TaiJi and XingYi For Self Defence Part 2

Over some recent posts I’ve looked at various aspects of self defence specifically background concepts and physical training requirements; strength, flexibility and aspects of the practicalities of self defence. Let’s now look at some of the practical physical requirements and methodologies and how they relate specifically to TaiJiQuan and XingYiQuan.

Assuming that you have commenced a regime of training and you have designed a training program, or your instructor has presented you with one, that lays out a clear progression to a clearly defined objective. Having a plan is always the best way to achieve your objectives!

With arts such as TJQ and XYQ there is often a high degree of focus on form practise, I wrote a series of blogs on issues around forms and their value. Please take a look at these blogs to get more detail but to give a very short version; historically forms were a secondary training process. It was technique training, partner work etc that were considered far more valuable and were a more efficient use of time. Consider a modern military / infantry unit, trainee soldiers would spend the majority of their time getting fit, learning to shoot straight and learning how to maintain their weapons. The practice of foot drill or rifle drill although useful is not a priority. If you’re training military skills investing large amounts of time in looking good is not a priority. One very key point to understand about training forms, the forms were created by compiling sequences of fighting techniques. Not the other way around. In other words fighting techniques are NOT derived from the form, rather forms are derived from techniques.

I mentioned in a previous post the essential aspects of self defence training are, get fit, learn to hit and get mean. Expanding on those aspects a little, getting fit should include getting strong, strength is far easier to develop than technique. Of course we want to develop technique we are after all training in a martial art, but this should be combined with strength development.

Sparring - San Shou

Another aspect of strength is learning to take a hit, it is not unusual for even experienced martial artists to succumb to an assault simply because they go into shock when they are hit hard. So strength also applies to strength of mind, the best way to develop this is through some form of sparring. It isn’t necessary or even desirable to take part in a lot of heavy full contact sparring, you just need to do enough to experience being hit and also to understand how difficult it can be to hit somebody else. Even MMA fighters and boxers do most of their sparring at a light contact level.

Pushing Hands - Tui Shou Pushing Hands is a training method that features in both TJQ and XYQ, the aim is to develop skills in controlling the movement of others by smothering their attacks and destabilising their structure. These skills are quite hard to develop to a good level so this training should start very early in your training regime. The training consists of a combination of fixed pattern training and free style - spontaneous training. In modern TJQ culture Pushing Hands has taken on a very high level of importance, I would argue that such is the level of the importance that it has been given it has become the tail that wags the dog. 

I believe part of the emphasis in pushing hands above almost all else, except form of course, is because pushing hands became a surrogate for sparring, it became a safe way for people to demonstrate what was thought to be martial prowess, it is however only a part of the equation and high skill in pushing hands does not ensure skill in self defence. It’s rather like someone spending a lot of time learning to juggle a football, they might be able to set a world record in keep it up but they’ll never get into a professional football team. Part of the shift in prioritising pushing hands can be traced back to the early republican period in China when martial arts came out of the shadows and became a public pass time. TJQ has a number of texts that have been created over the centuries to explain theoretical and philosophical aspects of the art.

One such text is today known as the Tui Shou Ge (Song of Pushing Hands), prior to the republican era it was known as Da Shou Ge (Song of Hitting Hands or The Fighter’s Song). The content of the text hasn’t changed but the decision to change the title is telling and points to the change in perspective and focus. We’ll look at the actual text in a future post. But suffice to say for now, simply reading the text within the context of a violent confrontation rather than a cooperative training exercise can change how it is understood.

#selfdefence #selfdefense #martialarts #fightingfit #taijiquan #XingYiQuan