Chapter Three: Sparring:
How To Use Tai Chi as a Fighting
Your palms must
keep circling
around your opponent’s
until you
are able to ‘gain
the upper hand.’
You may use arm
grabs, locks,
throws, kicks as already
covered in
the section on
kicking. You may
grab both of his
palms and bring
his chest down
onto your knee. In this case if you are the attackee, you must go with
the force and never against it. So, you would come in towards your
opponent barge in as you block the knee and attack with shoulder. In
this way you use the opponent’s force against him. You can use
pushes, in fact anything Just as long as you never lose contact. Keep
your arms relaxed. Keep your teeth closed! This is good sense in any
situation whether it is sparring in the school or in a real situation.
Keep cool and most importantly don’t become angry. YOU ARE
THERE TO HELP EACH OTHER, NOT TO COMPETE!
After some time you will be able to start moving around while still
keeping contact at the wrists. Now it becomes really tricky, you
must be aware of kicks to the legs, head and body attacks as well as
throws, locks and holds and higher kicks. And this is happening, as
you are busy looking after your own balance while moving. This is
one of the greatest kung-fu training methods for all martial artists.
THE FOLDING PRINCIPLE
This principle is solely based upon your changing from yin to yang.
If you walk to the top of a hill, then you have gone as far yang as possible.
If you stay there you will be unable to go anywhere unless you
come down again. In other words you must go yin before you are
able to do any more work. It’s the same with punching and indeed
the whole of your t’ai chi training. We must be forever changing in
order to re-attack after being blocked. If I punch someone and that
punch is successfully blocked and if I leave my
arm in a yang state i.e. in the attacking state, the arm is useless unless
I do something to change it’s state to yin. This is where the folding
principle comes in. When my punch is blocked I should totally relax
it and allow it to ‘fold up’ with the natural momentum of his block as
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