Taijiquan - Quick and possibly meaningless post, with a short, unverified, story

Xue Sheng

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Assuming this knee ever recovers, when all is said and done, I may be a Sun Taijiquan/Northern Wu Taijiquan guy. I tend to get tired of Yang from time to time and even though I have not done much for over 6 months now, I am still not thrilled about returning to it.

I am slowly coming back working on Sun style, which by the way has considerably more obvious applications based on the individual postures with surprising similarities to JKD and not so surprising similarities to Xingyiquan. And I have always been drawn to Wu style, I later found out it was Northern Wu. When I first started Taijiquan, with my first shifu, I was doing Yang, then some Chen, then my Shifu taught us a Wu competition form. I eventually had to stop doing it because I could not separate it from Chen or Yang. I'd start Yang and somewhere the postures switched to Wu and the same happened with Chen as well. Never had that problem with Yang crossing over to Chen or Chen to Yang.

I seriously doubt I could do any Northern Wu at the moment. Tried some of my Traditional Yang last night and I got only as far as 'cross hands' after the first 'Apparent Closing', then my knee said..."you're done", and it was wrapped in an Ace bandage at the time too.

However I will say this, I do tend to agree with my Yang Shifu (second shifu) that Wu is not exactly taijiquan. It tends to not follow the 10 essentials form Yang Chengfu all that closely. There is a story my Shifu told about Wu; the Wu family was Manchu and the Yang family was Han. So when Yang Luchan (or possibly Yang Banhou) taught the Wu family, they only taught the defensive moves since they did not want to teach a conqueror (aka enemy) anything they could use against them...and telling an imperial guard no might not have been a healthy thing to do at that time (Qing Dynasty).Therefore my Yang Shifu does not think Wu is any good at offense, but very good at defense.

However he forgets one thing, the Wu family, at that time, were imperial guards, they already knew how to fight rather well and could very easily attack, possibly not with Taijiquan, but they knew how to attack. My thinking, is, since this is the case, it could be why Wu taijiquan does not follow the 10 essentials all that closely and also why I tend to think of it as not quite taijiquan.

But, regardless, what I end up doing is all speculation and highly dependant on this knee finally working as I was told it would.
 
Are you pushing forward with your rear leg, and contract your rear leg when you move back?
 
Are you pushing forward with your rear leg, and contract your rear leg when you move back?

not doing much of anything at the moment, the knee is still not recovered. Had a total knee replacement and the quad just does not want to wake up.
 
What about your glutes and hamstrings to mobilise your hip joints?
 
I am currently recovering from surgery and focusing on Physical therapy stretches and exercises. These exercises focus on all muscles and joints of the legs
I think you can utilise your eccentric strength of your glutes and hamstrings that is all, as they are not affected by your operation that is all. Taijiquan practitioners should know about the rotation of the crotch to move forward and backward by stretching the glutes and hamstrings.
 
I think you can utilise your eccentric strength of your glutes and hamstrings that is all, as they are not affected by your operation that is all. Taijiquan practitioners should know about the rotation of the crotch to move forward and backward by stretching the glutes and hamstrings.

Yes yes yes...been at taijiquan for 30 years..... but none of that works properly for taijiquan if the knee is still swelling and the quad is not firing and the IT band is so tight is not allowing the knee cap to move properly
 
Yes yes yes...been at taijiquan for 30 years..... but none of that works properly for taijiquan if the knee is still swelling and the quad is not firing and the IT band is so tight is not allowing the knee cap to move properly
Did they give you a poly insert on the patella during your total knee arthroplasty? I have assisted in well over a hundred total knee surgeries so I’m curious what version you got.
 
Yes yes yes...been at taijiquan for 30 years..... but none of that works properly for taijiquan if the knee is still swelling and the quad is not firing and the IT band is so tight is not allowing the knee cap to move properly
I know you practice Tai Chi Chuan but what other styles did you practice previously?
 
I think you can utilise your eccentric strength of your glutes and hamstrings that is all, as they are not affected by your operation that is all. Taijiquan practitioners should know about the rotation of the crotch to move forward and backward by stretching the glutes and hamstrings.
What styles of CMA do you practice?
 
Yes yes yes...been at taijiquan for 30 years..... but none of that works properly for taijiquan if the knee is still swelling and the quad is not firing and the IT band is so tight is not allowing the knee cap to move properly
Have the PTs hooked up your quads to one of those electric machines (Doctor Ho!) that zap your quad to make it contract? I had it for a bit, and I understand it's decent therapy if you can't use the knee.

As for the taijiquan, is there any Hao available near you? Longshot, I know, but the TCM doc who I did zhan zhuang with recommended it.
 
Yes yes yes...been at taijiquan for 30 years..... but none of that works properly for taijiquan if the knee is still swelling and the quad is not firing and the IT band is so tight is not allowing the knee cap to move properly
Here's my lame attempt to cheer you up. There is kung fu beyond a busted knee. Some people consider it meta, next level stuff.

 
What is that exactly?
BIOMECHANICS OF NON-CONCENTRIC MARTIAL ARTS YEUNG, Y. UNITED KINGDOM PANGRATION ATHLIMA FEDERATION

INTRODUCTION: Non-concentric Martial Arts are those arts that claim to be not using any concentric muscle contraction or known as “brute force” by the practitioners of Internal Chinese Martial Arts. The aim of this research project is to identify and validate the various non-concentric techniques in Martial Arts. Non-concentric techniques are those movements using eccentric muscle contraction and restored muscle elasticity according to the Yin Yang theory of passive and active muscles actions.
METHODS: The research methodology is qualitative exploratory with a panel of long time practitioners and teachers of Taijiquan, Qigong , and other exercise and martial arts. The non-concentric techniques were identified from the review of literatures and videos, and discussions in various internet forums. The panel of experts verified these techniques by practice, observation, and discussion to ascertain their consistency and can be correctly performed by anyone.
RESULTS: The result is established a list of techniques identified and verified as follows: passive stances with various distribution of body weight; rotation of the crotch in moving between forward stance and backward stance; movements of the ribcage which included open, close, ascent and decent; push and pull by arm rotation; connection and coordination between joints; transitions between movements.
CONCLUSION: This research project enabled further research in isolated muscle activities for performance enhancement with eccentric muscle strength and muscle elasticity.
 
BIOMECHANICS OF NON-CONCENTRIC MARTIAL ARTS YEUNG, Y. UNITED KINGDOM PANGRATION ATHLIMA FEDERATION

INTRODUCTION: Non-concentric Martial Arts are those arts that claim to be not using any concentric muscle contraction or known as “brute force” by the practitioners of Internal Chinese Martial Arts. The aim of this research project is to identify and validate the various non-concentric techniques in Martial Arts. Non-concentric techniques are those movements using eccentric muscle contraction and restored muscle elasticity according to the Yin Yang theory of passive and active muscles actions.
METHODS: The research methodology is qualitative exploratory with a panel of long time practitioners and teachers of Taijiquan, Qigong , and other exercise and martial arts. The non-concentric techniques were identified from the review of literatures and videos, and discussions in various internet forums. The panel of experts verified these techniques by practice, observation, and discussion to ascertain their consistency and can be correctly performed by anyone.
RESULTS: The result is established a list of techniques identified and verified as follows: passive stances with various distribution of body weight; rotation of the crotch in moving between forward stance and backward stance; movements of the ribcage which included open, close, ascent and decent; push and pull by arm rotation; connection and coordination between joints; transitions between movements.
CONCLUSION: This research project enabled further research in isolated muscle activities for performance enhancement with eccentric muscle strength and muscle elasticity.
Thank you.
 
Have the PTs hooked up your quads to one of those electric machines (Doctor Ho!) that zap your quad to make it contract? I had it for a bit, and I understand it's decent therapy if you can't use the knee.

As for the taijiquan, is there any Hao available near you? Longshot, I know, but the TCM doc who I did zhan zhuang with recommended it.

Yes, several times...I did not enjoy it
 
I know you practice Tai Chi Chuan but what other styles did you practice previously?

Taijiquan, Xingyiquan, Baguazhang, Sanda, Shaolin Long fist, a dash of Wing Chun, and a dash of JKD....go back further you get into Japanese Jujutsu and pre-olympic TKD....there are a few others I have tried, but they never amounted to much. But mostly Taijiquan and XIngyiquan....prior to the knee issues that is all it was...Yang Taijiquan, Hebei XIngyiquan.
 
Did they give you a poly insert on the patella during your total knee arthroplasty? I have assisted in well over a hundred total knee surgeries so I’m curious what version you got.

You know, I'm not sure...I need to ask the MD. All I remember him saying after the surgery was my knee cap was shot.
 
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