LEARNING AUTHENTIC TAIJIQUAN
Authentic Taijiquan
Question
I wish to learn authentic Taiqiquan and not just the movement. Please give me your good advice on how I should go about learning this art.
-- Leong, Singapore
Answer
Naturally I would ask you to learn Wahnam Taijiquan from a certified Shaolin Wahnam instructor. Many people who have no exposure to what Wahnam Taijiquan is like, will understandably attack us for being arrogant, but we sincerely believe it is closer to the traditional Taijiquan practiced by past masters than most of the Taijiquan practiced today.
Alternatiely I would advice you to search for authentic Taijiquan yourself, and I shall give you good advice on how to go about it.
First you need to know what authentic Taijiquan is, and is not. It is an internal martial art. Hence, any art that is not internal, for example, its practitioners merely talk about internal force and have no experience of it, and is not martial, for example, the practitioners cannot use Taijiquan techniques for combat, is not authentic Taijiquan. It is actually so simple, yet it is simply amazing that so many practitioners vehemently insist that theirs is authentic Taijiquan when they use weights and sandbags to train force, and Boxing and Wrestling techniques for sparring.
Secondly you should find out whether the teacher is teaching what he claims. He may say that he uses Taijiquan for combat, but when you see that he asks his students to put on boxing gloves and bounce about, you would know he does not teach what he claims. Thirdly you should see whether his students exhibit the benefits that authentic Taijiquan is purported to give. If you find that a lot of his students are aggressive or suffer rom knee injuries, then you would know something is basically wrong in their training.
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