In last month issue I put out a plea and asked you to "raise issues
that might be discussed in future issues of this newsletter". I
received just one response - as follows:
I'm one of those silent readers that you were
talking about. I've been receiving your newsletter for a little over a
year now and really enjoy it. I think I found your website when I was searching
for info on Tai Chi on the net. I liked the video sections you had on
line that allowed me to see how different moves were made.
My teacher was self taught using Terrace Dunn's Long & Short Form
video's and has been practicing Tai Chi for over 12 years. He has been
teaching Tai Chi as an exercise and health class. It has been part of the
Sports Rec program and not a credited class. I have taken his beginner's
class twice and we talked him into an intermediate class this semester.
That was nice ... we started out with 4 students and about half way
through 2 dropped out. In a couple of sessions it was just the teacher
and myself. I gained a lot from that kind of personal training.
One thing that helped me also was trying to find
the self defense that goes with the Tai Chi forms ... not to practice to
that end ... but it helped me to define the movements, by knowing what it
could be used for. Maybe that is something that would help others ... a
movement a month in your newsletter.
I enjoy the history and culture that is also
involved with Tai Chi, so any kind of background like that is fun to read
about too. Thank you for ALL the time and effort you put into helping us
with our study of Tai Chi ! Mike Standifor.
Mike raises several issues: 1. Self taught. 2. Not a 'credited
class'. 3. Drop out from classes. 4. Personal training. 5. Martial
application. 6. History and Culture.
Thanks Mike, there is theoretically enough there to keep us going
for a hundred plus issues at least! I say "US" because I don't
want this newsletter to be about just what I think and accordingly, so I
am going to keep my powder dry this month on Mike's email and invite you
to now have your say and contribute to this newsletter in by responding
to some of the issues MIke has raised, or indeed in any way that you feel
able. I would like it if this publication was as much about practicing
tai chi tai as it is about tai chi itself - because tai chi itself is a
notoriously difficult thing to analyze or write about. I would like you please
to tell me 'how' (and where and when) you do what you do and not simply
'what' you do. I guess you are like me ... just living a life and doing
tai chi, yeah?
Next month, I will pick
up on the subject of 'self defense' application of tai chi as suggested
by subscriber Mike Standiford, and as prologue to that may I please ask
you to visit "the
evolution of eight", one of the new pieces that I have embedded
into thearea. This is a 'quirky' piece that hints at the complexities and
combinations of "obvious, hidden and refined chi" and other
theories that ought at least in part be understood before any real
martial application be attempted. To get it going (and perhaps playing
devils advocate) my two cents is that yes, it is well worth finding out
just why it is that this hand goes here and that foot goes there, but
sometimes perhaps that's a bit like worrying about whether crossply tyres
(US: tires) are better than radial - when you don't have a car!
Essentially, FORM MUST COME FIRST and it is this should be practiced for
at least eight years prior to consideration of martial application.
It is my experience that the longer a person trains in tai chi
Form the more certain he/she becomes that violence achieves nothing and
the best self defense is simply to not be there. It is my further
experience that if by any chance a person finds themselves in a
threatening situation and they have to 'fight their way out' of it, they
will do just that! This would not be a time for considering or testing
theories. This will be a time for reacting efficiently and doing just
whatever you have to do and, whilst I pray that you will never have to
put this to the test for real, I suggest that this will also be time when
you will come to appreciate the internal strength, confidence in physical
coordination and clear mind that can be only be cultivated through
diligent practice of Form.
To further illustrate this point and to prompt further discussion,
I now paraphrase an article on the taichido website (self-defence:
a state of mind): "These and many other complex physical changes
occur, some of them in less than a second does, to maximise the
body’s ability to cope with danger and stressful situations does.
Unfortunately an individual responds not to some real environment but to
a perceived environment. In other words, its not whether you are going to
be attacked that counts, its whether you think you are that leads to
increased heart rate, muscle tension, breathing rate, blood pressure and
all the other bodily changes we experience in a crisis.
Interestingly, the Chinese translate crisis as both danger and
opportunity. In a crisis it is important to act, and not to react. One
expression goes "for a fast breaking crisis, its better to throttle
back to conscious competence". All too often we forget that we need
to stop for an instant and think about what we are doing. In psychology
this is known as cognitive restructuring or cognitive re-framing.
The first feelings of stress are a cue for action. Initially
feelings of powerlessness and the urge to become angry or embattled should
be rejected next. To take control of yourself consider the options before
direct physical action; such as asserting yourself verbally, running away
(don’t let anyone tell you that running isn’t self-defence)
or in the last instant defending yourself physically if you have to do
so.
You may argue that there is not time to run through all these
options, but once again research shows that violent confrontations follow a bell
curve. You have thirty seconds on increasingly violent verbal aggression,
a physical flash point and a further thirty seconds of decreasingly
violent physical aggression, after which the process can begin again. So
you have thirty seconds which to review your choices, and if during this
time you remain calm, there is less chance of the situation escalating to
the physical level. In the end, if you had to defend yourself and you
feel you failed, it’s time to engage in some cognitive
re-framing."
Site News: In last
months newsletter I also told you all about the 'fiddling' that I have
been doing @ wheelswithinwheels.net
(sister site to taichido.com) including the launching of an 'in-house
e-zine' that I have called "the area";
this being a colloquial name that locals have given to this particular
city centre district, the district that my house is in. The imaginary
boundary of this area/district happens to be defined by three traffic web
cams that can be found on the B.B.C.
South website (the triangular group right in the centre of the page).
Please (when you have finished reading this - and then sent me an e-mail
commenting on any of the subjects above!) do check out the area
page - where (top left) I straighten the record and finish the story
about Russell by acknowledging the positive effect that he, by just
living his life, has had upon me. Clicking on the cropped image that
accompanies that short article ("As one door closes") opens a
new page featuring the uncropped and detailed original photo - and two
other photos, the former taken at our 04 annual social and the latter two
at the 03.
Our 2004 social was broadcasted live on webcam and as a fortunate
consequence of this I was able to save the various talks and Buddhist
chanting and, having now converted them now into mp3 audio files I am
very pleased include them all as downloads from the page: "Our
8th and 9th annual socials - Formal Eza". Give it a click and
take your pick!
The creation of "the area" is part of a plan and my aim
is to use those pages for down to earth and plain and simple 'news' which
up until now has found its way, not unpredictably, into this 'news'
letter. This will in turn I hope free up space here for other
correspondences, debate and discussion of the practice of tai chi - and
the people that practice it.
So that's the plan ... but as this issue clearly illustrates; all
plans are subject to change, yes?
Gary. 17.05.05
Links refered to in this issue:
http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/index.htm
http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/blogs/thearea.htm http://www.bbc.co.uk/southampton/travel/traffic_webcams.shtml
http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/blogs/areapages/04eza.htm
http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/blogs/clearoutcorner/eveofeight/eveofeight.htm
http://www.soton.ac.uk/~maa1/chi/taichi/selfdefence.htm
