Thanks To Sigung for wonderful Tai Chi Chuan against other martial arts course

[Eric5]

Hi All,

Firstly i want to give thanks to Sigung for the wonderful and amazing Tai Chi Chuan course i attended in Killarney this week. The course Tai Chi Chuan against other martial arts opened my eyes to the effectiveness and practical nature of Tai Chi Chuan.

I also want to thank my Sifu Mark Hartnett for recommending the course to me. I have been practicing Shaolin Kung Fu for almost four years and he mentioned that participating on the Tai Chi Chuan course would be very beneficial to me for combat application and also to observe the differences between Tai Chi Chuan and Shaolin Kung Fu.

We started the first day with an excellent stance session and also did grasping sparrows tail. Sigung spoke to us about the importance of waist movement and having the correct mechanics. We then used double dragons (hope my names of handforms are correct if not my apologies )hand forms in right bow arrow stance to defend against boxing / kickboxing / karate / tae kwon do / muay thai spread over the three days.

I found just from simply palming away strikes , sinking back using waist movement in bow arrow stance then countering with a strike/throw/kick was extremely effective.

It re-affirmed to me the importance of good stances / fundamentals.

The course also gave us the opportunity to use chin-ya gripping techniques and we also practiced some grappling / wrestling which was great fun and also very practical.

The most enjoyable aspect of the course for me was when we spent one hour practicing green dragon shoots pearl and did it very slowly also trying to make sure our mechanics were correct. My hands felt charged with force and my mind felt very clear after practicing this.

Just a brief note on how practical i found the things learnt

I previously practiced Tae Kwon Do for 8 years from when i was 10-18 years old. Our training was based around traditional Tae Kwon Do which we were told was not practical for a streetfighting and this was just for grading us to move up in belts and we used to practice a lot of hand sparring and free sparring. We used to kick and punch eachother up and down the hall where we practiced when sparring. After a few years i thought of myself as an ok fighter and could defend myself reasonably well. This week training with Sigung it brought me back to those days as i got to revisit those high kicking days when helping demonstrate some Tae Kwon Do kicks. Sigung asked me to attack with full speed using left jab, front kick , side kick and back side sick. In my old Tae Kwon Do days it would have been enough to knock down an opponent and win a fight but Sigung simply palmed my first strike away, used white crane in false leg stance twice to counter-act my next two kicks and as i attempted the backside kick before i knew it i was on the ground, my arms and legs pinned down and a Leopard Punch an inch away from my ribs.

I thought to myself afterward, how simple / how brilliantly effective. Wish i hadn't spent 8 years kicking bags and other people!

Thanks

Kind Regards

Eric

Shaolin Wahnam Ireland

[Joan]

My Dear Shaolin Wahnam Family,

Thank you Eric for your wonderful post, I really enjoyed reading your experiences...........we will make a Wahnam Tai Chi Chuan guy out of you yet

As Sifu explains Tai Chi Chuan is Kungfu! This time as Sifu explained a little more about Zhang San Feng and Tai Chi Chuan I realised at a different level, how very very special our Wahnam Tai Chi Chuan is.

Zhang San Feng learned Shaolin Kung Fu, Shaolin Chi Kung and Meditation, then he combined the three to form Tai Chi Chuan (although it was still called Kung Fu at the time).

This explanation helped me to have new respect for our Art. We have all three right from the very start. We do not have to learn energy flow or meditation separately, it is all there.

Although I 'knew' that. I did not know that Zhang San Feng had to learn the three arts separately and then combined...............therefore my renewed respect for Zhang San Feng, Sifu and Tai Chi Chuan.

Tai Chi Chuan against other martial arts was a truly wonderful course. Once I got over my nerves.........I still have a blockage with sparring I really enjoyed it.

When I was Nursing I was attacked many times, I think when that happens , you either look for training on how to defend yourself or lock up........I locked up, hence the blockage. And although this happened many years ago, I can still 'feel' the fear that I had particularly on one occassion when facing a deluded person who wished to choke me.

It probably sounds odd, as I know my Shaolin Family are not deluded but it is just the action of facing somebody who is about to attack that really frightens me.

I am relating this as there may be others reading this and feeling the same way. They would like to train our arts but become too anxious to apply for a course thinking that they will be 'attacked' all over again.

As Sifu explains the whole idea of a martial art is not to get hit in the first place.

I know deep down that the only way I am going to overcome this is to take more of Sifu's courses and I am so glad that Sifu agreed to conduct this particular one in Ireland. The blockage has certainly lessened. It is funny how deep emotional blockages can be and what can trigger them.

Our stance training session was very beautiful and for the first time in The Three Circle Stance I could feel the energy flowing through the meridians really cool and refreshing. It was simply gorgeous and I wanted it to last a lot longer.

But we had a lot to go through:

Grasping Sparrows Tail, Green Dragon Shoots Pearl and taking them to new heights and deepening our skill. Checking each part to be picture perfect.

I won't go through the whole course as I know many of the others also wish to relate their experiences. Watching Tai Chi Chuan come alive against the other martial arts was wonderful. How effective it really is! How lucky we really are.

I encourage everybody to take this course if Sifu kindly offers it again. It is a fundamental course but a very important one.

There are also hints of an Intensive Tai Chi Chuan course...................but I will let Andrea tell you about that

It was wonderful to have Andrea and Andrejs join our Irish group and now that I can fell Andrejs easily............I can do anything! Thank you Andrejs!

My deepest gratitude to Zhang San Feng, who has given us a very very special art.

My deepest gratitude to Sifu who has the knowledge and skill to transmit this to us.

My deepest gratitude to Rama Siheng who originally asked Sifu to teach Tai Chi Chuan in our school.

As with the Shaolin Chi Kung courses, I am glad that there were so many smart people who took the Tai Chi Chuan against other martial arts course. May this enhance your lives in every possible way.

So much and so many to be grateful for

Smile from the Heart,
Joan

[Peter Clayton]

Dear Wahnam Family,

I was aware going into the course that one thing I could do with exploring was my use of Tai Chi Chuan for combat. Little did I realise just how much this course would benefit me.

Aside from the fantastic benefits of deepening my skill, I learned to throw away many misconceptions about combat with genuine kungfu. I smile to myself as I remember day one of the course. The first time we began practicing using the double dragons defence against boxing strikes, it took me a while to get it. Then fast-forward to the end of day three and we chose our own partner for sparring - I can remember thinking: "I hope he comes in with some boxing becuase that is so easy for me to defend". What a transformation in just a couple of days! Of course, this was not down to me having any superhuman learning abilities but because of the incredible understanding and teaching ability that Sigung has.

Sigung also spoke at length on how we can assess our own performance and correct / improve ourselves. What an invaluable skill this is! So much training time that would have been potentially "wasted" would now be spent getting maximum benefit.

My deepest gratitude to Sigung for your training, for pushing me where I needed it most and for answering my questions.

Sifu - thank you so much for arranging the courses, for helping me to prepare for them and for remaining so focused and accessible while undergoing the same training.

To my family who attended - Each of you brought something to my experience. I enjoyed sharing the adventure with you all!

With great gratitude and respect,

Peter.

[Andrejs]

Hi all,

It was really amazing course.

Thank you Sifu so much for genuine Tai Chi Chuan teaching.

Thank you very much Sije Joan for perfect organizing and, of course, for your hospitality.

Many thanks to everyone who attended this unique Wahnam Tai Chi Chuan course. It was very nice to meet you all, to have sparring with you all and also spend the time after the course.

We had a golden opportunity to learn how to apply Wahnam Tai Chi Chuan against other Martial arts.

I have been interested in learning of combat applications of Wahnam Tai Chi Chuan set “Cloud Hands”, including the beautiful part of this set “Grasping Sparrow’s Tail”. I was very impressed with elegance of Wahnam Tai Chi Chuan set “Cloud Hands” since I have seen it in the first time. I had also a wonderful experience of practicing “Green Dragon Shoots Pearl” using the Six Harmonies: the three external harmonies of legs (feets), body and hands, and the three internal harmonies of essence (elegance of form), energy and mind.

Wahnam Tai Chi Chuan set “Cloud Hands”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSDKR0O0lic

http://www.shaolin.org/taijiquan/cloud-hands-slow/cloud-hands-set.html

It was wonderful to have Andrea and Andrejs join our Irish group and now that I can fell Andrejs easily............I can do anything! Thank you Andrejs!

May I answer with the quotation from Sifu?:
“It is commonly said that in Taijiquan and any other style of genuine kungfu, gender and size are not crucial factors. In other words, a small sized woman may defeat a muscular young man. But not many people actually know how this can be achieved. In our classes we often find this happens.” — Sifu Wong Kiew Kit

Here is the quotation from Sifu about Tai Chi Chuan, posted in the other thread of this forum:
“While many martial arts tend to make their practitioners belligerent and aggressive, Tai Chi Chuan helps its adepts to become calm and composed. This comes about not through moralizing by instructors, but through the nature of Tai Chi Chuan practice itself. It is more suitable than most other martial arts for character development, as the very nature of its training, with its emphasis on gracefulness, gentleness, and harmonious energy flow, is intrinsic to the development of mental freshness and cosmic harmony.”— Sifu Wong Kiew Kit

Wonderful words. I am really enjoy the wonderful benefits of Wahnam Tai Chi Chuan. Many thanks!!!

Best Regards,
Andrejs

[Dominic Roche]

Dear Shaolin Wahnam family,

What an amazing course Tai Chi Chuan against other Martial Arts, for me one of the best experiences of my life.

On the first day Stance training was amazing, the Stances felt so powerful, so relaxed and clear. During Three Circle Stance my body pulsated with energy and I felt how alive we really are. Next flowed Grasping Sparrow’s Tail, definitely my favourite. How beautiful it was to follow Sigungs instruction and movement, the flow was wonderful. Moving in Stances using Grasping Sparrow’s Tail was an incredible experience, the feeling of being rooted and agile at the same time was joyful.

Onto sparring and facing your opponent portraying different Martial Artists. The Boxer for me would be the Martial Artist that I would be most apprehensive about; I was amazed with my progression over the three days, from being nervous about the unpredictability of the Boxer to being confident and able to overcome him with ease. Wrestling and its counters was one of my favourite parts of the course, being pinned to the ground can be a scary situation but with a simple thrust and twist of the body you have control of you opponent, such good fun.

This course has truly brought Tai Chi Chuan alive for me, beautiful and elegant as a Martial art, simple, direct and effective in combat.

All the best to those partaking in Sisook Robins Grasping Sparrow’s Tail course in Switzerland next month, your certainly in for a treat, enjoy.

Thank you Sigung for passing on this incredible Art. Thank you for your amazing teaching during this course. Thank you for being a truly inspirational Tai Chi Chuan Master.

Thank you Sifu for organising this amazing course. Thank you for introducing me to and teaching me Tai Chi Chuan over the past two years.

Thank you to all the Shaolin Wahnam family whom I sparred with during the course, it was such good fun, can’t wait for the next time.

[Mark T McGowan]

Recent Tai Chi Chuan against other martial arts course

I would very much share the views and sentiments expressed on this thread and in addition, add one of own, which was my experience on the course.

This is quite simply that none of the techniques that we trained over the three days or the fellow members of the family when practicing them, were aggressive in anyway.

For me this alone is wonderful by itself !

From the heart, a thank you to Sigung and to Sifu for this special opportunity and to the family taking part.

Best wishes,

Mark

[Joan]

The nature of Tai Chi Chuan

My Dear Shaolin Wahnam Family and Virtual Kwoon readers,

Following on from Mark's observation on the Wahnam Tai Chi Chuan against other Martial Arts course here in Ireland

This is quite simply that none of the techniques that we trained over the three days or the fellow members of the family when practicing them, were aggressive in anyway.

I would like to post a comment by Sifu from his website:

While many martial arts tend to make their practitioners belligerent and aggressive, Tai Chi Chuan helps its adepts to become calm and composed. This comes about not through moralizing by instructors, but through the nature of Tai Chi Chuan practice itself. It is more suitable than most other martial arts for character development, as the very nature of its training, with its emphasis on gracefulness, gentleness, and harmonious energy flow, is intrinsic to the development of mental freshness and cosmic harmony.

— Sifu Wong Kiew Kit

Smile from the Heart
Joan