Why did you start taiji?

[daftyman]

Why did you start taiji?

Before I knew anything about taiji, I thought of it as moving meditation. It fascinated me. A friend of mine was doing a round, so I asked him about it. He told me of a class and so along I went.

I really enjoyed it, so I went back week after week.

Then came a bombshell. We were learning roll-back and the teacher showed how that particular posture could be used....to snap the elbow!
Hey! Wait a minute! This is a martial art? WOW! I'd always wanted to learn a martial art, but had never actually got off my arse to find a class. Now I was totally hooked.

Then came push-hands. I tried it and found it frustrating/ fascinating/ interesting all at the same time. I was doing ok, I thought and went to a Sunday workshop where this 'little old lady' proceeded to pull and push me from pillar to post! I was nearly a foot taller and must have been a good couple of stone heavier.

Why do I keep doing taiji?

1. The fact that it can de-stress me so easily.
2. There is still so much to learn.
3. I seem to be constantly improving (however gradual that may be).
4. It satisfies my desire to learn a martial art.
5. It is so good for my health and the strength of my legs.
6. If I keep doing it, by the time I am of an age where I know what life is all about, I will still have the strength to enjoy it!
7. So I can 'feel the chi doood!'

So, come on people:
Why did you start taiji?
Why do you keep doing taiji?

[cybermonk]

I started tai chi in order to enhance my fighting ability. I have been an external stylist for a long time but the first time I had the chance to spar a tai chi practitioner I knew there was something I was lacking. Since then tai chi practice has greatly improved my balance, breathing and focus and it has helped me understand more closely what happens during an attack. Its hard to explain but I feel that as external stylists, we tend not to worry much about what happens in the small window of time between the moment an attack is launched and the moment it lands, with our mind predominatly set on how the opponent will react. While tai chi practice seems to be more concerned with proper alignment of the strike through its range of motion.

Why do I keep doing tai chi? Mainly for two reasons, number one being that my external skills are further improved by enhancing my internal side. And the second reason being that no matter how good I am now, I wont be young and strong forever. There will come a time where I will prefer palm strikes over punches and jumping kicks and overly dynamic attacks will be a thing of the past.

[Shadowdh]

Why did I start taiji...??

Well a few years ago a very good friend of ours tried to get me into it... but I thought it was for new age hippy types who just waved arms about... then recently I realised I needed to balance the weightlifting I do with some internal work, I also needed to find something that would give me balance in life... (plus I also like martial arts :) ) so I looked into taiji and meditation... after much research I found the style that I wanted to learn and thought could benefit me most (Chen style taiji lao jia yi lu) and I would also like to start Yang in the future (when exactly is not clear but its in the 5 year plan...)

Why do I keep doing it...??

Well I have been doing Chen style for about 5 weeks now... and before that I gave Chen Man Ching style a go (nice but Chen is better for me)... the reasons I keep practicing are... it has improved my sense of balance and awareness, not just physically but also internally... I really, really enjoy it, the sense of peace/joy/fulfillment I get out of it... plus its quite exciting to do... I also do taiji meditation every day to compliment my taiji practice... I wish I had started sooner (as in when our friend tried dragging my rear to his class) but I also believe that taiji was just biding its time till I was ready...

[Novex]

I started T’ai chi by accident and am sooooo glad I did!

My wife started doing it to keep a friend company who was starting a T’ai chi for arthritis course. I was interested in starting martial arts again, after quitting karate many years previously, and my wife said that there instructor also taught Kung Fu and that there was a session after the T’ai chi class. So I decided to go along, thinking that I would watch the T’ai chi then join in the Kung Fu. Mike however had other ideas! And got me straight of my bum and joining in. Now I train in both Kung fu and T’ai chi, which do I like more, well that’s like asking who I love more my mum or dad? They complement each other and help me each in different ways.

I’m just glad I’m older now and so I can appreciate it more and won’t quit like I did with the karate.

[Johnno]

I saw a bunch of Chinese people doing a lot of strange but very graceful looking movements in sync on the TV. I didn't know what it was but I thought "I wish I could do that!" There was no reason, it just looked skillful and good.

I'd never consider doing a martial art before, and even when I was told that what they were doing was Taiji, I didn't know then that it is a martial art.

[RobP]

I started tai chi by chance really. At that time (20 odd years ago) there was very little MA around apart from judo and karate. At the time I was more interested in Chinese arts (thanks to Kung Fu and Bruce Lee). Saw a new TCC class advertised locally, went along and that was it. Lukcily it was before taiji really hit with the new age crowd so it was always practiced as a "kung fu" style rather than meditation.

Why do I still do it? Actually I don't but that's another story.

[Johnno]

RobP,

Yeah, I've always studied it as an MA too, but I know what you mean about the 'new age crowd'. I suppose as long as they are deriving benefit from Taiji for their health then that's a good thing, but I sometimes think it's unfortunate that because of them, the general public seem to get the impression that Taiji is just some kind of new age dance that involves waving your hands limpy in the air. My mates used to tease me that I went to classes and pretended to be a tree. (Which still makes me laugh.)

Mind you, I think there is general public misconception about martial arts full stop, in this country anyway. Dunno about in other countries.

[RobP]

"I think there is general public misconception about martial arts full stop, in this country"

Very true, hence the popularity of boxercise.......

[Johnno]

What exactly is Boxercise? Is it boxing training but without the fighting, or do they spar?

[daftyman]

What exactly is Boxercise? Is it boxing training but without the fighting, or do they spar?
Boxercise: aerobics with boxing type moves.

[daftyman]

...the general public seem to get the impression that Taiji is just some kind of new age dance that involves waving your hands limpy in the air.
Some people mistake what I do for tai kwon do!! Erm.... :confused:

Could you imagine what would happen if tai chi as a martial art became as 'popular' as karate etc?
Kids clubs, gradings, official tournaments, suits with fancy logos. The global commercialisation of the brand. Some of that exists already, but it would be so much worse.

[RobP]

I thought it already was - I'm sure there are as many taiji schools as karate. Differences i karate is mostly kids these days, taiji mostly older people. There are tournaments, competitions and all the rest of it.

As for marketing - check out all the naff videos around - except mine of course, they're great! ;-)

[daftyman]

"As for marketing - check out all the naff videos around - except mine of course, they're great! ;-)"
Yep, seen a few naff vid's myself. Some good ones too.

I guess what I was trying to say about the whole commercial thing, was more a grumble about that whole approach. You must buy the t-shirt/patch/fluffy bunny slippers to remain a member. You must go for gradings to learn anymore. That whole approach that I reckon would have the founders frothing at the mouth.

As for taiji tournaments? I watched a video that a friend had taken of a tournament. Pretty much watched it on fast forward. *snore* And the push-hands? Not sure how good their taiji was based on what I saw. Force against force. I'd rather see sumo than that. But hey, that's just me. :)

[ZillaBilla]

Good thing is real skill can only be achieved through real training from real masters. Sadly a lot of people could waste their time with bull excrement schools, though I guess its better than nothing, then again maybe not.

[ZillaBilla]

But back to the point of the thread, for me it was quite a coincidence. My mate told me about ‘Qi Gong’ and I tried just standing in the tree hugging posture (or whatever you call it), after a while I began to feel ‘Qi’ in my hands, though I did not know what it was. A while after that, when I stopped training, I was killing some time waiting for a mate and went to a book shop, picked up a book on Tai Chi and found it interesting, so got it and had a read. A little while latter, when I was on holiday in Singapore, I was at a mates house and saw his dad’s newspaper clipping of an add for Tai Chi school. I called them up, went for a demo, saw some interesting things, got embarrassed by a little 70 year old man, and signed up for classes. I continue practicing because the more you do, the deeper you can see in to things, and there is much to learn. As well as you can move like a cat, feel great, and perceive much more information about the world and oneself.

[Johnno]

I think however you start, and for whatever reason, it is only after practising the form regularly for some time that you start to understand what Taiji is really like. I don't think i can be described in a way that someone can understand without doing it themself. It has to be experienced first-hand.

[daftyman]

"...the form regularly for some time that you start to understand what Taiji is really like.."
True, true...but then you study a bit more and what you thought it was really like, was not quite the truth either.

In the years I have been practicing, my view on what it is have continued to evolve. I just hope that my skills continue to do the same! :D

[Johnno]

Vampyre Rat,

I couldn't agree more. When I said that you "start" to understand, I really meant that it was just the first step on a long journey. It's like opening the door on a new world that you didn't know existed. That might sound a bit 'mystical', but the beauty of it is that it isn't. It's just another part of the real world that you've lived in all your life, and it's something inside yourself that you never new was there.

See? As soon as you try to describe it you can't! You really do have to experience it.

[daftyman]

yes

[imawimp]

I started Tai-Chi cause I got tired of falling down all the time :)

I went thru a period about a year ago where I was falling constantly. I even broke my ankle in my own backyard on one occasion.My physical condition had deteriorated sodrastically in the years since I had left the army and become a software engineer, that the simple act of maintaining my balance was becoming difficult.

After I healed up and could walk again I decided that I really needed to get more active and I had a vague idea that martial arts might help with my balance. I had boxed and done Tae Kwon Do when I was younger and was thinking along those lines. I knew that a friend of mine from work was pretty serious about martial arts (though I didnt know what kind) and asked him for advice.

The next thing I know hes teaching me the Yang 24 movement posture. After awhile, I decided to take course at the local Kung-fu/Tai-Chi emporium and thats that.

I dont fall down much anymore, and I think Im starting to get pretty ok at the form.

[R Strausbaugh]

I started in order to re-hab an injured shoulder so I could get back to Kenpo. In the process, I fell in love with Taijiquan. The martial part, the health part, the qigong part, the whole thing.

[Kambion]

I started Tai Chi under peer pressure :) My dad had been doing various styles, which didn't seem to agree with him, but had finally settled on Sun Style, and had been doing it for about half a year before telling me to join him :) I had been wanting to do something like this for a while, and i took my first few classes and was hooked. I think the thing that sold me was that my instructor taught so much around the style, including applications. It's made me more graceful and better balanced and coordinated. I have been doing it for a year now, and it's taught me i still have a long way to go :)

Stewart