It is widely known that there are many health benefits to be gained through the practice of taijiquan where practitioners learn to strengthen their mind and body. However, there is a lack of understanding with regards to its application of skills or commonly called fighting skills. Should we then learn or teach these skills?
Methods of UsageWith the progress of society and the advancement of technology, we emphasize less on the fighting skills of taijiquan nowadays. But I believe that practitioners should learn and understand the fighting skills, such as how to restrain and control their opponents by applying strength and speed to the various movements. This would greatly improve their skill and raise their overall standard.
For example, in Chen style taijiquan, “walking obliquely” or “xie xing” has 3 different types of shoulder movements. Firstly, thrusting the left shoulder to strike to the left followed by an inward rotation of the right shoulder for a frontal thrust and finally, thrusting the right shoulder to the right to strike. Through the explanations of these movements, practitioners gain a better understanding of how such movements should be executed.
A Matter of TimingAs the ancient saying goes, if one concentrates on the fighting skills too soon, it would lead to a loss of agility and flexibility.
How long, then, should one wait before learning and appreciating these techniques? In my opinion, one should only start learning and practising the fighting skills after mastering the full set of movements. One should start from the basics and gradually acquire new skills at a steady pace to advance from the simple to the complicated and progress from delivering weak to strong moves. This is, of course, dependent on the practitioner’s level of experience and effort. Even then, mastering these techniques could take up years of effort and practice.
Let us hope the use of these ancient techniques will not be lost through time.
