Cool! There's this to say about tai chi- you don't have to break down people's inhibitions and scepticism about being hit really hard.
Not really true — it kinda depends on the gym’s focus and the teacher’s intent.
That can vary a lot between teachers and styles.
For example, let’s take fang song (放松) — “relax.”
A historical story comes to mind:
The editor learned to practice static and dynamic relaxation and asked him for advice.
He said: "It's not relaxed enough. Because you practiced for me, your mind was tense,
so you couldn't relax." "The key to relaxation is to relax your 'heart'."
He also told a story
about the relationship between relaxation and tranquility.
His teacher Yang Chengfu took a single whip posture and asked his father Yang
Jianhou for advice. His father said: "Not relaxed enough, the anger has not been
completely removed."
It means: the mind is not calm enough, and it is still a little impatient. Teacher Wang also
told an example of Yang Chengfu teaching him.
Chengfu told his student Wang to hold the Lift Hands posture and then walked away to smoke a pipe.
Ten minutes later, Yang returned and kicked Wang, who fell over.
“Not relaxed enough,” Yang said. “Keep standing — find how to relax.”
Wang continued to stand. When he felt he could no longer support himself, he searched for a way to stand without exhaustion.
Gradually, he felt his whole body become light and comfortable.
When Yang came back and kicked him again, he didn’t fall.
“Now,” Yang asked, “do you feel what relaxation is?”
Wang replied, “I have a little experience.”
One would hope so…
The point is, depending on the focus, some teachers’ methods can be quite severe.
My own approach is like eating food — take all you want, but make sure you can eat what you take.
I like working with younger people who can handle what happens when they use force without worrying about injuring them. Over time, they begin to understand the forces at play and the purpose of their training. As they develop what we call "懂劲 (dǒng jìn) " understanding force, they learn how much they can really “eat.”
In my teacher’s group, the seniors could easily break people if they wanted to — that wasn’t the point.
The point was to learn and feel what Taiji is, find it within oneself.
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