Classical Tai Chi Martial Arts vs Non Classical.

Modern stylist changed taiji style so much that the original essence of the fighting art has now been lost in this style forever. Many masters and sifus, nowadays trying to cut corners and gets there the easy way. Their excuse "I do non-classical martial arts". Usually, it's an excuse for pure laziness and not wanting to do the hard work necessary to turn a martial art into a survival art. As we become more and more advanced in our survival skills, we tend to use less and less techniques. It's the classical martial arts such as tai chi martial arts that teach us the psychology of the fight. Most schools now don't teach the Old form. E.g. Yang Cheng Fu changed the old form slightly, taking out the more explosive moves and some of the more strenuous jumps and kicks. This enabled everyone to practice tai chi, including older more frail students. Even though he changed some of these moves, he did it in a way as to not disturb the energy flow and original intent of the form enabling everyone to get the great health benefits of tai chi. After he invented the Yang Cheng fu form he said...
"to change the form any further, would be to ruin what Yang Lu Chan had taken so long to create".
Nowadays call tai chi martial arts a danceThe so called 'non-classical' stylists who have never done a classical style, always say the same things like not wishing to waste time in doing so many movements that seem to have no meaning. They also say that rather than do kata, why not do the actual techniques from the forms with a partner. Here, the non-classical person has lost the whole idea of kata and stems from he or her simply not knowing the real meaning of kata. We don't do it to learn techniques! We do it to learn internal body/mind movement. It has nothing to do with learning techniques. If your internal mind does not have it then you do not have it, and we do not learn 'internal work' from doing attack/defence situations with a partner. The survival skills come much later when we learn all about 'the no mind state, eagle vision, reptile brain, and fa-jing'. Here, we make use of our own natural movements, different in every body/mind. For instance, someone's most natural movement to a simple attack from the front may be to throw up his or her hands in front of the face. So here we turn this movement into a more devastating fa-jing/dim-mak strike, and eventually, this movement, which was always this person's most natural movement, becomes the sub-conscious movement to any type of frontal attack by hand.
If you don't have the basics, then you've got nothing! And the classic forms from tai chi martial arts and katas are your basics, they teach you how to move. It's not the fact that we learn really low stances and exaggerated movements so that we can then use them to fight. It's far from that; we do these katas which involve much discipline, so that we are able not to use them when some real trouble is coming our way. If you see a classical martial artist in a serious scrap, who simply knocks someone's head off and leaves, then this is a martial artist who has done the basics. However, if you see a martial artist who goes into some sort of stance and on guard position, low stances etc, and who gets his head knocked off, then this is the classical martial artist who has never taken his basics beyond basics.
As we become more and more advanced in our survival skills, we tend to use less and less techniques, rather preferring to stick with the tried and proven one or two in order to survive. But it's the years of classical work that gives us this ability. In a real situation, and I don't mean the odd drunk at a pub, a half of an inch step, balanced, here or there can mean the difference in life or death.
So, doing the katas or forms day in, day out, does not teach us how to fight using those forms from tai chi martial arts or katas, but rather, it teaches us how to survive, using much simpler techniques while always keeping the upper position of hands and feet, balance wise.
On the other hand you'll get people who go to a few or many lessons at their local Karate or kung fu club and then brag that they know the martial arts. This is the other side of the coin, these people, some who have been studying for 30 years even, do not know the martial arts, because they have not learned to take their martial art into a survival realm. A martial artist will always make a better street fighter, provided he has taken his art to a higher level of survival and is aware that all the forms and katas in the world, only, will not cause him to be able to fight. He has to learn how to fight, as well as learning his martial art.
On the other hand, someone who has only learnt from a few books or who has taken a few lessons from a number of different teachers and watched a few Bruce Lee movies will also never learn about survival.
It's the classical martial arts such as tai chi martial arts that teach us the psychology of the fight. The difference between winning and losing is 50% mind and 50% body. If you do not have complete control over your own body and mind then you have not got it. And you can't get this control watching a few Van Dam movies or learning a few high kicks and fast punches. You have to do the work pertinent to the survival skills you are trying to hone.
Look at what happens in a fight or an attack. If you could slow down the action, you would see footwork and handwork. If you take a look at any good kata or form, you will see this exact foot and handwork, only exaggerated and slowed down. This is to teach the mind how to tell the body how to move. When you are into a real fighting situation, this will naturally speed up and you will naturally use those same postures, footwork and handwork that you so painstakingly worked upon for the best part of ten or twenty years. You don't think about it of course, it's all there. Just like learning to shoot a bow, at first you are all hands, but slowly, the bow becomes a part of you and your body and mind merge as a whole unit, and you finally are able to hit the target many feet away sub-consciously. It's the same with the katas and forms; we do not learn them to learn technique, but rather sub-conscious mind and body movement.
One does not have to practice the forms and katas for evermore, only until those movements have become subconscious do you have to practice your katas. In this way, when you are involved in a fight, does your art become so called non-classical? I am one of the most non-classical martial artists or survival artists ever when it comes to fighting. But my whole background is in the classical tai chi martial arts, it is the arduous, hours of practice in my early years that holds me in good stead nowadays when I perhaps do not have time to practice three of four forms every day. 

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