Balancing Tai chi practice with wing chun...

[monkey man]

I was wondering if anyone could give me any help on a query. I've been practicing Wing Chun for a few years now, but have just recently (november) started Tai Chi (yang style short form). In order to avoid mixing up the energy benefits of the two styles, I am trying to get into a routine of practicing the Tai Chi form in the morning and evening, and the Wing Chun forms in the day. Can anyone foresee any problems with this? (In terms of harming my internal energy system?).

Thanks..

[Zantesuken]

they're similar
you won't damage anything.
well actually it depends on how you practise wing chun but yeah

[bamboo_ leaf]

No, this is confusion to think this way.

One or the other each is very different.


david

[Zantesuken]

they have the same principles not the same methods

[dedalus]

I studied wing chun before moving on to taiji and bagua, and personally found that I had to leave my wing chun behind me. I've written about this elsewhere if you want to do a search, but the gist is that I did not find good taiji to be compatible with good wing chun. This was much more a matter of body mechanics than energy cultivation, in so far as the two are separable.

The upshot is that I don't believe you'll suffer any health problems studying both at once, but you *will* slow down your progress as your body uses one to question the other.

[bamboo_ leaf]

I also studied praying mantis and TC for a while, I tried to use the TC to supplement and answer questions I had in mantis. I found the same. There is only one chi, the way and how each art makes use of it is very different.
i only play the TC now.

this is only what i have found in my own practice for others it may be differnt.

david

[Zantesuken]

thanks for the video david!!!!

[Ma_Xu_Zha]

a poplur wing chun man once said, " tai chi and wing chun go hand in hand."

just remember to relax and stay soft and sensitive and not be to external with wing chun but fa jing or use ging power correctly.

[Kumkuat]

Originally posted by Ma_Xu_Zha
a poplur wing chun man once said, " tai chi and wing chun go hand in hand."

Was there a time when a popular taiji guy said that?

[Zantesuken]

not sure heh. my sifu who does wing chun also does tai chi on the said. i'm not sure exactly why though. maybe to soften up his bones from the wc but i can't say. a lot of higher levels up say that they're similar in principles but they're not nearly that close. wing chun relies a lot more on alignment and structure than strength

[Naturalkilla]

Hey man,

I bet if you could do the internal stuff well, doing Wing would just be different techniques using the same type of power and structure (in my opinion). I've done some hard stuff while learning Taiji too, and that's what I've found overall. Just use the Wing Chun postures without muscle strength and you'll have two good systems to practice that work hand in hand with each other.

[dedalus]

Just a thought: why does anyone need two systems?

Having re-read the initial post, I think it is something different to study the taiji system than borrow one of its training methods (in this case the short form).

[bamboo_ leaf]

I think people who think in this way are kinda stuck at one level. They are looking at the system as the vehicle instead of learning about the true vehicle (their own mind) they keep looking and looking out side when they have it already.

I think TC is very evolutionary / revolutionary in its approach to the human condition. The human struggle, in all the forms that it may take.

Recently met and pushed with some people who play Praying Mantis also with a person recently from china who has played tc for a while. All of them are still thinking about winning and fighting.

They have some skill but it’s the skill of the strong over coming the weak, fast beating the slow, tech based.

Very different from TC as I have come to know and follow at this time. the idea of mixing things can work on one level but i think to really get deep into any art you really have to specilize in that art. Much of this will depend on what your looking for.


david

[monkey man]

Like I said before, I've been doing wing chun for a few years now and feel like I've got a good enough foundation in it to look at other styles and keep things in perspective (i.e. not get confused). (This thread was originally posted to find out whether there could be any physiological problems, between the two styles, pertaining to energy cultivation). The reason I've recently started tai chi was to broaden my horizons and see what else is out there, and it's been good to see parallels between the two systems. I wanted to study something that would have more focus on relaxing and perhaps aid the more internal side to wing chun, but of course wanted to look at tai chi as an art in it's own right. I've only been learning the form, and have had no other practical or martial experience as of yet. At this moment in time I feel my heart will always lie with wing chun, but can also appreciate that this is a very biased opinion owing only to the fact that I have experience in it - it is very possible I may have very different feelings in the future, which is why I have made the conscious decision to look beyond the parameters of wing chun in the first place.

Bamboo leaf; I can appreciate what you are saying (echoing the philosophy of Chen Man Ching - to invest in defeat - and the concept of tai chi extending to a way of life beyond self-defence), and maybe I am not as advanced in my overall understanding of the martial arts as yourself. However, by looking outside the system that I am familiar with, I have been more able to put things into context and perspective and maybe even have a greater appreciation of what I thought I already knew (within wing chun and as martial arts as an expression of the 'mind vehicle').

The inquisitive mind, with an attention to integrity, also leads to the evolution of advanced sytems of thought.

[Naturalkilla]

Well, I think that what Bamboo said was quite true, but from my perspective, the arts are really just vehicles. What makes them so special other than the fact that they are concretely defined by those that do them? If there is some way that an individual could link several of them (broaden their horizons such as Monkey is thinking of doing) then what is the harm in doing so?

If the core purpose is in fact to explore the vehicle we have been given in the mind, why not do many such systems? Learning several of them, as far as I can see, apparently poses little threat to the concept of giving up as you have outlined it, and it may, in fact, even promote it as an underlying structure and mentality towards life and human improvement is discovered by the individual who practices such systems. All in all, I fail to see how multiple discipline appreciation could hamper someone's efforts if they attempt to learn accurately, no matter what their contradictions.