NEEDLE AT SEA BOTTOM

In the new Yang style this is used to break a hold downward with a
jerking thrust. If the opponent is able to hold onto your wrist and
pulls backward you should go with the force and turn your right
wrist, grabbing his right wrist and poke him under his right arm into
his acupuncture points. This is the use of the posture
Chapter One: : Page 28
73 74 75 76
77 78 79 80
FAN THROUGH BACK. Photo No. 75.
For Needle At Sea Bottom see Photo No. 94
MOVING HANDS LIKE WILLOW TREE
This posture comes from the ‘Old Yang Style’ and defends against a
left punch towards your head or chest. You should block with the
‘yang’ side of your right forearm. Photo No. 76. Then you attack
with back-fist to the head, photo No. 77. You then block a kick
downward with both forearms. Photo No. 78. Followed by an attack
to his face or neck with both palms. Photo No. 79.
SNAKE COILS AROUND
This posture also comes from the ‘Old Yang Style’.
Block a left punch with both palms, Photo No. 80. Grab the wrist
and use a locking technique to pull him downward, twisting his wrist
in the direction that it does not want to go, Photo No. 81. Now use
‘Chee’ to throw him away, Photo No. 82.

STEP BACK AND REPULSE
MONKEY
In the new Yang Style this posture is used block an on-coming lower
attack and re-attack to the face or chest using pounding palm. Note
that the power for this posture comes from the front leg as it pushes
you backward. Photo No. 70.
TRIPPING REPULSE MONKEY
In the Old Yang Style we have the postures of ‘Step Back And Repulse
Monkey’, which appears in the last third of the form, which is
the same posture with the same name that appears in the New Yang
Style. However, in the second third of the Old Yang Style we have
‘Tripping Repulse Monkey’ which is different than the more commonly
known one.
An attack comes from behind so you turn to block and grab the arm.
Photo No. 71. You now place your left (or right as the case may be)
foot onto the groin or to the knee of the attacker and throw him forward
using the leverage of his arm and your foot in his groin. Photo
No. 72.
How To Use Tai Chi For Fighting: Page 27
69 70 71 72
PART HORSE’S MANE
You block an attack to your right side using double block, Photo
No. 73. You then step in to behind his left foot and attack his axilla
acupuncture points with your thumb or reverse knife-edge palm.
Photo No. 74.

FIST UNDER ELBOW

From the Classics we read: “This posture protects the middle joint.”
This is self-explanatory; the use of this posture is as follows.
You should hammer down onto the forearm ‘of the attacker with
your right fist as he attacks with left fist. Then you should attack his
face or throat with your left palm. Photo No. 66.
The ‘Old Yang Style* has a slightly different application for this
posture. As a left face attack is being felt, you should block it with
your right forearm. Photo No. 67. Next and almost simultaneously
you flick the arm over to your other hand, which takes over the
Chapter One: : Page 26
65 66 67 68
block. Photo No. 68. Now you use uppercut to his face. Photo No.
69. This is also performed on the other side and takes about 1/4 of a
second to perform both punches.

BEGINNING OF 2ND THIRD

EMBRACE TIGER RETURN TO MOUNTAIN
This posture is the same in application as ‘brush knee twist step’.
The difference is that it is performed onto the closed side of the opponent,
i.e.; he attacks from the rear with right fist to your kidney
area. You turn and block with your right arm (or left as the case may
dictate) Photo No. 65 and attack with palm to his right soft flank.
From the classics we are also given another clue as to the use of this
posture, “Embrace Tiger Return To Mountain embodies ‘pull down
and split”. This tells us that pull down can also be done from the
blocking posture with your right palm grabbing his right wrist and
your left palm grabbing his right elbow. Split means to use the elbow
as a lever and throw him away using that leverage. The Old Yang
Style has an entirely different meaning for this posture in that the
lower palm is facing upward (as if carrying a tiger) and both palms
are used as dangerous point strikes.

APPARENT CLOSE UP
If someone tries to attack with choke, you should open both palms
underneath his palms. Photo No. 58. Then circle his arms around
and push him away. Photo No. 59.
QUICKLY PUNCHING FIST
This posture comes from the Old Yang Style and uses very quick
snapping punches and blocks. As you are attacked with left fist (or
right), you block very quickly with your right palm in a circular
fashion. Photo No. 60. Now you use snap punch to the lower rib
area, snapping your fist as it contacts. Photo No. 61. I will be covering
the various ways of punching and kicking later.
Chapter One: : Page 24
55 56 57 58
59 60 61 62
BACKWARDS LOCKING PALM
This posture also comes from the old Yang
Style and is used against a right or left low
body punch. As the punch is being felt, the
right palm (or left) blocks to your left in a
small circle. Photo No. 62. Now your right
palm hooks and traps the arm by making a
counter clockwise circle. Photo No. 63. This
can evolve into an arm lock or throw. Photo
No. 64.
This is the end of the first 3rd of the form.
How To Use Tai Chi For Fighting: Page 25
63 64

PLAY THE GUITAR
This has a different action to the lift hands posture although the final
positions look the same. As your opponent attacks you with right fist
to your head you should block it with your left palm across to your
right and a split second later your right palm comes up underneath
your left palm to cause the attacking arm to slide. You will also kick
to the knee area with your heel. Your right palm can also punch to
the face. Photo No. 52. This is one of the best fighting techniques offered
by t’ai chi. It is simple and takes a split second to execute. It is
a major part of the advanced ‘Long Har Ch’uan’ that I will be covering
later.
STEP FORWARD. PARRY AND PUNCH
You are being attacked with right fist to your middle area. You
should circle your right fist up to your left side and slam it down onto
the attacking forearm as you attack to the chest or face with your left
palm. Photo No. 53. The attacking fist will probably make use of the
downward force caused by your right back fist and come back up in
a circle to attack to your left face. You will block with your left palm
and punch to the heart as you step in. Photo No. 54. A very effective
block and simultaneous attack comes from this last punch. As you
are being attacked with a left or right straight punch, you block with
your left palm in the case of a right attack and immediately punch to
the abdomen with your right fist. PhotoNo. 55.
PULL AWAY AND PUSH
If your opponent grabs your right fist after the last attack you should
take your left palm under your right forearm. You then pull your
right palm back and sit back, this breaks the hold. (There are of
How To Use Tai Chi For Fighting: Page 23
51 52 53 54
course easier ways to do this,) Photo No. 56. You then use push to
the opponent’s side. Photo No. 57.

P’eng is one of the main techniques in t’ai chi and it’s uses are
many. I will cover many of the p’eng techniques in the advanced
section. It’s usual use is that of defense but a more unknown use is
that of attack. For p’eng see PHOTO No. 12. If we take up from the
last block to the right, we are able to very quickly grab the left wrist
with the right palm, quickly step up with your left foot and attack the
‘mind point’ (in acupuncture, the jaw) with back fist. Photo No. 13.
DOUBLE P’ENG
If your attacker now attacks with right low upper punch to your left
rib area, you quickly step back and swivel to your left with the
weight on your right foot as you block using the same low block as
in photo 11.

BLOCK LOW TO THE RIGHT (holding the ball)

This posture is sometimes done in the slow form with the lower
arm in the palm up position; this is only done to allow beginners
to understand where to place their hands. The correct posture is
done with the lower arm in a palm down position. Photo No. 9. In
this posture the harder area of the forearm is used to block the attack
and so not damage the soft area of the arm. There are times however
when the hold the ball posture is used.
You are being attacked with a left low upper punch to your right rib
area, (one of the most potent areas to attack). You bring the left arm
across to your right as you swivel slightly to the right in order to
keep your palms in your center. Your weight is placed on the left leg
to receive the power. You block the attacker’s arm from underneath,
keeping your right palm on top of your left to stop his hand from
slipping upward and re-attacking. Photo No. 10. You must keep
your left fingers relaxed to prevent damage. This technique can be
practiced on both sides one after the other as you swivel on your
heels to meet the attack and it can become quite fast. Photo No. 11.
This sort of blocking technique can be used to block all kinds of
middle area kicks followed up by an immediate attack, (covered in
the advanced section.) P’ENG

THE POSTURES:

PREPARATION
You are being attacked by either left or right lunge punch to the
head. Raise your both arms as in the opening posture of the slow t’ai
chi form and block the on-coming arm on either side as you step
slightly to one side and forward. See Photo No. 6.Mow take another
step to behind the attacker and using a squeezing motion from the elbows,
pull down onto the shoulder area, (Gall bladder and large intestine
meridians) to bring him down backwards. See Photo No. 7.
The pull down motion should be a quick Jerking motion and not so
much a pull backwards. Breathe out and expand the lower abdomen
as you attack, as you should with all of the attacking motions. ARM
(push) TO THE LEFT
I have already covered 3 of the uses of this posture earlier, there is
another. The attacker strikes at your face with a left fist. You
block with your right palm as your left palm comes up underneath.
Photo No. 8. Next, you attack his face with an open left
palm. This is in the case of an attack from the side area.

How To Use Tai Chi For Fighting

and precisely at first with the
main intention on direction and
timing. It’s all very well to be
able to perform a technique at
great speed in the classroom but
in a real situation if the power
with timing is not there, then the
fight is lost. I cannot tell you exactly
where to place your limbs
in order to derive the greatest
amount of power with speed; I
can only give you a guideline, as
everyone is different.
By doing it slowly we are able to find out exactly how to perform
the techniques in order to use the least amount of energy for the
greatest possible work. At first, break the blocking movement
away from the attacking movement in order to learn it correctly.
Then as you progress, the block and attack will become as one
where-by the block also becomes your attack. Remember that
some of these postures are very classical and need to be taken for
what they’re worth, i.e.: For the sake of knowing the real meaning
and for the health benefits derived from the mind sending ch’i
or energy into that area to do work. Some of these techniques are
quite good as they are. Some of them will require that you only
use a portion of the whole. Just practice them with a partner and
chose the ones that suit you the most. It is important to note that
although a certain technique may work against your friend in a
friendly situation, it must be tested in as realistic a way as possible.

Most of the postures

hold this aspect where what we see is no real
indication of what we get. Therefore, it can also be said that the t’ai
chi form is an abstract way of learning something real. We train the
body to perform certain abstract postures so that the sub-conscious
mind is able to learn them as fighting postures. If one were to learn
the real use of the postures and how they were used, then it would
take forever to learn them properly because we are thinking about
the martial aspects. If we learn certain abstract movements that only
the sub-conscious is able to work out, then we have learnt the use of
the postures without even learning them. Then when one is well
versed in the slow movements, all that has to be done is to trans- late
the abstract movement into a real form which doesn’t take too long.
Learning the slow form in this abstract way also has another meaning.
We cause certain internal movements of energy to happen,
there-by making our body and mind strong and more in harmony.

If we look at the real meaning of this posture then it’s a different
story. Photos Nos. 3, 4 & 4A, 5 & 5A & 5B show that this posture
really has a martial meaning. No. 3 is a block to a left round punch
and simultaneous attack to the jaw with a right palm. Nos. 4 & 4A.
show a ‘p’eng’ block being used to stop a right fist followed by an
elbow break. Nos. 5, 5A & 5B show a right (or left as the case may
Chapter One:
be) attack being blocked by left p’eng then the rt. palm almost immediately
takes over the block while the left attacks to the face.

The form or kata of t’ai chi is the first real physical method that
we learn. Once one is well versed in ch’i-kung, (see “POWER T’AI
CHI CH’UAN BOOK ONE” by Erle Montaigue) the form is the
foundation of one’s training. This form is made up of many different
postures all held together by linking movements to make one long
flowing movement which is likened to a great flowing river.
It has been said of t’ai chi, that unlike some of the ‘harder styles’
where what you see is what you get, in t’ai chi we only see 10% of
what is really going down. If we take for instance the posture called
‘push left’ from the Old and New Yang styles, we see a posture that
really doesn’t say much.

Oh yes,

that’s what is meant by that part of the classics
etc.” Don’t try to make the classics give you the technique; allow
the technique to give you the classics. “Stick to and not letting go” is a
famous classical saying from t’ai chi but if we try to do what it says then
it becomes a bit silly, we must use a training method to gain this way of
doing things so that it is totally natural and mindless. We don’t know
that we’re doing it. The training methods that give us the classics are all
of your t’ai chi training methods of form, push-hands, da-lu, san-sau
and in particular, ‘Long Har Ch’uan.’
When one starts his/her t’ai chi training there is no need to read the classics
because it will be too advanced. All the beginner should be con-
Introduction: Page 10
cerned with is teaming the movements in a mindful way with every
posture in its correct position. As the student advances in his/her training,
certain lessons are learnt. These lessons aren’t physical things like
where to put your feet and hands etc, but internal less-ons that just come
from doing it the right way. These internal lessons become a part of
one’s own body and mind and no words will be able to express what
these lessons are as everyone experiences something different. If one
practice in this way and doesn’t try to theorize too much or become a
cosmic person, then all of the great benefits to be gained from t’ai chi
will be yours.

THE CLASSICS

The Classics of t’ai chi are a bunch of old sayings from the various masters
who tried to put their advanced experience into words. I don’t think
that ‘it works too well to put experience into words but as far as t’ai chi
or pa kua is concerned it’s all we have to fall back onto.
These classics are on paper in black and white, they are physical, conscious
‘things’. If we read them and then try to do what they say we get
into trouble because we must think about it. The classics came out of
something that the old masters discovered for themselves,
sub-consciously. I don’t say that you shouldn’t read the classics because
they are all that we have to go on and give us some sort of goal to reach
for. What we should be trying to do is to experience what the masters
experienced then we can be assured that the art is truly ours and not
someone else’s idea that only they are able to appreciate. Don’t take the
classics too literally, allow your training methods to give you the classics
without having to think about them, then as you discover a certain
way you will think, “

I once wrote an article titled,

“I’d rather fight a
trained martial artist than a street wise fighter” and this is quite true, the
street fighter doesn’t know that you are amartial artist and so he will not
be at all wary of your ability. He will come at you with such force and
determination that you will wonder what has hit you. And he will come
at you from any direction at any time with anything that he can use as a
weapon. So many times have I heard “But I’m a black belt! And I went
to pieces.” I think that one should have some sort of street experience
before a black belt is given. The street fighter doesn’t have any fighting
stance or wait and choose his moment; he just attacks and attacks, if
your method of fighting is not truly sub-conscious then you will lose the
fight. This of course depends on how street wise your attacker is, it
could be that he is just a relatively harmless drunk and in which case
would be relatively easy to take care of gently! But don’t allow that sort
of a win to give you great confidence, go and kick over a row of Hells
Angels bikes and then see how you go. Your technique must be ‘no
technique and totally dependant upon what your attacker does to you. If
it’s right to spit in his eye then do it, if it’s right to use a perfect kick to
his knee then do it but let it just happen. Only then will the t’ai chi principle
from the classics of ‘stick to and not letting go’ be adhered to.

This preference

is quite important as everyone
has a particular way of doing
things and this way comes easier to that
person than any other technique and so
we try to arrange our training techniques
around that particular method. In this way the student is able to
utilize his/her own natural body method as amartial art. This is what the
training method of Long Har Ch’uan is all about, it teaches us to use
what we have naturally rather than trying to change us and place
un-natural movements onto our bodies. So, it can be seen that any one
person will only ever use a certain ‘way’ of attack and defense while
only ever using three or at the most four fighting techniques and derivations
of these. It’s much better to train in only a few techniques than
many. This also gets back to why one is practicing martial arts. Do you
do it for good sport within the school or to defend yourself?
In a classroom and training with your friends, you tend to gain a false
sense of security in that we know that no one is really going to hurt us in
our sparring matches and so we use many techniques Just for the sake of
using them. In one’s first real encounter there usually comes a big shock
to the martial artist. People in the street just don’t fight as they do in the
dojo or dawgwan.

LONG HAR CH’UAN

Long Har Ch’uan means ‘Dragon Prawn Boxing’. The reason for this is
that we use the two arms as ‘feelers’ with the body slightly concave. The
theory is that if someone strikes with a fist, you go in at the waist, which
causes the attacker to have to reach further to strike, where-as, you are
able to re-attack at a closer range. See Photo number 1.
Long Har Ch’uan is only a training
method, which is used in order to gain a
certain way of doing things. In kung fu
we try not to place the same sort of limitations
on ourselves that some of the external
styles do by sticking rigidly to
what the forms or katas dictate. We use
the forms only as guides to teach us
something and then translate what they
have taught us into our own particular
body types or ‘preference.’

In a real fighting

situation we have no time to think about what technique
that we will use and so we must have a means of obtaining a subconscious
reaction while still using perfect technique. Usually, if the
form postures have become sub-conscious one will only use a small part
of any particular posture in order to defend against a particular attack,
very rarely is the whole technique used, as there just isn’t enough time.
There are two ways that we are able to learn about ‘no technique’. The
first is to simply practice the postures so much that they arc forced to become
sub-conscious. Doing it this way takes quite a long time. If we use
the little known technique or training method of ‘Long Har Ch’uan
(Dragon Prawn Boxing) it enables us to team about sub-conscious reaction
in a relatively shorter time while still using all of the important basic
principles of t’ai chi. (See “General Principles Of T’ai Chi” by Erle
Montaigue). We must never skip over the basics of; Form, Push Hands,
Da-Lu and San-Sau in order to get there quicker as this will end in failure
to gain the highest level of boxing skills that t’ai chi has to offer.
Without the basics t’ai chi is just another external style of kung fu.

FORM:

ter some more time had passed and the pain was still there he decided to
have another x-ray taken and this time it showed that new bone was
growing where he had had an accident many year before and knocked
out some bone in his ankle. This, according to modern medicine is impossible.
Now, the foot is almost back to normal.
This sort of healing will not happen if we only practice t’ai chi for exercise.
We must know what we are doing in order for the mind to send ch’i
to all parts of the body via the acupuncture meridians.
If one imagines that the body is performing some sort of work then the
or internal energy will travel to that portion of the body where the work
is being done. However, if the body or any part along the path is greatly
tensed then the ch’i is blocked and only a small amount is able to pass.
By performing the stow movements of t’ai chi in the correct way, relaxed,
calm with no tension etc, and we imagine that we are performing
certain martial arts techniques the ch’i will be sent by the mind to the
part that is performing the technique. Because we aren’t really doing
any work as imagined, the ch’i is sort of fooled into moving into those
areas and there-by healing organs on the way. This is why we must
know the use of each posture in the stow form, not so much for it’s fighting
value but because of it’s healing value. The form also teaches us perfect
posture, a pre-requisite for gaining the maximum amount of power
for the least possible amount of work. It also teaches us to remain calm
in any situation, important for any fighting art.