Taijiquan question

[abc]

Hi,

I wanna ask some question about Taijiquan.

I would like to learn some basic Taijiquan style myself is it possible? My questions are

1. Where is the best site to learn taijiquan
2. Can I mix all style of taijiquan together eg. Yang & Chen?
3. If Taijiquan step do wrong, will it hurt us as in internal?
4. If I feel that my hand is very dry when ending practising, what is it mean?
5. What are the quick benefits for Taijiquan u can list?

Hope someone can give some advice for me on self learning. Thanks in advanced

[GLW]

Learning Taijiquan from a web site is not something I would recommend...nor would I recommend any method other than having classes with a real in person teacher.

Basics are VERY important. A poor foundation and no matter what you do, it will not be good.

A good teacher is also important. Not every asian person knows what they are doing nor can every asian teacher teach - whether they know what they are doing or not. However, there IS a prejudice towards learning from an asian person. So...you have to know what to look for...and the Catch 22 is that as a beginner (whether this be to all CMA or simply to Taijiquan), you will not know enough to KNOW what to look for.

Basics - bad basics CAN and will hurt you. Without even touching on the esoteric or metaphysical of Qi and such, I can tell you that I can show you the basic stances and how to move in them. I can ignore an error or even show you with your foot turned just 2 inches in the wrong way. Then, let you go off and practice for a year. After a year of this "Bad" practice, you will be well on your way to needing knee surgery. Similarly, I can show you a body alignment and get it just 3 or 4 inches off...and after long practices, you WILL have low back pain where you never had it before.

So...proceed at your own risk...and there ARE some.

[abc]

Learning Taijiquan from a web site is not something I would recommend...nor would I recommend any method other than having classes with a real in person teacher.

Basics are VERY important. A poor foundation and no matter what you do, it will not be good.

A good teacher is also important. Not every asian person knows what they are doing nor can every asian teacher teach - whether they know what they are doing or not. However, there IS a prejudice towards learning from an asian person. So...you have to know what to look for...and the Catch 22 is that as a beginner (whether this be to all CMA or simply to Taijiquan), you will not know enough to KNOW what to look for.

Basics - bad basics CAN and will hurt you. Without even touching on the esoteric or metaphysical of Qi and such, I can tell you that I can show you the basic stances and how to move in them. I can ignore an error or even show you with your foot turned just 2 inches in the wrong way. Then, let you go off and practice for a year. After a year of this "Bad" practice, you will be well on your way to needing knee surgery. Similarly, I can show you a body alignment and get it just 3 or 4 inches off...and after long practices, you WILL have low back pain where you never had it before.

So...proceed at your own risk...and there ARE some.

oh.. thats sounds bad, but anyway thanks for your reply

[abc]

so overrall, which style u guys recommend, I know there are 3 famous 1, Yang, Chen and Wu right?

If I have master either 1 of them, can I master other kinds too and if possible can I mix some of the move too? Btw, is there any website to see what stance name are for specfic movement, cos I would interested to learn the theory first.

[dleungnyc]

Style nowaday really doesn't matter much except for the ****ing contest on internet boards.

Seriously though, just find the best teacher possible regardless of style.

[pops]

Hi everybody .I am glad to be back home.Just a warning not to bother going to wudang acadamy it is run down ,no running water, no working toilets, mold on the roof ,roof caving in,no master to greet us to give a demonstation and all of ther masters have left for other schools or to teach in USA.Wang TAO is no director of the acadamy but a travel agent named DR.Hue.It took me and my girlfriend about 5 minutes to decide to leave and go to the hotel next door.So what do we do know ? Sitting on the roadside to catch a ride down to the town site we meet a chinese tour guide that speaks english.so we explain our situation and he mentions he is the director of the eight immortal retreat .so we were very skeptic but had nothing to lose .Then we caught a ride to the retreat .When we got there they grabbed our bags and the master was right there to greet us.Training was awsome and the real thing(there was no cheating or lying or half truths which is very common in china)I learned the 18 formula taji ,Wudang short staff from the longman sect and ba da jin qigong from the pure yang sect,My girl friend learned the 32 sword.Taji and qigong.Our teacher was master lou Feng and master Wong.Master Feng is Wongs best diciple,.Master Wong is linage holder of the pure yang sect and the longman sect.The WE trained 5 hours a day sometimes also after supper.I learned the application of the forms and the movements very well.Traing somedays were hard but expected..The masters are awsome very kind and honest.They did not speakmuch english communicated the movement and application very well with much patients no stick for us.The acadamy is on the mountain still and I am glad it was not in the town so loud and smelly.On the mountain it is quite and clean.In china it is common to see men and women spit spit spit all over ,blow there nose on the street with there finger so snot flys everywhere and yes burping and ****ing is ok at all times what a culture.just be careful where you step.Any questions e mail me or post a reply.China as a whole needs lots of refining but had a great trip .pops

[chud]

Just a warning not to bother going to wudang acadamy...and all of ther masters have left for other schools or to teach in USA.

Well it seems that the monks from Wudang have come to Austin, Texas. They will be here this week: http://www.healingtaoinstitute.com/wudangdvd.html

[pops]

Hi everybody .I am glad to be back home.Just a warning not to bother going to wudang acadamy it is run down ,no running water, no working toilets, mold on the roof ,roof caving in,no master to greet us to give a demonstation and all of ther masters have left for other schools or to teach in USA.Wang TAO is no director of the acadamy but a travel agent named DR.Hue.It took me and my girlfriend about 5 minutes to decide to leave and go to the hotel next door.So what do we do know ? Sitting on the roadside to catch a ride down to the town site we meet a chinese tour guide that speaks english.so we explain our situation and he mentions he is the director of the eight immortal retreat .so we were very skeptic but had nothing to lose .Then we caught a ride to the retreat .When we got there they grabbed our bags and the master was right there to greet us.Training was awsome and the real thing(there was no cheating or lying or half truths which is very common in china)I learned the 18 formula taji ,Wudang short staff from the longman sect and ba da jin qigong from the pure yang sect,My girl friend learned the 32 sword.Taji and qigong.Our teacher was master lou Feng and master Wong.Master Feng is Wongs best diciple,.Master Wong is linage holder of the pure yang sect and the longman sect.The WE trained 5 hours a day sometimes also after supper.I learned the application of the forms and the movements very well.Traing somedays were hard but expected..The masters are awsome very kind and honest.They did not speakmuch english communicated the movement and application very well with much patients no stick for us.The acadamy is on the mountain still and I am glad it was not in the town so loud and smelly.On the mountain it is quite and clean.In china it is common to see men and women spit spit spit all over ,blow there nose on the street with there finger so snot flys everywhere and yes burping and ****ing is ok at all times what a culture.just be careful where you step.Any questions e mail me or post a reply.China as a whole needs lots of refining but had a great trip .pops

[scholar]

As mentioned above, people argue ad nauseum which style is the best, but my experience is that there was reliably good Taijiquan available from the 5 Taijiquan families. So, you are going to find good stuff from Chen, Yang Wu, etc. if, and only if, you get a good teacher. Just because it is claimed to be one of those classical styles doesn't mean it is any good.

To tell if a teacher is good, you have to know what to look for.

To help with that, here is a list of Google videos with players from the 5 major styles.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...88383140638886

There a several crappy ones in the list at right of the page that will show up. People will argue with my summary, but what the hell. The following ones I recommend to get an idea of what classical Taijiquan, the way it was taught 100 years ago, looks like:

1. Ma Yueliang doing a Wu style fast form. This is an older version of the form, dating back to Wu Jianquan's younger days, before he modified it around 1918-1920 and then his children modified it yet more 1940-1960. Still, very interesting, good small fa jing.

2. Chen Shrtong (I intentionally misspelled it because of an unfortunate letter combination). Not government wushu style at all. Good Chen family style. Smooth, precise, not too low. Zhaobao Chen style is also interesting if you can find a clip.

3. Hao Shaoru was from the famous Hao family of Wu Yuxiang, Li Yiyu, Hao Weizhen lineage. Too bad the vid is so spotty, they work with billowing/resonance in their power generations.

4. Dong Yingjie was a famous student of Yang Chengfu who also studied with Yang Shaohou and Wu Jianquan. Classical Yang "Large Frame" style.

5. Fu Zhongwen was also a disciple of Yang Chengfu. A little better quality video, but his style is very similar, naturally, to Dong's.

6. Sun Jianyun was Sun Lutang's daughter. Sun Lutang learned from Hao Weizhen, but also worked a long time with the Yang brothers and Wu Jianquan. There are similarities with all those styles in the Sun style. It is small like Wu style, with the resonance of Wu/Hao and a lot of Bagua/Xingyi stuff allegedly hidden in the mix. My teachers told me Wu Jianquan and Yang Shaohou were very impressed with Sun and incorporated a lot of his stuff into their personal forms.

[daoman]

Greetings, here s some info to your questions, hopefully it ll help.

1.Sites should be last resort. Although sites like this one with forums can be helpful. Better off buyin some books. Robert chuckrow, Dr. Yang jwing-ming are some recomendations.
2.First u got to know basics+stances. Then learn a form. Only after completing a form should u learn a new form. Forms were created as tools for us to achieve taiji.Different structures with same results. Learning more styles will compliment ur previous ones+ also deepen u r understandin.
3.Done wrong u can harm u r self externally+internally. So be humble+steadfast+patient. Most of all listen to u r body.
4.Dry + tight palms could be circulation prob. Depends.
5.Practise benifits externally+internally. Basically, health, exercise, cultivation of virtue.

Any questions or comments write me

[abc]

Greetings, here s some info to your questions, hopefully it ll help.

1.Sites should be last resort. Although sites like this one with forums can be helpful. Better off buyin some books. Robert chuckrow, Dr. Yang jwing-ming are some recomendations.
2.First u got to know basics+stances. Then learn a form. Only after completing a form should u learn a new form. Forms were created as tools for us to achieve taiji.Different structures with same results. Learning more styles will compliment ur previous ones+ also deepen u r understandin.
3.Done wrong u can harm u r self externally+internally. So be humble+steadfast+patient. Most of all listen to u r body.
4.Dry + tight palms could be circulation prob. Depends.
5.Practise benifits externally+internally. Basically, health, exercise, cultivation of virtue.

Any questions or comments write me

Thanks for more reply

[yenhoi]

http://www.emptyflower.com/

http://www.shenwu.com/

http://www.egreenway.com/taichichuan/ntes.htm

Good place to start anyways.

Use common sense, you can get far.

[yenhoi]

www.yogajournal.com

This site has a links section that will also get you far.

[abc]

Thanks for all the website