November 20, 2005
Lisa Montgomery
2nd Degree Black Belt
Specialty: Tai Chi Ch’uan
I have chosen Tai Chi as my demonstration specialty for my 2nd degree black belt. Through this paper I will give a brief overview of the history of the form I study, Yang Short Form, and a discussion of how Tai Chi has influenced my Moo Duk Kwan Tae Kwon Do hard style. My hope is to illustrate how the concepts I am learning in Tai Chi have had a synergistic affect with my Tae Kwon Do kata and kumite. Through breath, relaxation, strength with balance and finally softness; all elements I have been studying in Tai Chi, I feel as though my Tae Kwon Do has attained better flow, intensity and power.
Tai Chi: A Brief History:
Tai Chi Ch’uan is believed to have its earliest beginnings from a Chinese physician, Hua-tu'o (2). He believed true health and longevity could only be attained through regular movement and exercise. Although he is not credited with a specific aspect of Tai Chi Ch’uan’s development, his philosophy about movement, breath and health are recognized as foundations to Tai Chi Ch’uan.
Key influential people in the development of Tai Chi Ch’uan cover many years. The history begins in China with the practice of mediation and Taoism. A 6th century B.C. philosopher Lao Tzu, developed philosophies regarding mediation that were in conjunction with his Taoist practices. His metaphors spoke of the relationship breath has with health and keeping the body fit, resulting in a long and healthy life. This belief in focusing both mind and breath together would become part of the solid foundation of Tai Chi Ch’uan in years to come (2).
In the third century AD the physician Hua To developed the “Movement of the Five Animals.” These were the earlier movements from which Tai Chi Ch’uan would grow from. Health exercises were later added by Ko Hung around 325 AD.
Ta Mo came to Shao Lin Buddhist mediation from China. He developed exercises to help with the health and mediation of the monks. These movements developed into a martial art having all the power and strength that is identified with most martial arts. The Taoist master Chang San-Feng created a series of exercise that became known as Tai Chi Ch’uan. He and Ta Mo had similar goals; to develop discipline that complemented the practice of mediation; thus a moving mediation. Ta Mo’s method is sometimes considered the “Shao Lin the Outside School” and Tai Chi Ch’uan, “The Inner School” because of its more fluid, soft movements (2).
As with many of the arts, over time the systems and styles of Tai Chi Ch’uan diverge with different masters, wars and leaders. As the figure below illustrates, Tai Chi Ch’uan has different branches although there are familiar elements with in each style. This family tree illustrates the branches of Tai Chi: Wu, Yang, Wu Shi and the many other branches illustrated here were each fall into either the northern or southern family of systems (1).
Source: (1)
Tai Chi; The First Element:
Breath
One of the tenants of all martial arts is breath. We use breathing to calm jumpy nerves, give energy to our techniques and improve our stamina in forms and sparring. Proper breathing pervades our life and is essential to a healthy existence. Breathing as well as the physical movement in Tai Chi should never be still. At least this is the aspiration. Learning to breathe in a consistent motion from the diaphragm has greatly improved my ability to perform not only Tai Chi but all of my Tae Kwon Do as well.
Breathing properly is the foundation in many types of meditation or meditative movement. In Yoga, learning to breathe is a lesson constantly practiced. Stationary meditation involves schooling one’s self to breathe evenly throughout the exercise. “Focus on the breath” is the first lesson one begins working on when learning to meditate. Considering Tai Chi Ch’uan’s development as moving mediation, learning the breath is the obvious first step, albeit one of the most difficult.
Learning to breathe as Tai Chi demands overflows directly into my hard form martial arts. Breathing was always discussed in Tae Kwon Do and therefore not completely foreign. With the addition of Tai Chi Chuan, breath began to give life to each technique; it helped me have better beginning, middle and end to all the techniques in my forms. Physiologically, deeper breathing simply gives more oxygen to the circulatory system, and thus more to the muscles doing the work. So with the habit of better breathing in place, my sparring gained more stamina. In the words of Mr. Danny Davis, “You control your breath, you control your life.”
Deep, even breathing brings me to the next element Tai Chi has helped me with.
Tai Chi Element Two:
Relaxation
The slowness of Tai Chi is a key part of its lesson of relaxation. Tai Chi is so very difficult, with so many movements and techniques occurring all at once that even as slowly as the art is practiced, it still seems way too fast when first learning it. There are the proper steps, keeping an even head-height, where the hands go, the angle of the torso, what the next posture is, and what transition will get you there; a great many things to internalize and learn. Oh, and remember to breathe. Sounds simple; very few things have been more difficult in my experience.
With persistence, you find the relaxation that Tai Chi’s slowness teaches. Compared to Tai Chi, my Tae Kwon Do forms are much more straightforward and simple. Case in point, you can learn them in a class, sometimes two. Granted the finer details and associated bunkai of my Tai Kwon Do forms may come much, much later. I can still get the gross movements down more quickly. Once I became more accustomed to all the detail of Tai Chi, when I went back to my Tae Kwon Do form, I found so much more ‘time’ in the form. Learning to relax and become more mentally still through the complexity of Tai Chi has greatly improved my Tae Kwon Do forms. In Tae Kwon Do, this relaxation and this ‘found time’ allowed me to decrease any rushed feeling I used to experience. Now the forms have their own cadence. All has its own time. With practice, Tai Chi comes to have its own ebb and flow, like the tide of the ocean. I believe I found this same aspect in my Tae Kwon Do much sooner with the influence of Tai Chi.
Tai Chi Combination Element Three;
Strength and Balance
The physical demands of Tai Chi will strengthen any student regardless if this was an initial intention. When I hear people comment that Tai Chi looks as though it is not a workout, I know instantly they have never tried it. The postures require a great deal of strength to hold and move through. They also demand balance. I have found that you cannot attain one without the other. Balance requires strength of the muscles to hold your posture, compensate for instability in what lies under your feet, and be able to move through the transitions to the next posture. Strength requires balance to be able to have proper movement and stability. I have found that these two elements are inseparable in the practice of Tai Chi. This combination lesson has had great influence in my hard form. Strength and balance has improved all my stances, giving them more stability and a solid muscular foundation. That improved stability yields more power and intensity. With every step in one-steps, forms or sparring, I am physically aware of my balance in a muscular way. Each step or turn in a form now contains a choice of where my steps end. Tai Chi has given me strength and balance so that all steps are chosen and no longer simply fall where they may. Having educated my musculature to what proper balance and body alignment is in a kinesthetically, all my movements, regardless of what I am practicing, have much improved.
Tai Chi’s Elements Combined;
Softness
This has been the most challenging thing to learn in Tai Chi; softness. And, it will take years to truly wrap my mind around it much less master it. Its difficulty may possibly be because there are so many other lessons that need to find their place before the path is clear for this aspect to be internalized.
Initially in Tae Kwon Do, power and hardness accompanies all that you learn. As you progress through the ranks, the forms begin to require both slowness and speed, hardness and softness. Still, often times when you increase the speed, the hard power overshadows all else.
Through all of the elements of Tai Chi discussed here: Breath, Relaxation, Strength and Balance, the end result is Softness. Softness does not equal weakness, which is a misconception I have found that many people hold. Learning softness and translating it to my Tae Kwon Do helps with forms and sparring alike. Softness in my Tae Kwon Do forms has taught me regardless of the pace of a form; it still should have flow and constant motion without hard endings to each technique. With softness, the end of each technique becomes the beginning of the next.
I have found similar results in my sparring, along with fewer bruises. I feel that one goal of martial arts, regardless of which art you practice, should be to use your attacker’s force against him. If you meet force with force or power with equal power, the laws of physics manifest and you have an impact with the force or energy equivalent to both opposing forces. Softness allows you to redirect energy to where you may want it to be. If you give no hard power to your opponent, he has nothing from which to fight you. There is no fight if there is no one to fight with. So, with softness, I am learning to blend and redirect, not necessarily stop or end and attack.
In the words of Lao Tsu:
Yield and Overcome;Bend and be straight.
And
He who stands of tiptoe is not steady.He who strides cannot maintain the pace.
As a woman in the martial arts, this lesson is most meaningful to me psychologically. Since I lack the raw physical strength of the gender most likely to attack me, I must find another method with which to defend myself. I can be soft. I can also use my mind, the muscle Tai Chi exercises most exhaustively.
Instead of meeting force with force and using muscle, a fight I am simply not equipped to win, a small amount of yielding grants success. Being flexible allows for a straighter path. Resistance and force does not always succeed. Since my gender does not possess the greater physical strength in this world, seeing and learning a path that strengthens my softness is necessary for my success on a physical and personal level.
The strength found through relaxation and breath has done nothing but make my hard form more solid, stronger and given it a greater sense of control.
The improved breathing I have learned along with relaxation, strength and balance, all have helped me discover a path more quickly in my Tae Kwon Do that is both strong and soft at the same time. The equation of strength coupled with softness equals a different kind of power.
My hope is to continue my education in the martial arts knowing I have but only scratched the surface. As with any art, it is a way of life.
Abbreviated Bibliography
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Philosophy/Taichi/styles.htmlSun, Wei Yue; New Style tai Chi Ch’uan : the official Chinese system./ Wei yue Sun, Xiao Jing Li. 1999.
Tsunetomo, Yamamoto. Hagakure. 1979 and 2002. Translation by William Scott Wilson. Kodansha International Ltd.
