TJQ Forms question.

[T'ai Ji Monkey]

Hi All.

Just a quick question.

In your style when you finish your form do you face the opposite direction or not.

I know that in some forms you end facing the opposite direction, my style is like that.

Pls, let me know if you do or not and what style you do.
And also if you know what is the reason for doing so.

[illusionfist]

I do Sun family tai ji and we finish facing the same direction as we started.

Maybe this is just my ignorance, but I've never heard of a major family of tai ji that finishes in the opposite direction? Maybe thats it and its not a major family?

Peace

[T'ai Ji Monkey]

Originally posted by illusionfist
I do Sun family tai ji and we finish facing the same direction as we started.

Maybe this is just my ignorance, but I've never heard of a major family of tai ji that finishes in the opposite direction? Maybe thats it and its not a major family?

Peace

You are correct on Sun style.

In my Chen style and I think some Yang forms you finish facing the opposite direction.

[count]

In fact, I have never heard of facing the opposite direction.

"Carry the tiger back to the Mountain"

[GLW]

Actually, the common way for ALL Chinese Martial Arts Taolu (forms, routines, what have you) is to start and end facing the same direction and in the same spot.

There ARE routines that do NOT do this, but those are the exception.

Most Chen routines start and end at the same spot and facing the same way. Having seen most of the major Chen folks as well as the Yang, Sun, Wu, and Wu/Hao, I can say that very few routines do NOT do this.

The new routines ALL follow this rule. Competition routines actually have it as a requirement. You must begin facing one way, pass the center of the performance area, and then end within one step of where you started. The stance work is arranged so if you do your stances correctly and evenly, this will happen.

This rule of thumb was NOT made up for Modern. It was taken from Classical methods and simply made into a hard rule.

In international competition, if you violate this rule due to the way the routine is designed, you have to inform the head judge BEFORE you begin or you receive a deduction.

Yang form (quan, jian, dao) all begin and end in the same place, same direction, same for Sun, Wu, and Wu Hao. Chen has a few more forms but I have not seen one that did not.

[bodhitree]

Yang forms do, Lao Jia yi lu does (end in same spot)

[wingchunner]

We do Chen style tai Chi as taught by Chen Qing Zhou. We end facing the opposite direction. Why? It's easier when we do repetitions to recall how many times we've completed the form. We do it multiple times instead of just finishing, stopping, and starting over. Though for demonstration purposes we may end facing in the same direction.

Marty

[T'ai Ji Monkey]

Originally posted by wingchunner
We do Chen style tai Chi as taught by Chen Qing Zhou. We end facing the opposite direction. Why? It's easier when we do repetitions to recall how many times we've completed the form. We do it multiple times instead of just finishing, stopping, and starting over. Though for demonstration purposes we may end facing in the same direction.

Marty

Yup, we are told that we end facing the opposite direction in order to remind us to do the form again.

The question is not so much about same spot, but facing direction.