Will learning Tai Chi turn you into a super fighter, able to leap tall buildings with a single bound?

Nah, you need to be from Planet Krypton to be able to have this ability.

If you are thinking of learning Tai Chi to become a fighter you are better off learning anything but Tai Chi. This is not to say that Tai Chi can’t make you into a fighter. It is that the way Tai Chi is taught today we don’t train like a fighter.

Instead, what Tai Chi is good for is to slow down your movements, allowing you to work more closely on things that you might not be aware of, or refining things that you are already competent in but can become even better.

If you want to learn to use Tai Chi as a combat art, then you should learn some other art first before jumping into the Tai Chi pool. This will make it easier to get into it.

Unless you are born into a Tai Chi martial arts family and start your training young it would not be easy to be a pure Tai Chi practitioner. You should read this very informative writing on the experiences of my Dong style uncle Master Dong Zengchen on his learning and practice of Tai Chi.

Pushed to the Limit: One Hundred Years of Traditional Taiji Training

I have met Master Dong through my Dong style teacher, seen him up close doing resisting push hands with one Singapore student who worked as a contractor and had quite a bit of strength, and even had him give me a flying trip into the wall – he is certainly the real deal when it comes to Tai Chi as a martial art.

Note – a long, long time ago, Master Dong’s disciple, Chip Ellis, had sent me a small red book with the same title. However, the author was Rachel Porter. I will need to dig up my copy to see if the contents are the same or different from the article above at wuweitaichi.com. I do remember that the small red book was a very inspirational read.

Coming back to the 22 form, its practice can help unlock and acquire certain understanding and skills. I am sure many of you know of The Tai Chi Classics. Master L said that the Classics are the writings of the experiences of past Tai Chi masters.

If Tai Chi was originally one family then it makes sense that whichever style of Tai Chi you practice the Classics should make sense to you. While I can’t say I understand everything written in the Classics, I would say that a of the writings made a lot more sense, not just a few sentences here and there, but a whole bunch of them.

On the physical front, the 22 form has helped me to move in a certain manner in relation to the principles embedded in the form. For example, I had read about how Yang Chengfu placed two fingers on Cheng Manching and sent him flying.

I wondered how this could be done. A lot of times in push hands the teacher would break the student’s balance first before pushing him at an angle in which his balance is off. Or in some demonstrations the teacher would bend his arms and move closer to the student so as to be able to compress and release, to send the student flying.

However, this did not sound like what Yang Chengfu did. Or maybe I was reading too much into it. Then I read about the workings of a traditional bow. Here’s how Google AI puts it :-

A traditional bow functions as a simple energy storage device, converting the archer’s physical effort into potential energy stored in bent limbs. When drawn, the wooden or composite limbs bend, storing energy; upon release, the string pushes the arrow, turning that stored potential energy into kinetic energy to propel the arrow forward.

Does this not sound a lot like compress and release, except that if what Yang Chengfu did is what I imagined it to be then it would be a very small, barely perceptible, quick compress and release. This can only be possible if there is a biomechanical action that could allow me to do so. The only person I have seen who can issue power with movements that are confounding is GM Wei.

Fortunately, there’s a few videos of him out there doing many ways of fajing. Most of them would not make sense. I wouldn’t be surprised if some would label it fake, except there is a tiny issue – try to imitate how the person who got fajing jumped off the ground. You will find that you couldn’t imitate it. Other fake fajing action like hopping and jumping back can be imitated easily.

So unless what GM Wei showed is fake, then I am barking up the wrong tree. Master L did show me how he fajing once. He did a technique as he moved towards me. His fist did not hit me but his arm contacted me and I felt as if a strong wind had lifted me off my feet and dumped me a few feet backwards.

By then I knew that the only way I could make sense of anything is by getting a really good grasp of the principles. Not just a few selected principles but all of them that are within the 22 form. This is because many of the principles are related. So you cannot cherry pick what you want and dump the rest.

Did I solve the puzzle of how to do quick compress and release?

Yes.

The solution was in a few different principles which are used together.

What are the principles?

Compress and release as taught in the transition between Brush Knee, Twist Step.

Open and close as practiced when changing from Press to Push.

Opening the 5 bows as found in the Single Whip.

And of course, the Elongated Wrist found in practically every technique.

Last, but not least, the 9 Crooked Pearls.

There, that’s the secret.

Now all you have to do is to practice it until you can do it yourself.