G
Garyr
Guest
Many people start out there martial art carreers in the A-typical Tae Kwon Joke, or Karate-dope dojo (see yellow pages). Then after a few years they realize that there must be more, and that perhaps what they are learning is crap. So they do some research and find out about the mystical Neijia arts. The Chi, the fluidity, the serentity.
So they join the local David Caradine tree-hugging, hippie, "its all about yeilding and the cosmos" type crowd. They may learn a few applications sure, but no jin is involved or any realistic training. There is nothing worse than asking a tajiquan teacher if they do applications then they reply "of course". Then the follow up question is "ARe you familiar with the term jing? IE..fa-jing, peng jin, zuan jin, ting jin, can si jin, etc." they tell me no. I want to come through the phone and choke them, as they have no buisiness teaching tai chi, they should go back to yoga and a good joint, and then perhaps learn how to pronounce yAng correctly before pretending to know about the internal arts.
I truly believe that if you cannot defend yourself with only your Taijiquan then you have no buisiness teaching it. Speculation need not apply, real exp. only..( I expect hate mail on this one...)
There is another path some take, after the bad TKJ or Karate-dope experience they find boxing, MT, and BJJ. Finnnally something they can accually use in a real fight!!!! However some of them then dismiss traditional arts completely and fail to see there is more possible depth of skill in these arts. The learning curve may be different, but it goes up much higher. But after all I dont blame them, the fact that a great majority of traditionalists cant fight is a hard rep to beat.
and so endeth the RANT and generalizations....
Gary
So they join the local David Caradine tree-hugging, hippie, "its all about yeilding and the cosmos" type crowd. They may learn a few applications sure, but no jin is involved or any realistic training. There is nothing worse than asking a tajiquan teacher if they do applications then they reply "of course". Then the follow up question is "ARe you familiar with the term jing? IE..fa-jing, peng jin, zuan jin, ting jin, can si jin, etc." they tell me no. I want to come through the phone and choke them, as they have no buisiness teaching tai chi, they should go back to yoga and a good joint, and then perhaps learn how to pronounce yAng correctly before pretending to know about the internal arts.
I truly believe that if you cannot defend yourself with only your Taijiquan then you have no buisiness teaching it. Speculation need not apply, real exp. only..( I expect hate mail on this one...)
There is another path some take, after the bad TKJ or Karate-dope experience they find boxing, MT, and BJJ. Finnnally something they can accually use in a real fight!!!! However some of them then dismiss traditional arts completely and fail to see there is more possible depth of skill in these arts. The learning curve may be different, but it goes up much higher. But after all I dont blame them, the fact that a great majority of traditionalists cant fight is a hard rep to beat.
and so endeth the RANT and generalizations....
Gary