Dear Frederick Sisook,
Taijiquan combat sequences are really great, I just need to practice them more and more to get them ingrained. They surely are sensibly constructed and provide everything needed for systematic learning of fundamental skills from footwork, timing, and spacing to bridging, covering, and entering. On our last Wednesday lesson I felt like I could be nearing some kind of breakthrough, but time will tell what's up.
Haha, I too wanted to learn Shaolin Kungfu because it promised more power and magical skills with methods such as the One Finger Shooting Zen! My learning of Taijiquan over Shaolin Kungfu was a bit of coincidence and fortunate choice which I think proved to be the right decision. My experience is that flowing force fits me and my goals well.
I would say that training Taijiquan combat sequences has provided so far exactly what the Taijiquan syllabus describes (currently two lessons of level 4). My emphasis is still mostly on picture-perfect form rather than direct combat application. Please note that my combat sequence training has been quite underdeveloped because I have had difficulty finding the right intensity of training to cope with my remaining health issues. Sometimes I have felt that even physical or form level training makes me feel not so good, so that has kept my practice at minimum. Nevertheless, my recent experiences confirm that practicing combat applications has enhanced my ability flow and keep focused and rooted in demanding circumstances. I also took notice some time ago that I have started applying Taijiquan principles of minimizing opponent's force in conversational settings with good success.
I am mostly keeping my practice details in my training log, so that I can keep a track of my own development. Here is a recent entry that addresses your questions about Essence of Shaolin.
Learning the routine and the form of the Flower set has been a breeze compared to the Essence of Shaolin. Markus Sipak will teach us some of the former's applications within two weeks, yet the patterns are not very outlandish in the first place when compared to the Essence of Shaolin. My experience with either set is still very inadequate, but it suffices to state that both are much more sophisticated and technical than what Taijiquan's basics offer, but that is to be expected because they are among the most advanced sets of our School. Learning Cotton Palm did remind me though that there is a lot of profundity in Taijiquan, especially in Cloud Hands.
Dear Kristian Sisook,
Thank you for sharing your Essence of Shaolin insights! I would love to read more of these from you or anyone else.
With sincere respect,
Olli
Taijiquan combat sequences are really great, I just need to practice them more and more to get them ingrained. They surely are sensibly constructed and provide everything needed for systematic learning of fundamental skills from footwork, timing, and spacing to bridging, covering, and entering. On our last Wednesday lesson I felt like I could be nearing some kind of breakthrough, but time will tell what's up.
Haha, I too wanted to learn Shaolin Kungfu because it promised more power and magical skills with methods such as the One Finger Shooting Zen! My learning of Taijiquan over Shaolin Kungfu was a bit of coincidence and fortunate choice which I think proved to be the right decision. My experience is that flowing force fits me and my goals well.
I would say that training Taijiquan combat sequences has provided so far exactly what the Taijiquan syllabus describes (currently two lessons of level 4). My emphasis is still mostly on picture-perfect form rather than direct combat application. Please note that my combat sequence training has been quite underdeveloped because I have had difficulty finding the right intensity of training to cope with my remaining health issues. Sometimes I have felt that even physical or form level training makes me feel not so good, so that has kept my practice at minimum. Nevertheless, my recent experiences confirm that practicing combat applications has enhanced my ability flow and keep focused and rooted in demanding circumstances. I also took notice some time ago that I have started applying Taijiquan principles of minimizing opponent's force in conversational settings with good success.
I am mostly keeping my practice details in my training log, so that I can keep a track of my own development. Here is a recent entry that addresses your questions about Essence of Shaolin.
Learning the routine and the form of the Flower set has been a breeze compared to the Essence of Shaolin. Markus Sipak will teach us some of the former's applications within two weeks, yet the patterns are not very outlandish in the first place when compared to the Essence of Shaolin. My experience with either set is still very inadequate, but it suffices to state that both are much more sophisticated and technical than what Taijiquan's basics offer, but that is to be expected because they are among the most advanced sets of our School. Learning Cotton Palm did remind me though that there is a lot of profundity in Taijiquan, especially in Cloud Hands.
Dear Kristian Sisook,
Thank you for sharing your Essence of Shaolin insights! I would love to read more of these from you or anyone else.
With sincere respect,
Olli
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