Wudang Tai Chi in London/Cambridge/UK

[Inquisitor]

I'm asking another question for the same friend who wanted information on Lau Gar in the UK (if you guys remember, heh). He didn't think Lau Gar was for him, so he's been looking around for other schools/styles. Apparently there is a Cambridge Tai Chi Club (something like that), and the instructors there are all students of a man named Dan Docherty, who is a long-time student of Chen Tin Hung. My friend is a student at Fitzwilliam (one of the Cambridge University colleges) and is seriously considering taking the time to learn this system. I have heard the names Chen Tin Hung and Dan Docherty before (Dan has a good reputation in Tai Chi fighting circles), but I have no first-hand knowledge of the system or style itself, having only learned the Yang and Chen styles myself (and only a few years at that). My friend tells me that they split the time between forms and application (which sounds good to me - especially considering that most Tai Chi schools don't bother teaching ANY application). Here is the URL of a web-page which gave me the most information about Chen Tin Hung:
http://www.taichichuan.co.uk/articles_and_discussions/wudang/lineage.html

It appears to be derived mostly from Wu style... Please only give constructive information (it can be positive or negative, but it MUST be constructive; in other words, no trolling/bashing/etc). Personally, I am very inclined to tell him to feel free to jump in.

Thanks in advance for any and all replies given. :)

[Kaitain(UK)]

probably get chewed for this but here goes:

I went to a Wudang school in Kent that is run by one of DD's instructors. I found nothing but external movement that mimicked the Taiji form. Noone I pushed hands with had any sort of sensitivity or skill - it was just shoving and pulling.

When I recounted this on the Taiji forum I was told that Dan himself is very good, so maybe I just saw a bad instructor.

On that basis I'd recommend your friend train directly with Dan or not at all. I think that Dan probably has all the soft skills and then trained the harder side from there - I'd guess that some of his instructors just skipped the soft bit...

On the other hand this instructor at Cambridge could be excellent - the problem is you can never know until you've invested some time.

As a side note - applications are nice but they aren't much use. I much prefer spending a few hours pushing hands/drilling defence and seeing what comes out - then analysing what was done and relating it to the form. I also find that as soon as you teach someone an application for a posture they they close their mind off to any other possibilities the posture may have...

"If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?"

[NafAnal]

I know a guy who does it there, not that anyone cares...

[Sharky]

he writes for combat magazine and EVERYTHING!

All i wanted was some RICE CAKES! Now? WE MUST BATTLE.

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

i do wudang.

"I found nothing but external movement that mimicked the Taiji form"

some of our intermediate guys are like that too. they go through the movements but most of their power (aside from waist rotation and other obvious ways of generating power) is coming from sinking and intent which is still hard/external imo.

the advanced students definitely have allot of sensitivity and generate power internally but it still looks harder than any other style of taichi i have seen. though, i have only seen other taichi on tv and on the net, so i guess it's more accurate to say it looks more aggressive than i expected it to. it may be how the style is or it may be how my teacher is because of his other training.

i just recently started getting into actual wudang concepts, so there's allot i don't understand and what i think i understand i may be misinterpreting. the first year and half of my training was mostly boxing, muithia strikes, jujitsu holds, and other external training. we would occasionally learn some movements from the system, but at this point they could only be applied with external force.

he didn't really start introducing the system until a little less than 6 months ago. he suddenly had us doing allot of breathing exercises, meditation, and separated combat training from internal training. at this level it was just a matter of trying to completely relax with any movement and also focus on our diachien through the movent and kinda tense it upon impact. one day he got frustrated because no one seemed to be able to relax and just had us lift are arms in the air and let them fall for a while. after doing that we let them fall onto a pad and then worked on tensing just the palm and diachien upon impact.

we also don't really do forms. maybe the more advanced students learn some but i have only learned one set of 6 movements (a snake form) the entire time i have been there. there was also one or two other times where he showed us a technique and had us practice it in a set for about a week but then broke it down into each application of the technique and told us not to really worry about doing them in any particular order any more. like i said though, im not very advanced in the system to say for sure but i don't think forms are ever a very big part of our class.

it could be just my teacher and the way he uses/teaches the style, but it definitely appears to be a very combat oriented style of tiachi.

where's my beer?

[Kaitain(UK)]

GDA - just to check - what Dan Doherty calls Wudang style is his own style of Taiji, it is not the 'official' Wudang style. It's mentioned on his website somewhere.

So do you do Dan Doherty Wudang or normal Wudang?

"If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?"