Friday, May 2, 2008

Combat Tai Chi Chuan



Here is a clip that the guys over at Tim Cartmell's discussion board were enjoying, and it's so good I had to slide it on over to Dojo Rat also.
This shows how Tai Chi Chuan postures and Chinese wrestling are perfectly incorporated into Taiji Push-Hands. The expert is Hawkings Cheung. Novice Taiji players may not realize it, but 70-80% of Taiji techniques are grappling. This includes joint-locking and takedowns.
For those who are interested, Tim Cartmell - author of "Effortless Combat Throws" and other books, will be in Seattle May 17-18 for seminars on Bagua, Tai Chi Chuan applications, and ground grappling.
Contact Jake Burroughs at three_harmonies@hotmail.com

5 comments:

Sean C. Ledig said...

Great video!

It shows taijiquan is a valid martial art. And as a wing chun practitioner, I was pleasantly surprised to see it was Hawkins Cheung who was doing that great push hands.

Scott said...

The way I learned taijiquan, every movement can be used as a throw, as a strike, or as a joint lock/brake.

That guy took a lot of falls, I bet he's still feeling it.

Dave Chesser said...

I wouldn't call that clip push hands. It's a demo of taiji shuaijiao.

Patrick Parker said...

cool vid. looks familiar - like a hybrid combo of aiki randori and judo randori.

Dojo Rat said...

Dave;
You're right, it's basicly Chinese wrestling but I like how they ingage in the push-hands pattern to start, and continue to return to it. Now, if they threw a few hitting techniques in it would really round things out!