italian_guy

Welcome! I'va a curiosity, why did you left Tai chi chuan and what style was it?

Welcome to KF

In my karate dojo is: White Yellow Orange Green Blue Brown Black This is the color scheme used by FILJKAM which is the main organization of MAs in Italy. It is a federation controlled by the CONI which is a government agency (this thing of having Gov agencies controlling sport federations is an heritage of the fascist regime where sport was a matter of national pride). My Tai chi chuan school instead has only white blue and black.

I agree to most of the things been said here. Just remind failure is part of every human enterprise and in MA failure is not definive. You will have always a second chance so work hard for it and try to learn as much as you can from this hard lesson. It's just like when you lose in sparring, it hurts, but it gives you the opportunity to do better next time if you know what was wrong. So take a little rest (not too much) and start again. Do not worry what the other will think about you. MA is a personal journey. Yours in MA. Italian_guy

I liked this one. I would give him something that may remind him his training in your school like a logo a special diploma a belt with his name on.. etc..

Simple and obvious suggestion.... Start cross-training in Tai chi chuan, but be patient it takes a lot to be learned properly.

No Problems

My intention was not to start a flame war between practioners of Chen against practioners of Yang style TCC I only wanted to know if my impressions about striking and grappling content of the two styles were correct. Since we talk about striking and grappling we talk about Martial Tai Chi Chuan (not healty dances).I know there is non martial Tai Chi and maybe (as JerryLove states) there are more non-martial Yang style schools and forms then Chen style, my style is fully martial Yang style. I hope I have clarified my point.

My Sensei use to say that karate is made by 3 Ks Kihon, Kata and Kumite. Kumite and somehow also kihon are in evolution (e.g. in the beginning only front kicks were used in karate) the only thing we actually know about the roots of karate are found in the katas, the katas are our link to Naha-te, Shuri-te or whatever else. There maybe something beyond that but how can know about it?

Maybe my knoledge of the history of karate is somehow superficial but from the little I know I consider Goju ryu as (mostly) Naha-te, Shorin as (mostly) Shuri-te and Shotokan a mix of the 2, maybe not an equal mix but still a mix. Also in my opinion there is not big difference in talking about schools and katas because the kata dictates and syntetize the school and its traditions.

I'm learning karate and Tai chi chuan, for the moment Tai chi is mostly forms and basics then it will be more combative. In the forms theres no confusion they are so different from karate... in basics there is some overlap but it's still manegeable. Anyhow I consider my karate as my main MA and if in the future confusions will arise I will leave Tai chi and stay with karate.

Do you know what? I also bought a cheapo Gi (25 Euro) through the web, the site itself raccomanded to buy one size larger then needed in order to account for the shrinking so I bought a 6 (I'm 6 ft so 5 is my size). Then even if I pre-washed and then washed several times during usage it did not shrink, so I have now this Gi which is somehow oversize (not too much).

Congratulations, I wish I could do full side splits, even having the ability of side/round kick at face level a person of my same height (6 ft) would be enaugh for me. Did you follow a special method? any special routine? tell us more about that.

I don't know much about Taijiutsu. Wing chun looks like a good choice for self defence. Also the mix of JJJ and Kickboxing looks promising in self defence, Judo I think is mostly for competition (but this is my personal opinion).

For karate The test was divided into 3 parts: 1: Kihon 2: Kata 3: Bunkai Starting from Yellow-to-Orange graders they had also a fourth part which is Kumite. We had 3 judges that gives 1 to 8 score to the candidate for each test, the final score was the sum of all scores, under 45 you do not pass above you pass (this is for white-to-yellow for the others the minimum was 60 but they have 4 parts so you should have an average of 5 in both cases). I did my Kihon not extremely well but decently. The kata was better (It was one of the 3 Taikioku randomly selected for me it was Taikiouku Jodan) , at the end of the test one of the judges which also the main intructor told me that I did the kata at my best. Also I did quite well with bunkai so the final score was 59. The Tai chi chuan test was somehow more relaxed we perform an initial warmup routine called Ba Tuan chin, all fundamental blocks/strikes/punches/kicks and then all the forms of our program for me (6th to 5th chi) it was only one form the others had to make more, since there were not high level graders they did not do application and pushing hands (this in our school is done starting from 2nd to 1st chi onwards). Here they did not tell me the final score only that I passed.

Yes, in the school where I go we do martial Tai chi (Tai Chi Chuan) not non-combative staff, I do not know what is the situation on the non-combative school, my thread was about the combat side of Tai chi chuan ( usually the non-combative schools call it just Tai chi).

Thanks a lot aefibird.

I think that black belt at 16 (as the original thead stated) is not too bad. Usually at 16 a male boy is no longer a kid (female mature even earlier) so I do not see big problems even if 18 as a lower limit it is safer. If we are talking about kids at 14, 13 or even younger, I'm against it. Even if a black belt is just an expert beginner it is viewed as a senior inside the dojo so he/she must have the required maturity for the role and if he/she has not this maturity, older member (with lower ranks) in the dojo may be bothered. And this may bring bad reputation to the dojo itself. Not to mention what white warlock just stated... they may have the right body mechanics in their moves but since they are not mature they do not have the required strenght and mental capacity that they should have in any actual combat situation with a person with older age.

I do not agree too much about your last statement. I do yang style and every move in our form (except initial salutation and Ho Tai chi) has combat application.

Hi, I recently bought a DVD with some combat moves of Chen and Yang style Tai Chi Chuan. It seems to me that Yang style has more grappling and locks and Chen style has more strikes. Is this also your opinion?

Welcome to KF. Which style of TCC are you doing?

OK then I pick endurance. Unfortunately I think it is not one of the most useful (speed,flexibility and agility are more important IMO) .... ooops I pushed the wrong button subtract one vote to flexibility and add one to endurance.

Yep, both, for the karate exam I had quite good score.

To have a meaningful answer you should tell us a little bit more informations like, why are you doing martial art? (self-defence, competitions, self-developement, fitness) you like more striking or grappling or you would like a mix? Are you short and fast? Tall and powerfull? and so on....

Congratulations Ant, Keep going with the good work! I see that now everywhere in the martial art world is time for exams and graduations. I've also just had my yellow belt (karate) grading (17th of June) and my 5th chi grading (last night) in Tai chi chuan.