Thank You One And All

Hi - back from China after months where Facebook is really banned, really silenced.

In the past I have had many encounters in Teaching, Being a Student, Pushing Hands and Engaging in Online Groups with various Martial Artists. Here in the USA I am free to report my experiences and observations. People who moderate groups online are free to set ANY STANDARD THEY LIKE! I’ve been in both Zero Tolerance Groups and Flame War Shoving Match Groups. In reporting what I’ve seen and personally experienced I try to take a real and honest tone but try to say nothing that would actually prevent me attending a class, workshop or camp with the individuals I comment upon or criticize. There are a few individuals I know that any commentary is not allowed according to their culture or personality so I refrain. That’s my line.

I studied Mantaak Chia’s system and it was a nice flowy, spacey, Kitaro-like introduction to the art which I outgrew fairly quickly.

I studied with Li Deyin and his family and was impressed by their authentic skills and felt that the Government Forms are too Sterile for my taste, like Etudes not Sonatas.

I studied with a Teacher that helped me with some real fundamentals like dropping my shoulders and elbows without which nothing of value that followed would have been possible.

I went on to study on a regular basis with Authentic Masters in authentic systems. I will tell you that I studied and practiced with a dedication and perseverance greater in measure than the results that I received for whatever reasons those are. Of course the student is always quick to blame the Teacher or System but I think that it is not wrong to question the system or try to build upon it.

I wanted so much to reach the Holy Grail of Fajin and studied on the side for years and took workshops with students of Masters Chu Gin Soon and Vincent Chu. I came to feel that the methodology as being re-transmitted by these students was very unhealthy and although I did see some authentic results I returned to Forms Practice in an Authentic Yang Cheng Fu Lineage Family.

Seeking to broaden my knowledge in that system I attended workshops with Master Yang Jun and felt that while he already has and will continue to surpass his Uncle’s skill and teaching his style of Taiji was not the doorway I was looking for. I changed teachers and Masters and broadened my knowledge of Push Hands, Internals and felt that being Knowledgeable about what the standards that define Taiji and separate it from all other arts even when those arts are done softly at a very high level had never adequately been done.

I began studying with Don Miller on the side at this point. My first impression that first night was that this was too much strength. I came to a much different understanding as my eyes were opened to the realities Don presented. Don was capable of using a mere gesture, a mere suggestion of a move to create inexorable control over me. I was practicing 20 hours a week and had more than 10 years of experience by this point but still needed to be willing to make a quantum shift to come to a place where I could profit by the inquiry, scientific verification, improvisation, core work, shoving matches and hard ass bravado that Don offered.

I’ve seen some wonderful demos online from Adam Mizner and think he’s one of the more special guys out there and will make it a goal to seek him out. I also notice that even at his level he’s not immune from an occasional shoving match online or in person.

Michael Phillips frequently throws his weight around proclaiming a better and more real lineage and furthermore an Inner Door access to it. I have never met a Martial Artist of stature who didn’t have some issues; that’s what drives us!! MP clearly has some serious skills and methodologies though but as we know from all Martial Arts Movies there is always someone that one skill or another will not work on and it is not an indictment of someone, their skill or their lineage to say so out loud.

Mark Rasmus has some great instructional videos and displays this higher level stuff I am looking for after 20 years of practice.

Richard Clear likewise is an excellent instructor and I love what he does.

I am looking for the Internals - Softer Energetic Moves that will work on incompliant partners and I am looking for an Evolving Methodolgy like we see in Olympic sports.

For people to take umbrage over false claims of skill and people who charge money and don’t deliver the goods seems natural. Seeking a clear definition for a certain kind of Complete, Authentic Taiji is exclusionary by definition. This is Taiji; that is not Taiji. Sorry guys - that’s just the way it is.

If someone says my teacher isn’t real or Chen style isn’t Taiji or Forms aren’t real transmissions I will take it for what it’s worth. I gain impetus for continuing this work from these discussions, shouting matches and unilateral declarations.

In the end I am approaching a working definition of Taiji for the first time in my career and the beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms so Thank You My Friends.

Thank You One And All