taiji fajin

ah, you're right. I knew I was forgetting something. I was going to put "self made" and "other." Sigh. Know any way to change it? Hitting edit wouldn't let me do it

What brand of computer does everyone use? If you use more than one, just put down your preferred computer (that you use, not what you want). Please only vote once.

If there's anything more important than my ego, I want it caught and shot now. In all seriousness, though, assuming they aren't your students / friends, let them do what they're going to do, and focus on your own practice. PS - who knows where that quote is from without googling it?

If I'm ever in the area, I'll stop by. What are your practices normally like?

Apparently McDojo's are starting a delivery service. Now you don't have to even leave your home to get horrible training!

Back flips are actually physically much easier than front flips. IF YOU KNOW THE MECHANICS. And I don't mean cognitively know, though you need that too, I mean your muscles. I could give you a description here, and I'm betting others will, but the problem is I don't want you to just go out and try this. If you mess up, you can be seriously injured. Go to a trained professional at a gymnastics center. If you can do a front flip, they've have you doing a backflip in under a week, if not a couple days.

He was a judge for me at a tournament. However, all that really means is he sat there watching me and then help up a score card. I never actually worked with him.

Begged to get into it as a child, only to be repeatedly told no. Did wrestling in high school (15 years old), which is close, but not really a martial art. Started actually doing martial arts (kuk sool) right after I turned 19 (in college).

Chi can help heal the body. That being said, if I break an arm or get cancer, I'm going to the doctor. I'll still do chi exercises to help, but I'm going to the doctor.

Not a problem, I really do like your style. I feel like I'm more and more leaning to it. It is also what my instructor in my other martial art does, except he doesn't use belts, just teaches you more as you are ready for it, and keeps refining what you are working on if you need refinement. I'm just so ingrained with the idea of a formal test at the end of each semester that it feels odd / is hard for me to get away from. That, and I know if my students go to another school for my style, or wven if they stay, when they reach black belt and are tested with the grandmaster there, they will have to take a long, physically demanding test to earn their belt. Can I prepare them for this in other ways than having them do a test like this? Yes. But old habits die hard. Anyways, arguments from or against this style from anyone? I would love to hear from korean martial arts practitioners more, as they often seem more prone to testing (at least in the few that I know, including mine).

Yeah, its sad, but I do most of the things people on here have mentioned. Opening doors with kicks is handy sometimes when I don't trust the cleanliness of the door handle. Hmmm, some others . . . . bow slightly to anyone when you greet them stem when you shake hands, high five, etc use your pool que to practice staff spins / forms (this gets you some odd looks in bars) always see how well you can keep your balance when your intoxicated buddies shove your intoxicated self practice weight shifting and balance on the bus by not holding onto anything (fun during sharp turns! poster is not responsible for any injuries received while doing what he said was fun)

I like to paint on my computer. Unfortunately, the warrenty doesn't cover it. BUH-DUM CSHHHH! . . . . . I'll go away now . . . .

hahaha, I'm going to have to show this to some people I train with, they'll get a kick out of it.

So far (correct me if I'm wrong), it seems like most people believe in testing, but some make it far more informal (very short, or even just a quick look over / giving advice on something they need help with). I like that aikido article as well, it brought up some good points: a) evaluation under stress b) testing should reflect a student's regular practice c) more how a student handles himself in an unexpected moment than in technical knowledge d) following time period given used for corrections and help e) people who left practice for too long should not be able to enter where they left off f) do not promote out of fear they will leave g) rank should reflect level So now for some questions / comments about those point: a) How much stress should they be under? Should this be mental stress of knowing you are being evaluated, of physical stress, seeing how well they do while physically tired. If the later, how tired? How do you protect against injury when a student is very tired? At some point of fatigue, everyone loses some cognitive ability and will make mistakes about which number is which. b) is he referring here to making the testing day like a practice day, or making the material (proportionately) equal to what they do in regular class? c) I agree with this one. I've never been a fan of, how well can you cram in a month or two? Moreso I want to see their overall skill, and their character. d) I really like this. Unfortunately, teaching at a university under semester timelines makes this difficult for my club. While I tell them to practice over break (and they do), I still do not get to see them for 1 to 3 months, depending on what semester it is. Each belt level takes too long to teach, make sure they have it as well as they need before the belt test, and test, to get it done before the semester is over. As I've talked about in other threads, the only reason I even do it in as short amount of a time as that is my old instructor has just recently left, and that is how everyone is use to it. I am considering changing it. e) agreed. However, they do have more skill / knowledge than a white belt. How to solve this? Have them put on a white belt, but let them advance more quickly until they reach their old belt level (still needing the same skill level to move on, I am just assuming they will reach that skill level quicker, as they were already there once)? Letting them keep their old color, but pushing a review on them until they are caught up to where they were, and only then letting them continue where they left off? Ideas would be more than welcome. f) again, I agree with this. Unfortunately, I've actually had to fail people who then quit, even though I did it as nicely as possible, with encouragement for them to stay. g) I certainly hope so! I think the worst feeling I could have was knowing that I've produced paper tigers. After the midterm, I gave a talk about the importance of foundation over window dressing (used an analogy I love, though its not mine. I'll post it later if people want, this post is already really long). Anyway, thank you to everyone for the input so far, and keep it coming! I am very interested in Shorinryu Sensei's style, and believe when I move away and start up my own school from scratch, I will probably do some combination of his and a full out test (though this thread may change my mind to one way or the other!) Again, thank you to everyone who has posted so far.

Wow, I would love that, thank you. If you get a break from working and find a copy, pm me and I'll give you an e-mail address to send it to. I'm not saying that testing is a bad thing, only that it can be a bad thing. It would be great to see a paper written about the importance of it, though, and I'm sure it would help me in figuring out the best ways to test people.

I keep hearing Dr. Kimm talked about, but I've never had the chance to meet him. Wish I could have gone to this seminar and finally had a chance to see him. While he doesn't do kuk sool anymore, he use to, and I've just heard he is very good at jointlocking and other things. Oh well, maybe someday I'll get to practice with him.

I'm in two different martial arts, one that has tests for belt ranks, and one that does not (there is no belt, but you do move to more and move advanced classes / material). So, which of these do you guys feel is better, and why? Are your belt tests more just ceremonial, where whether or not you have "passed" is pretty much determined beforehand, or is it an actual pass or fail to get the next highest belt? Do you feel being pushed to exhaustion during the tests is a good thing, or a bad thing? Do your tests even do that? What are the effects on the testers psyche? The test might make them feel good ("Look at what I accomplished!") or bad ("people are judging me and looking for my faults"). What about health risks, being pushed too hard and having a heat stroke, or a heart problem? Having a technique done on you, or doing one when both practitioners are dead tired? Should a person be watched, and when they have gotten good enough where they are, be promoted to the next belt, or should they have to earn it through a test? What good things do tests accomplish / show the instructor that can't be gotten out of a normal class? I'm sure there are more questions than these, these just came to me as I was typing. I ran a "midterm" test today, and immediately reverted to (close to) how my old instructor ran the tests. Some of it seemed very contradictory to how I feel now about teaching, and it made me think about the whole point of testing. I'm not saying I think it should be gotten away with, or changed, or whatever, just describing how this thread came about. While I know it will be hard, it definitely is for me, please, please, PLEASE, think about your reasoning when you answer. Simply because you've been taking tests your whole martial arts career does not make them a good (or bad) thing. Think about what tests give the practitioner and instructor that can not be gotten out of normal classes, and what affect it has on both people.

its just an abbreviation. Taijiquan means "grand extreme boxing (or fist instead of boxing), which is sometimes shortened to taiji. The difference between taiji and tai chi is that there are two different ways of converting chinese to english, as they don't transfer over letter to letter perfectly. Tai Chi uses the old system, Taiji is from the new system. The new system more accurately represents the sounds and meaning, so people are switching to that, though it is hard to get people to give up habits they are use to.

yeah, I think I'm going to call them and have them drive by the house occasionally at night during that week (of spring break). Hopefully, if anything happens and I'm not around, they'll be around at the time.

Exactly, I guess I should have said this earlier. The hands are helpful, but the main thing that does it is your legs and finding the point where they pull you up. It is not a muscle test to do a hand stand. If you have it down well enough, you can do it without hands (though this is generally harder and takes more time to learn).

My old house was quite large, and I was known to stalk it on occasion with a knife if I heard a noise I didn't trust at night. This hasn't really happened in my new, smaller house, except it might in the next week or two. I live in a college town, so lots of robbers assume people will be gone over the college's spring break. Yesterday, I saw two people looking at my house intently in a car. One of them got out and started taking pictures of the front of it and the side of it (where there is another door). As soon as I started opening the door he ran back to the car and they drove off. Should be an interesting week.

Nice story Sparkey. I normally do that in small groups during every belt test, I feel it really helps. As for watching forms, it depends (at least for "grading") which martial art I am doing. Kuk Sool - I watch for the five hyung bi-laws: Eyes Bright, Mind Clear, Hands Fast and Precise, Feet Slow and Controlled, Stance Low. Taiji - intention, structure, qi, silk reeling, central equilibrium (in the taiji sense, not just body having the weight centered), and yin/yang.

Glad you liked it. I get really nostalgic about wrestling, since I use to do it all throughout highschool. I use to go back and visit the coach once every year or two, since I was good friends with him, but I haven't done it for awhile. Maybe I should try and find a wrestling club to join, except I'm already pretty busy with ma's.

I've heard that about chen style as well (its the type I practice), but anyone can do it. Anyone can do any style, moves can be modified slightly as long as the qi and xin yi are still the same.

China (for Taijiquan) and Korea (for Kuk Sool Won). I think they build off of each other, to be honest. I could go into more detail, but that's not what this thread is about and I don't want to (passively) insult anyone or any art.