I have mentioned my first martial arts experience several times in the past, but in the interest of this week’s blog, it bears repeating. I’ll be brief: I visited a kung fu school in Cincinnati in 1982 and the head teacher (sifu) demonstrated a tai chi move that knocked me back several feet and slammed me into a wall. There you go, short and sweet.
Most people think of tai chi as a means to better health; gentle, flowing movements, the calm and grace of the practitioner. There have been multiple studies about the effectiveness of tai chi in lowering blood pressure and anxiety as well as improving balance and general fitness. All those old people in the park must know something we don’t. But I think most people probably don’t realize that in its true form, tai chi is a combat art and was the forefather of all Eastern martial arts…or so the legend goes.
Now, I am an “old school” karate guy. We punch hard and kick hard; we hit hard things so that we can punch harder and kick harder. We harden our bodies with hard exercises and hard drills. Tough and immovable, that’s what we strive to be. Well, depending on the style you practice, anyway. Some of us like to prove how hardened and focused we are by breaking stacks of wood, ice or bricks. We mold our arms and legs to be like sledge hammers so that it only takes one hit to overcome someone….or so the legend goes. But this “hold your breath and force it” attitude is not always applicable, is it? Sooner or later, we run out of steam and things to hit. In fact, there are many times when just stepping off to the side and letting something pass is the best thing to do.
One of the things I really appreciated about kung fu was the wide range of skills and abilities. I studied Tiensun Wushu (apologies if I misspelled that) kung fu and along with high kicks, gymnastics and weapons, there was an entirely separate aspect of the curriculum: tai chi chaun. Everything else we did was physically and mentally challenging. The athletic forms stretched my mental and physical abilities; there was painful body hardening, sparring, even some throws…hard stuff. Yang. But sifu was adamant about all of us learning tai chi. Soft stuff. Yin. Like so many things in my youth, I did not appreciate it at the time. I thought the soft, delicate movements were kind of silly. You never saw Bruce Lee doing tai chi in his movies. At least, not that you could see, anyway.
When I left the kung fu school and joined the military, I was introduced to and studied very hard martial arts: karate, taekwondo, jujutsu. I know jujutsu is considered a “soft art” but this was not BJJ; it was a street fighting art with harsh throws, joint dislocations and breaks. There as nothing soft about it. A lot of “yang” to go around. And this type of training will ultimately have an impact on your mentality. Of course, you develop a certain amount of stoicism and a “push through” attitude. But you also tend (at least I did) to look down on people who don’t share your same mindset. You may even consider them weak and ineffective. Now, some times that true, but it has more to do with their lifestyle outside of the dojo rather than the arts they practice.
As I have mentioned in the past, aikido changed all of that for me. Similar to, but far more physical than tai chi, aikido filled a void in my training and in my attitude. The concept is simple: blend rather than clash with an opponent. Step to the side and yield, allowing an attack to go past you. You don’t have to meet force with force. There are times when getting out of the way is better than building a wall. Interestingly, one of the first things you learn in aikido is tai sabaki which literally means “body change.” It is a movement exercise where you end up facing the same direction as your opponent, standing side-by-side. Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if we all could practice a little tai sabaki these days? Maybe try to see everyone else’s point of view and not just our own? Ah, forget it; that would be too hard.
As many of you know, I’m about to have some much needed surgery in a couple of days. It seems that cartilage doesn’t always approve of hard training. One of the things I’m really looking forward to is being able to do aikido again. I mean, I can teach it, but I can’t participate for too long because after a while, my hip flaunts the middle finger at me. But there is a calm and presence of mind in aikido that I haven’t found in other arts. And aikido has definitely changed my approach to karate and fighting in general. It has also affected the way I approach people and situations.
If you are a member of our school, you will have the opportunity to train in both yang and yin, hard and soft arts. It’s really important for your development as a martial artist to understand both. I’d like to think it’s equally important for learning how to go through life.
Dave Magliano
Tatsu Dojo
Jissenkan Budo
Dojo Cho
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