Shadowhand Taijiquan

Mastering the Basics

The fundamentals of the fighting art of Taijiquan comprise the ability to strike correctly and to move appropriately to enable an appropriate defence.

In my many years of teaching most students I have encountered all believed that they could punch, that it was the easiest thing to do and that it was perfectly natural. However their belief in their own ability was rarely put to the test and so their self-image was never put to the question.

Boxing coaches understand that people do not naturally know how to punch, just like they don't know naturally how to avoid getting punched or for that matter anything at all

All skillful behaviour must be learned and practised until it becomes ingrained. Thus it is essential you learn from someone who actually knows what they are doing otherwise incorrect action will be ingrained which will be very difficult to change.

Most people who have taken this route have invested so much time and effort to learn it that they refuse to change even if it is damaging to themselves. The worst thing is that they then teach it to others who then pass it on to yet others.

Bad practises are easy to teach and easy to learn thus they proliferate far quicker than the correct practises which are hard to learn and even harder to teach.

Without a solid grounding in the fundamentals of posture, movement and striking then it is not possible to learn the subtleties of the true fighting art of Taijiquan.

As Sun Tzu wrote "To be successful in 100 battles , it is necessary to know your opponent as well as yourself". Thus to be successful as a Taiji Fighter one must understand how other fighters fight, know how they punch, kick and grapple , how they utilise force , what strategies they use and what their strengths and weaknesses are.

Therefore when we train we must emulate these methods when attacking so that our partner can learn how to deal with these attacking methods and strategies. It also gives us an understanding as to how the attacking strategies work and any weaknesses inherent in the methods.