When Heather attended the Taijiquan course at the UK Summer Camp 2006, she was on clutches recommended by her specialist doctor due to her sprained leg. During the course, not only she threw away the clutches as recommended by Grandmaster Wong, she could free spar effectively using Wahnam Taijiquan against Sean who is a seasoned martial artist.

The following discussion is reproduced from the thread What is Genuine, Traditional Taijiquan? started in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum on 5th June 2006.

At first I was amazed at the generosity of my Sifu. Now I am more amazed at the ego of some instructors. They talk about overcoming ego, but their ego is so big that they rather miss a rare opportunity than learn from another master.
Sifu Robin Gamble

Yeniseri
Taiji Teacher, USA
12th June 2006

Unique

Robin,

Your training is indeed different but your words are too kind so i must be gracious!

It was stated that "In other words, using genuine, traditional Taijiquan, a small-sized, elderly woman can beat a hefty young man. This, of course, shows the application of internal force" this is also a misnomer. You talk about combat but that is a far reality for most, so as an extension, an elderly woman beating a hefty young man is a stretch (at least for me). It may be common in your part of the woods so I apologize beforehand if I seem unconvinced.

Energy flow is a bogus goal because even the fat lady has energy flow, albeit stagnant evidenced by limited mobility, muscular stiffness, tiredness and inability to perform daily living tasks.

I will admit I will probably need more of your type of experience to acknowledge your logical statements but that is a long way off so I salute your approach.

Sifu Joko Riyanto
Instructor, Shaolin Wahnam Indonesia
12th June 2006

Originally posted by Yeniseri Energy flow is a bogus goal because even the fat lady has energy flow, albeit stagnant evidenced by limited mobility, muscular stiffness, tiredness and inability to perform daily living tasks.

No, it is not a 'bogus' goal.
Sure, everything that is alive has energy flow.
In our WahNam family, when energy flow is mentioned, it means uninterrupted energy flow.

It is an abbreviated phrase, somewhat similar to the abbreviated expression of 'Opening chakra' in Yoga. In fact, every living human has open chakras, if any one is closed, he will cease to live. So 'opening chakra' means to free the chakra from any blockage.
(Chakra means centre of energy.)

Joko
__________________
Be happy n joyful... and share your joy with others

Sifu Robin Gamble
Instructor, Shaolin Wahnam England
13th June 2006

Hi Yeniseri,

Hope you are well.

Earlier you said,

Energy flow is a modern embellishment and has nothing to do with taijiquan.

Then you said,

You talk about combat but that is a far reality for most, so as an extension, an elderly woman beating a hefty young man is a stretch (at least for me).

Now you have a rare opportunity to experience both energy flow and combat application in Taijiquan, if you are a Taijiguan instructor.

Many practitioners would be very happy if they could experience energy flow and combat application after 5 years of Taijiquan learning. Now you can experience them in a 4-day Taijiquan course given by my Sifu at the England Summer Camp in July. But this course is open only to Taijiquan instructors.

At first I was amazed at the generosity of my Sifu. Now I am more amazed at the ego of some instructors. They talk about overcoming ego, but their ego is so big that they rather miss a rare opportunity than learn from another master.

Yeniseri
Taiji Teacher, USA
14th June 2006

Buena idea

Robin,

Thanks. As I teach taijiquan for health conditions I use an achievable goal that can be manifested as part of a step by step process.

I personally think that being honest with people on what they can achieve is a good thing so I do admire Sifu Wong's objective criteria for learning and that is positive.

Like Yeniseri, many Taiji instructors do not believe that Taijiquan can be used for combat, but they are not humble or open-minded enough to find out from masters who say that Taijiquan can be used for fighting, such as at the UK Summer Camp 2007. Here Paul and Alex applied typical Taijiquan techniques in free sparring.

• Part 1: What is Genuine, Traditional Taijiquan?
  
• Part 2: And Now You Back Down
  
• Part 3: Shen-Fa or Body-Movement and Other Principles of Genuine, Traditional Taijiquan
  
• Part 4: Calling a Cow a Horse
  
• Part 5: The Reality of Chi and Internal Force
  
• Part 6: Could Yang Lu Chan Defeat Modern Ultimate Fighting Arts Fighters
  
• Part 7: Chi and Internal Force in Genuine, Traditional Taijiquan
  
• Part 8: It is Amazing some Instructors would Miss an Opportunity than Learn from another Master
  
• Part 9: On Principles, Stances, Force and Age in Taijiquan
  

• To be continued

• Intensive Chi Kung Course
• Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course
• Intensive Taijiquan Course

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