Yang Taiji Applications Project
Hello everyone!
I’ve been practicing traditional Yang Taiji for about 15 years. Early in my training, I practiced the form and push hands equally, then moved cities and took a break from partner practice, continuing forms practice on my own.
Recently, I’ve gotten a group together to explore and practice the martial applications of Taiji. I was inspired to do so more systematically after reading Brennan’s translation of Taiji Boxing According to Xu ZhiYi, in which Xu emphasizes that Taiji Is NOT an exclusively internal art.
Xu goes on to say that, yes, Taiji has a unique, specialized skill set that is “internal” in nature. In so doing, he implies that a generalized skill set, “external” in nature, complements and completes the “internal” aspect of the style.
The internal, specialized skill set of Yang Taiji is “neutralization”. The external, generalized skill set can be looked at as the “techniques and applications”.
These days, it seems the practice of the general skills of Taiji are often neglected in favor of the special, soft, internal skills. My group and I have therefore begun investigating and training applications directly derived from the traditional Yang Taiji form. Our aim is to catalog, on video, at least one application sequence* for each of the postures in the form.
So far, we’ve cataloged applications for all of section 1 (up to cross hands) and the first quarter of section 2 (just past diagonal flying).
The first videos are quite long simply because my editing isn't the greatest, but the content is there. The videos get better both in length and editing.
Postures 1-4 : Beginning Form, Ward off Right, Ward off Left, Grasp Sparrows Tail - 18:41
(Ward off right and left are more versatile than I thought!)
https://youtu.be/mJ4c8V1xGxU
Postures 5-8 : Single Whip, Raise Hands Step Up, Shoulder Stroke, White Crane Spreads its Wings - 10:55
(All of these are fun to do)
https://youtu.be/adop_J7JrOQ
Postures 9-13 : Left Brush Knee, Play the Lute, Left, Right and Left Brush Knee, Play the Lute - 9:29
(Play the lute is pretty cool, imo)
https://youtu.be/68uPSeZ8Igw
Postures 14-17 : Left Brush Knee, Advance Step Parry Punch, Apparent Close, Cross Hands - 6:59
(Advance Step Parry Punch is split apart here)
https://youtu.be/F5nNz8jXIFw
Postures 18-19 : Embrace Tiger Return to Mountain, Hide Fist Under Elbow - 3:07
(Hide Fist Under Elbow is my favorite technique so far!)
https://youtu.be/I25w0zHGiYY
Postures 20-22 : Repulse Monkey, Diagonal Flying, Raise Hands Step Up - 2:41
(Kudos to my senior training partner with a Karate background for helping me!)
https://youtu.be/Qd_BDe-AE1Q
I'll keep adding videos as they're recorded. In the meantime, enjoy! If you have a willing partner, try the applications out for yourselves!
* I use the term “sequence” instead of “drill” to denote the compliant nature of our catalog. To sequence an application means to learn the move; to drill it implies applying the move against non-compliance. We’ll post drills once we’ve sequenced the entire form.
