nanfeishen

Cape Town, South Africa, that strange place on the southern tip of Africa, sunny skies, great beaches, and a bloody great mountain slap bang in the middle of it all.

"It flowed for a second and once i noticed it it was gone", as sparmaster put it ,your body and mind were probabily balanced, and at the same time, you were operating on the subconscious level, responding from instinct and without thought for the moment, then it was lost when the thought re-entered the conscious thought process. Its a nasty moment for all of us who train, because we then land up trying to find that again, and we consciously seek what is only sub-conscious. Just a thought, i could be wrong.

Find a picture of the uniform you want, find a good taylor or dressmaker, and get one made to fit, may work out less cost effective, and easier.

I learnt the Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan Broadsword form, using the "standard" Broadsword, that seems to be the norm, but recently was shown the form on VCD being performed with a sword shaped very similar to the Japanese Katana, the blade was slightly longer and wider than the Katana, with a large ring at the base of the handle, and the guard had two prongs, one bent facing the tip of the sword on the thicker "spine" of the blade and the other prong bent towards the back of the handle to cover the forefinger and middle finger of the hand. I was told it is considered to be the traditional sword for Yang Tai Chi. I was wondering where this type of sword came from historically and if anyone has any knowledge on this issue?.Picture of sword at following link: https://www.taichifinder.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=202 [/img]

Thaegen, I train and teach each day so , yes i believe in my art, agree with you i do. David, thanks the answer you gave is very interesting, as i posed the question to try and find out how students feel , and as a teacher your answer gave food for thought. Question: David, Have you ever seen any Seven Star Mantis? and if so, is there a major or minor difference between the two? I started off in Seven Star Mantis , but there are not many styles offered in S.A., so my exposure to many of the differences between the various styles of Mantis has been rather limited.

How important is the historical lineage of the art that you participate in to you as the practitioner, and do you think it matters?

What duties or responsibilities do you feel are required for you, or of you to be a better student of your art?

Thank you David for the dictionary definition, the issue should be as you say "sorted" by now. I must add that i am neither a linguistic expert, nor a Chinese caligraphy expert, simply a Tai Chi Chuan practitioner who enjoys what he does, and we seem to have become rather embroiled in the semantics of language and character in this discussion, so i am going to bow out ,say thank you to all and go off to start 2 new threads of thought. Tai Chi Chuan practitioners simply move slower.

The catogories i was speaking of, or addressing, refer to schools offering CMA in the west, generally it is easier to seperate the styles in to hard and soft so that the average westerner, who has a little interest in participating in the CMA, or has done a little research can then make an informed decision about which school to join, and in which system he would like to participate. Obviously the physical requirements would differ from doing say Wing Chun to Tai Chi Chuan, and it ensures that the uninformed, illinformed, or misinformed individual doesnt land up in a system that he/she is not suited to, or is not physically capable of performing. As to the rest of the info i stated, i am only repeating what was told to me by the various teachers, masters, and grandmasters of their arts that i have had the fortune of meeting in China, Hong Kong and here at home. All of them, could and did prove direct lineage to the founders or show lineages that can and have been proven. As to the language, yes many of us westerners dont understand the language that well, plus there is the Mandarin and Cantonese difference, plus which medium of translation, be it Wade Giles or modern Pinyin, this also creates a certain amount of confusion in the translation of certain terms, words and ideas, I certainly concede that fact. By the way i prefer Sci-fi to fantasy as far as reading material is concerned. Sorry for the last, couldnt resist.

Thank you for the warm welcome, appreciate it

First time to any forum, so just taking baby steps, the teacher becomes a student once again. I am a 40 year old Tai Chi instructor , based in Cape Town, South Africa, Have been teaching for 10 years, Yang Style Tai Chi, although started off in Wing Chun and Seven Star Praying Mantis. Hope to be able to contribute a little knowledge from time to time.

agree with Ali , i do. (firstly), I do Kung Fu, or I do Karate, is like saying i drive a car, what is the make , model , colour , year etc etc. (second), most schools offering Chinese Martial Arts, will , or should seperate their styles into (a) "hard" styles and (b)"soft" styles, or "external styles" and "internal styles". Some schools may take it a step further, and seperate the "hard" styles into Northern styles and Southern styles.Example: Wah Lum (Northern Mantis), Chang Chuan(Long Boxing), Northern styles, Wing Chun(Beautiful Springtime) Chut Tsing Tong Long(Seven Star Praying Mantis),Southern Styles, yet all 4 collectively would be classed as "hard" style or "external styles". ....TaiChiChuan, Bagua, and Hsing I would be classed as "soft" styles or "internal styles". Either I clarified the subject , or muddied it further, lets see!.

Had very little direction in my life, was drifting from job to job, but always had an interest in my martial arts, one day my instructor asked me what i was planning to do for the future, i didnt have a clue, he suggested i act as a teacher for one of his junior classes one evening, and i agreed. I have never looked back. I had a good response from the students, and he then took it upon himself to train myself and a number of other students as instructors, this was in 1990, 1995 i started teaching on a full time basis, started of with 2 students the first evening, to date i am the only one still teaching, running classes in 4 different locations, 2 gyms, 1 hall, a martial arts school where i share premises with another teacher, and i have a student in another town that falls under my tutelage, and who runs his own school. Is it worthwhile?, without a doubt!, Is it rewarding?, totally. If you enjoy working with people, If you enjoy imparting Knowledge,if you enjoy giving of yourself to your students, then i would say go for it. The financial rewards are sometimes a little slow, but there are far more important things in my eyes than simply making money off my martial arts. Dont hold back from your students, dont be too arogant about your knowledge, if you dont know the answer to a question,dont make one up, find out and come back to the student with the answer, i challenge my students with information and tell them if they think it is untrue go and research, read, and look up. Respect your students, for without a student you cannot call yourself a teacher.

Must admit, that i am not too familiar with the style of martial arts that you practice, i have only ever been involved with the chinese arts, and even on that side their is not too much info on the fan available on the net, however, if it may help their is a chinese master by the name of Deyin Li that has a number of videos,dvd's and vcd's available for sale on various sites and and probabily in one or two of the online martial arts supply depots, more Taiji , Wushu and Gong Fu orientated, but it may help.

Been to China on 3 tours with groups of people, all organised by my teacher in the U.K., the training is available, only i would suggest hooking up with a group that is going for specific training, maybe even in the style that you practice. If you plan on going on your own, then research, email, and find out everything you can about what you are going to do. There are always people who will want your dollars or pounds, but there are genuine teachers to be found, the trick is keep looking and plan VERY WELL. You can always have a look at the ITSWA web page and email them for information on their tours.

The salute will probabily vary from school to school, but generally right fist, with left open hand. Sometimes the left hand is sitting on the right fist, sometimes there is a space between the two or sometimes the left hand covers the fist or curls over the fist. Some schools will have the junior students "hide" the fist behind the open left hand, when greeting senior students, to symbolise humility and non aggression, while the seniors will greet the juniors with the fist facing the junior, to symbolise their seniority.One elderly chinese master once told a group of us that curling the left hand over the fist and placing the thumbs protruding upwards touching each other, that it was a sign of a challenge to the greeted party.If in doubt, simply place the open hands together in the universal eastern greeting, and you should get by without an issue