Hi All, Just wondering who here only studies one style of Tai Chi (and what is it) and who here studies more than one style (and what are they)? I teach Yang (short form and bits and pieces) but am currently also studying Sun style - very different but great fun.
2 lines of Yang system,Cheng's and Tung's. Learned from other Yang lines but over time dropped those practices. Also Chen,but had such a brief time, around one year before teacher was unexpectedly relocated by employer, that basically used as an adjunctive practice. Only Chen teacher ever around here and only taught me.
I only do the one style: Wu (that's Wu as in Wu, not Wu as in Hao.) I did briefly do a little bit of Li 'style' at first, but it seemed a bit iffy, so I left. The I found a really good Wu teacher and that was that. I would find it really interesting to try Hao, Sun and Chen styles, just to see what they are like. Although I haven't done it, I have seen enough of Yang style to not be curious about trying it for myself. However, I think I would find it too difficult to properly study more than one style at a time, so it would really only be a case of getting a 'taste' of other styles, purely out of interest. ---------- Edit: On reflection, learning a form from a different style shouldn't really be any harder than learning another form within your own style, so if I was just trying out a form or two that would be okay. No real point to it, but it might be interesting. I would find it interesting to try some of the different variations of the Wu style, to see how they compare with the original. (I've had a small taste, but nothing much.) But in practise that would probably be much more likely to confuse me than trying a different style would be!
If you're just learning the outer shape of a form it wouldn't be any harder.Or if you learned a Yang form since you already do Wu.But if you were learning the Hao shen fa along with the form from Hao system it would be harder due to the different emphases in execution,but that's what would make it interesting.And truly educational!
Is it that sometimes we take our learning of a style too seriously, unless we are destined to be a linage holder of the style (or the deadly street fighter or MMA dude) then learning is it's own reward and the more we learn the better - learning a different style stretches our abilities (physical and mental) and I think... is a good thing.
I wouldn't disagree with that at all. But I think a lot of it just comes down to how much time we have. In an ideal world we'd all be able to study MA full time and do lots of different things. But given the situation where most of us probably go to a class once or twice a week and then have to fit in our practise around work, family, etc. it's probably realistic to accept that concentrating on one style is wise. I'd still find it interesting to have a taste of other styles, but I can't ever saee myself having the time to really study more than one style thoroughly enough to do it justice. Anything else really woul dbe just getting a 'taste'.
It's also always been a quite common CMA practice among serious practitioners.Including those lineage holders and their disciples. Too seriously? I dunno. There are various reasons both good and bad that some TC people don't go beyond their borders. My experience and observation has been that most martial practitioners or those that at least learned that way don't have a problem with it,even if they themselves may just train in one system.
I've been doing Sun neijia, couldn't even think of doing more than one at the moment, so much to learn.
I primarily practice Yang style ('bog standard' Yang Chengfu, Yang Zhenduo orthodox stuff) and Beijing 24, but I have also been exposed to Wu style (enough to realise that it is basically the same as Yang, just a different expression of the same concepts with a slightly different form sequence) and Chen style (not a lot and would love to learn more).
Since I posted the original msg my study of Sun has progressed from - turn up and follow along to actually being able to add the 13 and 38 forms to my own solo practice (pretty shaky currently but will get better) - I think the most interesting thing is that I seem to keep it separate from my Yang(ish) practice and teaching - except that (as one of my students pointed out) I now occasionally bow (a nod of the head) at the end of some of my yang forms - which may be in some way tied to the more formal salute that we do at the end of Sun forms
I practiced both Yang style and Chen style in the past. Now I am doing Chen Style Hunyuan Tai Chi, developed by the late Grandmaster Feng Zhiqiang. He felt the Chen Style Tai Chi became more and more "externalized" and "choreographed" by contemporary practitioners, with all the Fajin and swing movements going on, and would like to return Tai Chi to its root of martial arts and development of internal strength. In a sense, he is softening the Chen Tai Chi and appears to be moving in the direction of Yang Tai Chi. This is actually a very interesting perspective. I started with Yang style when I was very young, but I felt it was too soft and slow to my liking, so I was attracted by the Fajin and dramatic movements of Chen style, thinking "this is what a martial art should look like". In hindsight, I might be more attracted by the superficial, external display of power more than the internal nurturing of it. And I can see a lot of people might get attracted to the Chen Tai Chi for the same reason, and the market demand for external display of power will gradually lead people astray.
Well,you're not a beginner.Aunt Prunella and myself would have been very disappointed to learn you'd had trouble keeping 'em separate.So congrats! TC requires so much attention every second that I think it's actually difficult to drift-if one is paying attention.I did end the last of three reps of a long YCF type form with the end sequence from Cheng's once,tho'.Somewhere before Retreat to Ride" I sure drifted! Going to learn the long version or is it better for you to just keep the shorts,only so many hours in the day and all?
I was studying (out because of a busted wrist) a hybrid form that takes bits and pieces from several styles, kind of cool. I like contrasting different aspects and finding out which I prefer. I've always wanted to try Chen but haven't had the opportunity yet...
