The Power behind the Tai Chi form

Once you have learned some Tai Chi choreography (I recommend a short set of 8 – 13 movements) it’s time to begin learning how to apply those movements for self defense and for health.

When moving beyond forms, the most obvious place to go is combat applications. With over 75 different applications for each move there is a lot to be learned. It would be easy to spend an entire weekend teaching the applications of just one move. To get the most out of Tai Chi you should strive for this deep level of understanding with every move that you learn.

Although these martial applications are an important part of the art, they are nothing without energy.

Energy training is essential to the study of Tai Chi.

Many fighting applications require the use of Jings and you cannot gain the amazing health benefits of Tai Chi without understanding the applications and uses of jing.

Tai Chi has 36 basic Jings or expressions of energy and many different methods, combinations and ways of applying these Jings.

These include expressions such as rooting, deep relaxation techniques, spiraling, floating, and electrical expressions of energy.

When combined with correct positioning, weight distribution, etc. Jings significantly add to the power of Tai Chi and the jings are essential to obtaining the health benefits of Tai Chi both for yourself and for the healing of others.

If you’ve ever seen a demonstration of a little old Tai Chi master sending a much larger and physically stronger opponent flying across the room, the master was using a jing or various Jing expressions.

Begin learning Jings as soon as possible.

I recommend that students begin learning their first 8 to 12 Jings very early in their training.

As a teacher, I would rather have a student with a smaller vocabulary of forms who actually knows what to do with those forms than a student who knows a lot of forms but doesn’t know anything about how to use them for self defense, health or healing.

Clear’s Tai Chi is known for producing students who’s skill is well beyond their number of years in the art. One of the keys to this rapid development is that students learn our Big 8 Move set and several Jings within the first few months and they start training them with Clear’s Internal Push Hands right away.

I have found that this is one of the fastest ways to develop a students ability with Tai Chi and begin preparing them to become a high quality teacher of the art.

Comments

  1. gavin cooke says

    Thanks for sharing this knowledge,which most taichi teachers do not even know.Which of your dvds would you recommend to progressively learn Jings? Thanks,Gavin.

  2. gavin cooke says

    Thanks for that,I will check them out when funds are available!

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