A while back Dave at Formosa Neijia posted an article about some folks that were trying to integrate aikido and taiji into a sort of fusion state so that they can explore the principles that the systems seem to have in common. I wasn't overly impressed with the video Dave posted of a guy appearing to do some aiki-like motions in a taiji-like way - as if doing your aiki slowly makes it taiji. Following is what appears to (uneducated) me to be a better integration. Basically a fusion of aikido kokyudosa and taiji push-hands. What do y'all CIMA guys think?
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7 comments (leave me a comment):
I believe Peter Ralston made a fusion of Aikido, Taijiquan, and Baguazhang, 20 or 30 years ago.
That would be his Cheng Hsin art.
nice clip!
i studied aikido prior to moving to liuhebafa (which has push hands) and i immediately equated it in my mind kokyudosa to the less complex push hands fixed step patterns.
it seems to me though that the seated practice serves to level the playing field by nullifying height and weight advantages. after all we're all of the same approximate height when seated, and it's difficult to employ inertia from that position.
uprooting doesn't seem like it'll come into play in kokyudosa, but you can definitely try to practice some spontaneous chin na!
I think old Jack has dumbed down two arts by synthesizing. But I'm biased...I have firm designs in combat push-hands and I think Aikido, though its principles are similar, owns a very different architecture.
Yup, looks like what we are moving to also.
Rick is correct, -Pat- Ralston's Cheng Hsin is the combo we are looking for, Dave and I have got his Fight/Play video, I really wish you could get a hold of a copy and look at it from an Aikido perspective. It might provide some innovative ideas. Ralston's books are a tough slog, but the video I mentioned is pure gold.
D.R.
I find Ralston's prose to be inpenetrable.
I have a friend who studies under one of Ralston's old students.
It's an interesting clip and I'm sure that the practice is valuable for them.
The problem with push hands is that it isn't this ONE THING but almost an entire system unto itself. There are many various stages of training and those stages will look and feel different depending where on the spectrum they fall.
Looking at this practice, it's obviously a more martial practice for joint locking. This is a great practice and vital to one's development.
But I wouldn't want people to look at this clip or some other clip and think that's all that push hands is. However, this wold be a natural place for aikido people to start with push hands, I think.
What I would like to see is a moving push hands practice that uses aikido's projections.
I can't remember where it was, but on someone's blog there was a URL to a Chinese taijiquan school where if I recall rightly, they just did zhan zhuang and push hands; not the form.
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