in push hands against varied partners.
If you are the only one to show up on such nights, shadow box to exhaustion using taixuquan(mixing in basic striking and kicking where you do not know sufficient taixuquan to use it alone, but only in this case), then go over the form, then shadow box again, until the two hours are up.
If an even number of people show up, all but two people should pair up for push hands. The remaining two will shadow box to exhaustion, then replace two others in push hands, and those two others will shadow box to exhaustion, etc. The two replaced need not be push hands partners at the time they are replaced.
If an odd number show up, the odd man or woman out will do their form once, then replace one of the others in push hands.
When there is more than one student, and most are playing push hands, with odd people out either shadow boxing or doing their form, once each person has done their form or shadow boxed once, then the push hands drill changes in this order:
1) Right foot forward push hands
2) Left foot forward push hands
3) Parallel push hands
4) Parallel, opposite stance
5) Dropsies, right foot forward
6) Dropsies, left foot forward
7) Square stance
See the rules for The Game to understand my expectations for push hands. These rules are mandatory, for safety and for efficiency of training. It is agreed between Mikey and myself that my rules apply to my class, so it is the students' responsibilities to ahdere to them, regardless of who is teaching the class that night, and especially if students are on their own doing the above regimen.
The Form
The most important thing to remember is that the form is not the style. Ultimately, it is your collective notes, in motion, of all the techniques comprising the style, done without an opponent. Those notes, when informed by practice in push hands and sparring of the techniques, can be useful. Without this information, the form will be limited in both martial knowledge and, ultimately, physical efficiency, and thus, limited in health benefits.
In this way, the form is just one training tool. Without shadow boxing, it becomes just a chain of moves that you will not be able to extract from that chain. Without push hands and sparring, it will be a body of techniques you've heard about, been told things about, and approximated based on other people's account of them, but cannot yourself verify with any surety their meaning from experience. Without use of the heavy bag, the form will contain strikes that you cannot use with real power. Without sparring, the form will contain strikes that you may understand, but cannot reliably connect with.
The style of taixuquan is a fighting style, and thus the style itself assumes something you are fighting. Thus, the form is not the style. There are always people who know a form, but do not know the style the form is a representation of. It is my responsibility to be certain that you are not such people, and you're responsibility to not see knowing the form as knowing the style, but merely access to a tool that can help know the style.
There is one taixuquan unarmed set, and it is the only set I will teach. The set is practiced three ways: slow, slow with a power generation called fajin, and fast with fajin. If the waist work cannot be done effortlessly, do not bother throwing power into the form yet. If the fajin cannot be done like thunder consistently, do not try to do the fajin set with speed yet.
At the stage everyone is at now, it is better to do the form consistently than to do it often, and must be done slowly with extreme attention to detail. Three times a day, around six days a week, is sufficient. Even with the full slow set, this is less than twenty total minutes, and it is frankly better if time elapses between each repetition in one day, in my opinion.
A necessary form related practice I call The Fives. Periodically, go through the form, doing each step five times on each side from the point in the form it begins at. Tntire form. I do this with fajin at speed, and still must split it up over various training sessions in the week in order to finish it.