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Feedback and Testimonials for
2005 Taiji Legacy Tournament
An Unofficial Guide by Master Gohring
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This unofficial guide to the Taiji Legacy was created for
Tai Chi, Kung Fu and Kids Martial Arts students of Master Gohring in Austin, Texas.
Ms. Peter's Pics • Opening Ceremony Video Clips • Ms. Pat Brigg's Pics • Mr. Rosenberg's Pics
Feedback/Testimonials • General Competitions • Tai Chi Yang Style Competition • Push-hands Competition
Master Gohring,
This was my first experience with the Taiji Legacy and I found it to be very interesting and motivating. As I watched other students from our school, I was very proud of the way they handled themselves and was glad to be a part of this organization. I hope to be in a position next year to be able to compete myself.
Thank you for recommending a great way to spend the day!
L. Welden
Master Gohring:
Here are my notes and significant memories regarding this year’s Taiji Legacy.
I have both good and critical things to say, but in general I feel that it was worth the trip, and that it was overall a good and useful experience. I will go again next year.
Let’s start with the bits I didn’t like.
Before the competition even begins there is the registration process, and in that process there is the selection of your level – beginner, intermediate, advanced. There are guidelines for this, such as if you have more than 4 years experience, you choose “advanced”. Fair enough. So many of our students choose advanced levels, and many others intermediate, though we may or may not actually fit those categories.
Christophe had one observation and that the “years” should apply to years of experience at tournaments, and not class time. It is like when you are asked how many years of job experience you have – you don’t include school time, just the actual time on the job.
From a different direction, I saw at least one competitor (and heard of others) who registered at a level far below their skill. One man was clearly intermediate if not advanced – he was very good – but he registered in a dozen events as a beginner and swept up a lot of gold.
I know we have no immediate power over the Legacy competition, but I would think that a LOT of these problems would go away if there was a history associated with each person who goes. Like in other fields of competition, competitors get ratings based on how they perform over time. As they get better, they bubble up to higher levels – all based on the history of their competition.
If the Legacy or, even better, a larger organization kept track of the statistics associated with each competitor, it would be clear and obvious who should compete at beginner, intermediate, and advanced. It would be based on past performance.
I feel that leaving the levels open to interpretation and abuse reduces the value of the competition.
For the competition itself, I liked watching the competitors. It was very interesting to see how even just the Yang form has so many interpretations.
I personally competed in three events, and had different experiences in each one.
For the bare-hand form, I still feel stiff and awkward when doing demos or performing, and this reflects in my form. While I can feel graceful and adept in class or at home, that seems to evaporate like the morning dew in competition. So I felt satisfied to get an 8.03 in form and pleased to have gotten a silver medal, placing 2nd of about 4 or 5 competitors.
For saber, I felt that I did a good job of my form, but I did it “aggressively” and not quietly, which probably affected my score. In that case I also got an 8.03 which, watching the other competitors in my division, I felt was low. So I wasn’t happy with the score there and not terribly pleased to get the bronze, third out of five.
Finally came the push hands. I did fairly well there for the one round that I performed and lost at. But I don’t begrudge the losing, since I didn’t know what to expect and this lack of knowledge is what lost it for me.
My competitor was not using good form in his pushing, but had a busy – flappy – reaching hands flair about him. But I got good pushes in anyway, and gracefully and not-so gracefully took pushes from him. As I played with him I tried different things, to see how they would work in the match and within the rules. Three things stick out in my memory.
The first is the stepping rule. You are right! Don’t step if you aren’t very used to it. I don’t lose my balance stepping, but any step backwards is more than likely to be taken as a “push” and called against you. So, if we are to step, I recommend stepping only forwards.
Backwards steps, if the opponent’s hands are on you, look like pushes.
The second thing was the way I perform the lift hands that Shirfu Clark taught us is considered to be a joint lock. If the opponents hand is on your chest or you are holding or trapping it in any way, and we lift under their armpit, it is called against you. The only way this action would appear to work would be to clear the opponent’s hand from your chest or body, let go of it entirely, and then lift them off their feet. If not for this, I may well have one my match.
Finally, and on a more positive note, our ability to move forward and back, and to work in a medium stance, is good for us. My competitor congratulated us all on our excellent form and on our stances. Many of the intermediate competitors just stood in a forward stance and pushed (the advanced competitors appeared to have much better form).
One competitor in particular was using an extremely low stance and seemed unable to even shift backwards when he needed to, such as during the starting three circles. It was very odd.
I took four seminars, three of which had practical aspects.
The first one was by Master Chun Man Sit (if I remember correctly his name) and involved some interesting lessons and exercises in using bing (pong) energy in push hands. In this we started to learn about interacting without intention but instead letting the actions of your opponent to drive and direct your own actions. They can not read a plan when there is no plan in place but only reaction.
The second seminar was by Master Elaine Waters. She talked about sinking into the feet, “dropping” your weight onto them. One aspect of this that was hard for me was relaxing my hips/waist – I need to focus on that, since I’m still stiff there and try to control it too much.
Once we were dropped, she talked to us about placing our weight over the bubbling wellspring (which she described as being the ball of the foot, but I understand that it is slightly behind there) and folding at the hips in reaction to pushes to keep your weight stable. As part of this, there is a spring in the legs, as if you have just taken a step and are about to take another; a readiness in the legs.
Then we practiced “kneeding” – where someone pushes forwards on your hips and shoulders, one point at a time in succession and fairly rapidly, with the receiver folding and adjusting to keep their balance.
And she also talked about not pushing, but feeling the weight of the opponent’s push in your feet and simply pressing back. There is no pushing or lifting, but only pressure applied through the feet, and the actions follow naturally from this.
The third seminar was about one teacher’s PhD research (Yang Yang?) on the physical effects of Taiji on the elderly.
The fourth and final was Master Clark’s seminar on push hands, which was very similar to what we learned in our school when he visited.
So, overall I found the competition to be more frustrating than uplifting, though I loved meeting people and interacting with other students and teachers. And I found the seminars to be excellent and I loved meeting the teachers and students there as well.
Regards,
E. Wise
Master Gohring:
I had a great time this past weekend although I think the cold in the auditorium about killed me..... Diane received a very high complement from her head judge an some advice . most excellent for us brown/blacks I accidentally had breakfast on Sunday with Sifu Hwang I am very proud of myself . I did not smack his student for interuptting him as he spoke or took controll and dominated what had been a very pleasant, quiet conversation .. .and the student was at least as old as I... I know now what it is that I have been looking for in the yellow sash class and you have tried on several occassions to get across to us the "nuances " of the circular energies and the "fah jing" in the form" oh yes something to chew on ... The wooshu dominated many of the competitions as well as having their own seperate catagory but! when the champs competed one 8 Yrs and under, one
9-12 yrs old and one 13+, it was the 10 year old who wone hands down with the excellent strength and precision of his form . The lowness and strength in his stances and the dynamic tension was awsome. . I would love to do a very long stretch on form work.. epecially with my being restricted with my hand. Funny thing .. When i describe my injury as not being one of force but of Chi colliding some people do understand .If edwin werent so flexible he wouldnt have folded his center over my hand ha ha ha Oh yes you are not suppose to be able to see the bottom of your cup through your coffee, the tea would have been stronger
J. Gonzales
Master Gohring:
I have been practicing martial arts for the last 9 years. Taiji Legacy was my first tournament I ever participated in. I have to say it sure was an experience. I enjoyed competing with different schools from all over the country. My favorite was the push-hands competition. I loved watching the Masters demonstrating their skill. It gave me the drive to go even further down the martial path. I suspect suggest anybody in Tai Chi should partcipate in Taiji Legacy at least once on their journey on the martial arts path.
G. Van Der Wall
Master Gohring:
Just a short note to let you know how much I enjoyed the Taiji Legacy. This was my first year to attend and I really had a great time. The lion dancing, drumming, master demos and form competition were all great. I really enjoyed walking around and watching the different styles. I had never heard of "water boxing" before the tournament and really enjoyed the demonstration. Judging from all the smiles, I think everyone was having a great time. Looking forward to next year!
-D. Mulvey
Taiji Legacy International Martial Arts Tournament • Unofficial Guide • Master Gohring • Austin, Texas USA
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