Over the weekend the tai chi federation of europe held their championships in oxford (in place of the annual festival of chinese martial arts held by dan docherty's wudang school ) . My daughter competed in (and won) junior weapons with her fan and took an early step up from the that category to compete in the womens open section for chen hand form (which she also won ) and mixed straight sword (bronze). The hand form was the most satisfying win , particularly as it was our grandmaster's (kongjie gou)own short frame.Unfortunately I missed it as it clashed with my push hands but weapons were on the next day so I got a clip of her sword form https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwayNtN_J5I Meanwhile I entered both fixed and,for the first time, moving push hands. After being knocked out of the fixed early on (although I scored some points with techniques I was happy with) , I was able to redeem myself somewhat in the moving step by beating the same opponent in the play off for bronze . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onDuZxAu75g My learning experience in this ruleset was that losing 4 points for a being thrown/landing on your back is very difficult to come back from (unless you can do the same back which often means going for a technique when it's not really on) especially since the rounds always seem to be over so quickly -just like the fixed, it can be a very frustrating experience but is an enjoyable means of self- improvement !
Came across this interview with Dan Docherty today (from after last years festival of chinese martial arts in Oxford) - he talks about the pros and cons of competitions and raises some points well worth listening to which may be of interest to others in this forum :hat: [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNritz3dl3I"]18th British Open (Dan Docherty Interview) - YouTube[/ame]
