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Rokukan Tai Chi
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Rokukan Tai Chi.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE
It is assumed that you have already received training in Tai Chi, either as part of your professional education, or in conjunction with a continuing education program, or by training under a Tai Chi instructor.
NOTE: Some Tai Chi training is a prerequisite for this course. If you have not received any Tai Chi training, then you should withdraw from this course right now!
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INDICATIONS
Who will benefit from the practice of Tai Chi ?
The obvious answer is, "Anyone " or "Everyone."
However, certain people with the following problems will specifically be benefitted :
1. Those who receive little or no exercise of any kind.
2. Those who suffer from poor physical coordination, limited flexibility, and/or lack of balance.
3. Those who exhibit a lack of mental concentration.
4. Those who wish to perform mild exercise and at the same time develop the basic principles of self-defense.
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Is TAI CHI a MARTIAL ART ?
Of course it is! .Many instructors pretend that Tai Chi is simply a healthy exercise, claiming that it is not a martial art. This is ridiculous. The full term, Tai Chi Chuan, is commonly translated as "Supreme Ultimate Fist" or "Supreme Ultimate Boxing."
"Tai" means big, great, supreme, etc. For example, Tai Feng (Big Wind) has become known to us as a Typhoon.
"Chi" (Qi or Ji ) is known as Vital Energy or Life Force, etc. Westerners are quick to point out that "Chi" has no single English word translation - this also is ridiculous. "Chi" means Breath - as in "You're not born (alive) until you take your first breath" and "After one takes their last breath, they are considered to be dead."
So, in a certain manner, Tai Chi means "Great Breath."
(We know - There are other translations)
However, most Tai Chi sessions do not include practicing hard-style self-defense applications while paired with another practitioner. Such applications are known as Combat Tai Chi and are specific exceptions in training rather than the rule.
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THE SLOW SPEED OF TAI CHI
Tai Chi is practiced slowly for two reasons:
1. As an adjunct for health and "moving" meditation.
2. To deeply program the neuro-muscular system.
After the movements have become smooth and automatic (this can take months or years), the speed can be (incrementally) increased - this often results in difficulties with balance and coordination, and the neuromuscular programming must be repeated again with each speed increase.
Eventually, the movements are performed at full speed. As such, they can be effective forms of self-defense.
Regardless of the slowness or speed involved, Tai Chi is considered to be a soft martial art and each movement should be performed with as complete a relaxation (or "softness") in the musculature as possible.
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THE MANY STYLES OF TAI CHI
Tai Chi is presented and practiced in many versions and styles. There is the Yang style, the Chen style, the Wu style, the Sun style, and many others.
Modified forms of Tai Chi for health (such as Taoist Tai Chi .and the Official Beijing form .promoted by the Chinese government) have become popular world-wide in recent times.
All of the various styles of Tai Chi seen today are traceable back to a single man, < Chen Wangting, a general from the late years of the Ming Dynasty. After the fall of the Ming and the establishment of the Ching (Manchu) Dynasty, in 1644, Chen Wangting returned to the Chen village and created his style of boxing. Originally containing seven forms, only two forms of Chen Style Tai Chi have survived until today.
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The Art was taught only to members of the Chen clan until a young outsider named < Yang Luchan (1799-1872) was accepted as a student in the early 1800s. Yang Luchan modified the original Chen style and created the Yang style, the most popular form in the world today.
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< Yang Chengfu (1883-1936), grandson of Yang Luchan, is known for having "smoothed out" the somewhat more vigorous training routine he learned from his family as well as emphasising a "large-frame" style (big, heavy people) with expansive movements in stepping and the use of large circular motions with the arms. His smooth, evenly-paced, large-frame form and its hundreds of offshoots has been the standard for Yang style Tai Chi Chuan (and overwhelmingly in the public imagination for Tai Chi in general) ever since.
Wu Yuxiang (1812-1880) > learned the Art from Yang Luchan, plus a version of the original Chen form from Chen Jingbing, and then created the Wu style.
Hao Weizhen learned the Wu style from Wu Yuxiang's nephew and taught it to < Sun Lutang (1861-1932), who in turn created the Sun style.
In recent times there have been many other variations and modifications of the Art, but all may be traced back through the above masters to the original Chen family form.
The Style of This Course
This Course presents instruction in the Rokukan style, which is nothing more than a (slightly modified) version of the Yang Short Form - the most common and widely accepted contemporary style.
Rokukan is actually a Japanese term. Roku = "Six" and Kan = "Stone" or "Stones."
The term Rokukan merely describes the placement of the feet during the 12 movements of the Yang Short Form. It is as though a person came walking up to the edge of a small, shallow stream. In order to cross to the other side, there are six stepping stones placed in the stream:
The practitioner first steps onto stones 1 and 2, and is suddenly attacked from the right. The entire form depicts his or her progress across the stream while being accosted by multiple assailants from various directions:
That's it. There are 12 movements and they are enacted with the feet placed upon 6 different "stones" or places.
We will review the 12 movements in our next lesson.
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. .Go to the 12 Movements
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