Workshop – Tai Chi Form and Application with Nils Klug Bridging the gap between form and application – and finding the meaning behind the Tai Chi form.We will train with selected movements of the Tai Chi form to get a better understanding of the form, to work on our expression […]
#MartialMonday
22 posts
Mondays are always a fight! Weekly insights into the world of Chinese martial arts – with a focus on Pushing Hands, partner work and Taijiquan.
Add some intention and meaning to your meditative form by…
The application can represent a Pulling movement, underlining the direction of the protecting right hand – up and out (peng).
Stay tuned for our series on form and application
Tai Chi Aspects Tai Chi Aspects are single images and concepts on which one may concentrate while doing the form. They are tools for form refinement and are meant to encourage discovering, trying out of alternatives and learning. The videos on Tai Chi Aspects have been developed in the course […]
Push! #Martialmonday is back with one from the archives. The next movement in the form is the „push“. It can be trained as an endless circle, using a simple exercise. Partner Exercise for Push One partner pushes the shoulders – the other neutralises. Then the roles are changed. Working with […]
How to communicate across styles and traditions? The Chinese internal arts have a rich heritage of family styles, styles derived from monasteries and increasingly – in China as well as abroad – independent approaches, based on individual experience or scientific knowledge. So, what is true and what is real? And […]
Small is beautiful – #martialmonday 15 – press #2 A hardly discernible movement with a big effect – that is one ideal of Taijiquan. How to achieve this? Long hours of practice is the short answer. A longer answer would be: by starting big and gradually getting smaller and smaller. […]
High time to push! – Push Hands Meeting Hannover, Germany This week, our #martialmonday team is demonstrating the rules for free pushing hands at the International Push Hands Meeting in Hanover, Germany!We are celebrating our 20th anniversary this year and we are looking forward to meeting more than 100 old and new […]
#MartialMonday 13 – Indirect Force – Application Press Indirect force The mysterious jin energy can be translated as a practice goal: not to use raw power. This does not mean not to use all one’s strength, but to develop a second nature. This second nature uses force in a non-violent […]
#martialmonday 12 – I’m stuck! v. I’m off then. The point of attention in pulling – application (block and) punch This week we start from another practical application of the movement pull: both hands punch. The exercise For the exercise, we need to build fists instead of the open hands […]
#martialmonday 11 – With my back against the wall! How should I react? Form application – pull It is fairly easy: Today, we will work on the application „pull“. The posture pull offers two alternatives: to box and to pull. We will opt for the second alternative as a foundation. […]
#Martialmonday – Dealing the punches or taking them? – Form application Ward off left and right In the form, the movements “Ward off left” and “Ward off right” are movements to protect oneself. More precisely, one protects one‘s space: The space between arm and body is a space that no […]
One of the first movements of the form may be applied as an elbow strike. In the form, the preparation move is followed by the right elbow going up and out to the back. A simple move, but there is a lot to learn from it. Here is our #MartialMonday […]
New year, new challenges! This year we want to repeat the form applications of the whole form and deepen our understanding of the movements. The first training session develops around the first movement of the form: raising the Qi. Movements you do for yourself in the form may be checked […]
Have you ever tried sword duelling with lightsabers?For some years now, we were dreaming about doing a Star Wars fan art film.Since we got our hands on two light sabers only a few months ago, we really wanted to do it. But: The light never seemed to be right. […]
How do you escape when your shoulder is blocked? Maybe you now this kind of situation: You notice a move, you think “oh, sh**…” – and then it is already too late. In Push Hands, especially in fixed step Push hands, this situation often occurs when someone tries to “nail” […]
Enough is enough! About taking action Depending on the approach, Pushing Hands may be an experiment, a partner exercise, perhaps also a game. As an experiment, it needs a specific question, as a partner exercise, it lives on responses, and also perceived as a game, one crucial element of Pushing […]
#MartialMonday 4 Well prepared is half done!? In the Tai Chi form, one key requirement of the movements is fluidity. However, there should be changes as well. To establish a rhythm, it makes sense to divide the movements into preparation (set up) and execution (action). Every posture thus carries with […]
#MartialMonday 3 The most famous hands-on approach in the Chinese martial arts world is push hands. Push hands exercises usually begin with both partners standing opposite each other while their hands are making contact. From there, different sets of movements may evolve. The goal of our push hands practice is […]