check out these clips

[Unmatchable]

http://www.rubytopaz.com/videos.htm

[shrub]

He is doing Wing Chun, not Tai Chi push hand/sparring.

[Liokault]

Every thing I hate about 99% of tai chi clubs is shown here.

[QuaiJohnCain]

How come the worst Taiji people come out of the UK? What the hell's going on over there?

[GroungJing]

Yea......These look like they come from Earl Montaigue's school of Taiji thought.

Earl Montaigue's Taijiquan is always a hot topic on the Internet.


Montaigue's Taijiquan has a lot more strikes than other Yang styles. I've seen it before and yea it looks like he's drawn a lot of his understanding of the form (the quan) from Wing chun applications or his Bagua...whatever one came first.

Sometimes he can make some interesting comments..


I personally don't have a problem with him or what he's been doing. He's been studying Yang style Taijiquan for thirty years. If this is his version, then this is "HIS" version.
He has the experience and just needs to come out and say so.......If it works for him or someone else cool! I'm not sure its traditional Yang family style....but heck what is?

I hail from the Chen Fu side and although that style differs with intent and applications (for the most part) with Earl Montaigue's,
he does teach a martial side. It may not be what guys like myself or others that hail from the Fu Zhong Wen side have been trained in, but..... Montaigue's men train martially (which is more than many Yang and Wu schools do.)


What few people in the west know is that there are so many different styles of Taijiquan other than Chen, Wu, Yang and Sun in China, not to mention all the sub branches these respected styles have spawned. For all I know Montiague learned his Yang style from a hybrid master. In the end it doesn't matter...if it works you ...then it works you.....Its a bonus if you enjoy it!

[Liokault]

How come the worst Taiji people come out of the UK? What the hell's going on over there?

That dog aint gunna hunt round here boy....these guys are in New England not the UK from what I can make out.

[QuaiJohnCain]

My mistake.

[Liokault]

Go to this link HERE

And tell me you think this is an English man!

[QuaiJohnCain]

All I can say is, the man has fantastic self confidence...

[Liokault]

All I can say is, the man has fantastic self confidence...

Yup, and Steve has none. I want the next clip they post to be titled "Steve twats Mark in the face for repeatedly pushing him over".

[shaolinboxer]

It's always impressive to see a guy with a large weight advantage shove a smaller guy.

[Syd]

Ground Jing,

As a student of Erle's system I might add that you don't know what your talking about in his regard. it's a nice little rant but it helps if you get some of the facts straight. If you need straightening out, which you do, I suggest you take a look at his website which gives you all the facts you need about who he trained with over the years and where his art comes from.

His main teacher was Chang Yiu Chun who was a cousin to the Yangs and who trained under Yang Shou Hou along side Chen Pan Ling. Chen Pan Ling and Erle's Taijiquan look almost the same. I don't think there was any hybrid here. It is also well known that Yang Shou Hou preserved his fathers art whereas Yang Cheng Fu hugely altered it.

In our school we learn both the Yang Cheng Fu long form 108 (For health) as well as the old Yang styles of Yang Lu Chan (For Combat). If you don't recognize many of the applications in Erle's system then perhaps thats because your getting applications out of Yang Cheng Fu's form which was altered from a combat form to a health and healing form, rather than from the Old Yang combat forms.

Either way, some research mightn't go astray...

Best, Syd

[Ray Pina]

Who's perfect?

There is nothing more that I hate then wanting to "push hands" with taiji guys who don't want to include strikes or any type of final, "I can beat your a$$" movements.

Real simple: Touching/sticking hand, pushing hand, hitting hand. You need all three!

The first example of that man throwing the guy was actually pretty good.

Contact, stuck, found an in, DROVE OFF THE BACK LEG, moved the guy, than finished his push with his arms. (the other two his weight was going back a bit and had more to do with the other anticipating a hit).

Yes, the guy was much bigger. So what? Sometimes you get to have an advantage, too.

There is so much criticism here, how does anyone learn?

[backbreaker]

I don't think anyone is saying his taiji is not martial or he doesn't emphasize spariing techniques. They're probably saying we didn't see any redirection of the opponent's force back into the opponent. Some people here are probably skeptical of the guy's peng jin and wonder if he really uses the dantien when shifting weight. Although I've been told you can't tell if somone has internal by looking, It appeared to be strength (ineffective) based rather than sung and peng based

[Ray Pina]

I don't like to get caught up with stuff like, "redirect their force back to them" and what not. Does the guy study taiji? Looks like he can defend himself quite well. Room to improve? Of course! I'd start with the wardrobe and man breasts before his technique.

There are VERY few people that I have seen who can do with taiji what they say you're supposed to do .... and VERY few who can fight.

I go in from time to time to steal an idea or two ... I'll save the soft-soft for after I become hard as hell with Hsing-I, clever as a fox with Ba Gua, and as hard to stop and see coming as the U.S. militray via E-Chuan. I just don't get visions of graneur ... It's still a fight! You have to go in there and deal with a blow, maybe take one, get good position and finish it off.

Too much philosophising about what's what might work the grey matter but not much else.