John’s Tai-Blog @ Camp Tai ChiTai Chi and anything I can relate to Tai Chi … like life

The Best Defense is A Good Offense… Or Am I Just Being Defensive?

It is often said the best defense is a good offense.  You might wonder, “Does this apply to tai chi?”  Let’s see.

Tai chi is a defensive art when studied from a martial perspective, the true intent of tai chi.  Most people today however, study tai chi purely as a form of healthy exercise.  This being the case, what is tai chi doing for someone studying it without interest or knowledge of martial applications?

Well if you’re studying tai chi strictly for the many health benefits, then it definitely is a good offense against poor health.  By regularly practicing you’re oxygenating the body, increasing blood flow to the extremities, lubricating joints, releasing harmful tension, practicing good posture (preventing damage from misuse of the body), and a number of other things.  So, yes this is an excellent offensive strategy to ward off physical problems.

There is still however the original intent of tai chi, which is self-protection.  I guess you could say that practicing the martial applications of tai chi, push hands, and running through forms both slow and fast, you are taking the offensive.  However, I think it’s more accurate to say you’re practicing a good defense because you ultimately wait for your opponent to strike and then use their own momentum and energy against them.  Tai chi is reactive at its core.

I also prefer to see the glass as half-full, rather than half-empty.  This brings me back to practicing tai chi only for the health benefits.   You could look at this practice as promoting a strong, healthy body rather than staving off health problems.  You might think I’m just being picky here, but really I’m not.  Our thoughts have power over our lives.  Which though would you rather feed, growing and remaining strong, or fighting off illness… which is always right around the corner?

The Master of Duhism, the infamous Bob Tzu, has a slightly different take on this topic.  I’ll let him tell you in his own words.

“Angry? Write a letter to your enemy. But don’t mail it. Deliver it in person and see if you learned anything in that self-defense class.”  Bob Tzu (click on the quote to visit Bob)

Your Thoughts?

John

Live Long and Prosper

Sometimes I get the question, “does tai chi make you live longer?”  I think the best response to this is , “I’m not sure, let’s try it and find out.”  However, that response is usually met with a blank stare.

I used to wonder this myself.  As I’ve studied tai chi I’ve noticed tai chi masters live about as long as the rest of us, with an interesting caveat.  Aside from Yang Chengfu, who died fairly young supposedly because of living too much of the good life, the tai chi masters I’ve met are much like the rest of us.  By this I mean their work is tai chi and they live the rest of their lives as the rest of us do.  They smoke, they drink, they laugh, they play; all in all they seem to enjoy life.

Westerners mostly have the image that a tai chi master or teacher must be a very healthy person.  When you think about it though, it doesn’t really add up.  Tai chi is supposed to help your body clean itself and support healing.  If your body can do that why sweat the other stuff?  My Master doesn’t smoke and lives a fairly healthy life of moderation.  My Teacher smokes and drinks a lot of Coke; she gets along just fine and moves like someone 30 years younger.

Tai chi may not help you live longer, but it will add to the quality of your life.  A funny story about my Teacher happened at a tournament she was attending some years ago.  Someone who had watched her perform, later saw her coming back in from outside with a pack of cigarettes.  Very surprised, they said “You smoke and do tai chi?”  She just looked at them at little perplexed and replied “Not and the same time!”  I think that says it all.

Your thoughts?

John

More Fuel For The “Tai Chi Fire” And It’s Many Health Benefits

One of the issues with medical studies done on tai chi, and its physical benefits, is that most studies are small and statistically insignificant.  A number of these studies are also not well designed or controlled.  Of course I believe that tai chi is extremely helpful, but short of personal experience how can we be sure?

I think the best way to see if these studies have any real meaning is to look at them as a whole.  If all or most of these small studies form similar conclusions, then I image the statistical significance of them is greater.  Although I studied statistics in school, I don’t know if my teachers would agree with this statement or not… but it sure sounds good to me.

Today I’d like to share some additional information about tai chi and arthritis relief from the June 2009 issue of Arthritis Care & Research.  This information comes from the article The effectiveness of Tai Chi for chronic musculoskeletal pain conditions: A systematic review and meta-analysis, published by Amanda Hall, Chris Maher, Jane Latimer, and Manuela Ferreira.

This study took information from small trials with 95% confidence interval, 7 clinical trials in all.  While there was additional information regarding other types of pain, this study concluded that there was a “small positive effect on pain and disability in people with arthritis”.

Once again the conclusion does not appear definitive, but is just one more study saying the same thing.  Tai chi helps treat arthritis.  To me this says tai chi should be used in conjunction with other treatments, but it should definitely be part of just about everyone’s treatment plan.

Your thoughts?

John

P.S.  I found this image of an arthritic knee here: http://zimmer.com.au/z/ctl/op/global/action/1/id/379/template/PC/navid/924

Let Go and… Let Yourself

I’ve said this before, but not quite in this way.  I see students and even advanced tai chi players who can’t let go of the past.  The past defines us only to the point we allow it.  If you have an image of your level of ability, let it go.  This is the fastest way I know of to improve your level of tai chi.

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”
Lao Tzu

Are you still using training wheels?

John

P.S.  I found this picture here: http://www.ehow.com/how_2123516_ditch-training-wheels.html

The Seventh Principle of Tai Chi Chuan “Upper and Lower Body Are Coordinated”

The Seventh Principle of Tai Chi Chuan has got to be one of the most important from a purely physical aspect.  Without constant attention to this principle, tai chi looses all effectiveness.   In my e-book The 10 Principles of Tai Chi Chuan for Beginners, that I give away with my video Beginning Tai Chi Exercises, I give a brief description of the Seventh Principle that’s geared toward beginners.

Upper and lower body are coordinated: Energy is brought up from the ground, through your feet and legs, directed by your waist and expressed through your hands and fingertips. For this to happen every movement must be coordinated so that each part of the body begins and completes each form at the same time. Pay close attention to timing; it’s very important.

In tai chi it’s really all about awareness of your body.  While your mind always directs your movements, it’s also critical for movements to be properly timed with the upper and lower body beginning and ending movement at the same time in almost every case.  In fact the very few times movement may begin in the lower body while the upper body pauses are so few they can almost be ignored, and the movement of the upper and lower body always end at the same time.

For me this is a core principle and should be part of your training from the very beginning.  When I’m training I can feel when my timing is on and when it’s even a little off.   It took a while to get to this point, but I think it was worth the focus.

Your thoughts, experiences?

John

The Art of The “Monkey-Con”

If there’s one thing I really like it’s when something comes along to shake up the scientific community.  Sometimes when I talk about tai chi to people who are “overly scientific” - my opinion - they don’t seem to buy into the idea that our bodies contain energy we can learn to manipulate.  Never mind people having done this for thousands of years.

I have to smile when one of these scientific types points out a person who’s been caught faking moving energy, as proof there is no internal energy.  That argument holds about as much water as saying that a person who claims to be an African Banker with $20 million dollars they want to deposit into your bank account, yet isn’t really a banker, is proof there are no bankers on the African Continent.  I tried this once by the way, and the “banker” not only didn’t put any money at all in my account, but they had the nerve to actually withdraw the $10 I used to open the account.  I was planning on putting that 10 bucks, plus my share of the $20 million toward a Starbucks’ gift card for yours truly… can you imagine!  I guess it was for the best anyway since I’m really not all that fond of Starbucks.

So, now I’m going to make the same argument and throw it back at “them”.  Scientists have been chanting en mass for years that monkeys don’t have the ability for evolved, highly complex thinking.  Well it appears the Tufted Capuchin Monkey from South America has learned the fine art of the con, and is using this knowledge to take what it wants from other, unsuspecting monkeys in it’s own society.  It seems this con man of the jungle has figured out how to get around the pecking order, that’s at the very foundation of the monkey world, by tricking higher-ranking monkeys out of their hard earned, researcher-supplied, bananas.

How does this argument make my point?  It’s quite simple actually.  You see since the scientific community at large was incorrect about primates being incapable of evolved, highly complex thinking, they must also be wrong about us mere humans being incapable of manipulating energy within our bodies.  Case closed, at least according one widely accepted method of “scientific argumentation”.

How are these amoral apes pulling off the jungle equivalent of the crime of the century?  When a low-ranking monkey wants what a dominant monkey in their group is eating, they cry wolf.  They make a warning sound that means a predator is near, the higher-ranking monkey buys the deception, runs for cover, and the con-monkey rushes in for the spoils.  It seems this particular primate may not be unique in this behavior either… imagine that.

Don’t expect too much to come from of this one story though.  There’s another esteemed colleague who thinks this researcher is jumping to silly conclusions.  The more things change the more they stay the same. 

What should you take from this very loosely tai chi related story?  Maybe nothing, you could just do what we’ve always have as humans and believe what you want, look for evidence to support your case, and ignore the rest.  Not that I’d ever do that of course… I’m just saying.

Your thoughts?

John

P.S.  I found this story and the monkey photo on ScineceNow.com:  http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/603/2?rss=1