cool vid

[norther practitioner]

http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=wushu&width=640

[Tai Chi Shawn]

Yeah - that was cool. Although, my groin hurts just watching him.

Are Wushu and Tai Chi closely related? I saw some very familiar motions in his form. I know ALL MAs are related, but I mean do they call the motions the same names in each system? Interesting.

shawn

[Repulsive Monkey]

Wushu is NOT Taiji and Taiji is NOT Wushu.
They are not related.
Wushu is a bring and buy-sale of a lot of different things. As you could see a lot of what that bloke did has NO martial applications at all. It looked sweet but it was a very empty form, with not too much value in it.

Nice to watch, im sure a buggger to do, but in martial arts terms, that was totally useless.

[scholar]

Yah, Repulsive Monkey is correct, contemporary Wushu is not equivalent to traditional T'ai Chi Ch'uan. There is a good description of Wushu and what it entails on the online encyclopaedia "Wikipedia." Modern Wushu is based on traditional arts, including T'ai Chi, but it is for show only.

There is a branch of theatrical Wushu called "Taijiquan" where they do forms that sort of look like real T'ai Chi, but the power generation aspects are all missing. As well, there are forms which have the same or very similar names across a large range of different martial arts, external and internal but a very similar move can also have completely different names in different schools...

[lstern]

This is not wushu! It is Zhaobao taijiquan, which is closely related to Chen style.

Larry

[scholar]

Hey Larry! I know you from the yahoo Wu style group! I'm Longform there. Small world.

Unfortunately, my link to the video in question is broken for some reason, so I can't see it.

[scholar]

OK, now it works. the site must have been busy before. I agree with Larry, this is not "Wushu Taiji." It is very cool to watch, though. I'll bet the guy is in good shape!

[Brad]

There is a branch of theatrical Wushu called "Taijiquan" where they do forms that sort of look like real T'ai Chi, but the power generation aspects are all missing.

Not true at all.

[scholar]

T'ai Chi ch'uan and Taijiquan are two different ways to write the same Chinese characters, if that is what you mean. Since performance wushu is a creature of the current Chinese govt,. like the pinyin romanisation "Taijiquan" I always associate the two. Perhaps that is idiosyncratic of me...

[cam]

I believe Istern is right, that appears to be Zhaobao style. Many of the motions are quite clearly related to Chen style, though the characteristic fa jing is less apparent.
The form seemed overly showy, perhaps because it was at a tournament.. but what flexibility!!

[Shaolin Master]

That was the 'Da Jia' Large Frame of Zhao Bao Taijiquan.

Zhao Bao Taijiquan has a very reputable history and is a solid traditional martial art style with very progressive methods of imparting the essence of Taijiquan.

There are 15 frames of Zhao Bao Taijiquan from the basic (Middle, Large and Small) to the more explosive Hulei and Gongfu frames.

Regards
Wu Chan Long

[norther practitioner]

I thought it was a showyer traditional form, which is quite common.. I could see the relationship to chen.. I don't think it was "empty" the fa jing looked more how a Yang would show fa jing.

[Brad]

T'ai Chi ch'uan and Taijiquan are two different ways to write the same Chinese characters, if that is what you mean. Since performance wushu is a creature of the current Chinese govt,. like the pinyin romanisation "Taijiquan" I always associate the two. Perhaps that is idiosyncratic of me...

Well, that was part of my problem. Your "idiosyncricy" other than comunicating 100% false info, could potentially cause great confusion in any beginer or with anyone not familiar with Chinese romanization. There's a hell of a lot of good taiji quan people out there who might be more likely to write Taijiquan than T'ai Chi Ch'uan. Telling someone one is real and one is fake is a pretty dumb thing to do.

I disagree strongly with the rest of your statement too though, but don't feel like bringing up that old arguement at the moment. Maybe some other time.

[SPJ]

Cool link.

And a very low stance. Must have good foot work with the low stance. Or Xia Pan Gong Fu.

[Brad]

Personally, I think the stances are too low for him. I think he concentrates so much on getting low that he lets his back foot roll onto it's side too often and it looks like his back up through his neck tenses up too much sticking his head out and hunching his shoulders. His form is still stronger and smoother than a lot of people I've seen, but I think he'd be so much better if he'd come up higher and concentrate more on these "little" things These seem to be common mistakes I've seen a lot of in people practicing Chen taiji, which Zaobao taiji is a lot like. Sometimes people will get too focused on one part of their art, and loose sight of seemingly smaller(but esential) details.