Star wars yoga

Oh boy do I have to make a sequence like this for tai chi :-)

Check out this excellent star wars yoga set!

Harvard tai chi book

Just spotted this via my fellow blogger cloud hands. Seems like an interesting book that might be worth a read for those with an East meets West interest. Seems to have a lot of positive reviews too...

The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi: 12 Weeks to a Healthy Body, Strong Heart, and Sharp Mind

The love of chi

In a previous post I discussed the analogy of chi and love. Following a conversation I had recently, I was reminded of this analogy and thought I would spend some time to elaborate on it, as I find it to be quite powerful.

The nature of what chi is, is a fundamental question that arises when anyone studies Chinese martial arts or more generally eastern mind-body practices. The standard stereotypical explanation (and hence the one that someone new to tai chi will implicitly understand) is that chi is a mystical energy. Tragically there are huge numbers of people who perpetuate the myth that chi is an "energy that science can't explain", or even in extreme cases that there is some “conspiracy to suppress the truth of it”. I suspect there are a far larger number of people who are sceptical of this position, and try as they might to believe with an open mind, can't shake their doubts.

The love analogy

I believe that by considering the analogy that chi is like love, it becomes obvious which questions are meaningless and enlightens us all, validating both the scientific and the spiritual viewpoints.
The approach is simple, replace all instances of the word chi with the word love and check yourself whether what you are saying or asking still makes sense. The point here is that "love" is a universally accepted concept. We all understand what it means to love somebody. We all understand what it means to love something. We all understand that each of our concepts of love can be individually different. Love is not controversial in the way chi is.

We all understand that there are a myriad of different types of love (for a group, for a person, for an ideal, for an object, for an action etc) and that there are hundreds of different ways we use the word love in different contexts to describe different meanings. We also all understand that love is not a physical quantity. You cannot hold a kilogram of love in your hand (or have 100 Calories of love, or 100 mph of love etc). You cannot measure it or point to it, you can only feel it inside yourself. It is something internal (a feeling and an emotion) that manifests itself by your actions and guides your behaviour. Nevertheless, it is a powerful force and we can cultivate love inside us, share it, transmit it, understand it, communicate it. Love does not "exist", but we make liberal use of it in our everyday lives. 

So now let me rewrite that paragraph replacing the concept of love with that of chi.

We need to understand that there are a myriad of different types of chi (how our body feels, how we can feel another's body, how we can use an object) and there are hundreds of different ways we can use the word chi in different contexts to describe different meanings. We also need to understand that chi is not a physical quantity. You cannot hold a kilogram of chi in your hand (or have 100 Calories of chi, or 100 mph of chi etc). You cannot measure it or point to it, you can only feel it inside yourself. It is something internal (a feeling and an emotion) that manifests itself by your actions and guides your behaviour. Nevertheless, it is a powerful force and we can cultivate chi inside us, share it, transmit it, understand it, communicate it. Chi does not "exist", but we can make liberal use of it in our everyday lives.

Communication not energy

 

Chi is a tool for communicating how our body feels. When we discuss things like the “flow of chi” and “sinking the chi” these are communication tools for describing how to unlock feelings within yourself, how to better control and align your body. The analogous way for love is that someone might go to a therapist or psychiatrist who could teach them how to release hatred and develop their ability to feel love and express love. The thearpist might talk in terms of love and feels, giving the patient techniques to enhance it or patterns to recognise. We are using chi and love as communication tools to explain internal feelings. Tools to transmit understand between people. We need to search for the feeling inside ourselves by "building our own telescopes".

So let us test some ideas that are commonly expressed as a result of the stereotypical energy view:

• Can I knock someone over using chi? Can you knock someone over using love? Only in a metaphorical sense, instead you use the feeling inside that you have cultivated (structure, using your weight etc) to guide your actions. Is it the chi energy force that knock them over - no.
• Can I transmit chi across the room? Can I transmit love across the room? Again only in a metaphorical sense. Someone with years of martial arts training who has “cultivated their chi”, can indeed elicit an effect on someone else across the room (fear for example), simply by their body language and bearing. In some sense therefore you can but it is not a transmission of chi energy force.

In summary then when we discuss chi we need to be clear that it is a language of communicating a feeling inside our bodies. It is a communication tool and so if we wish to change the language of the communication that is our choice and we lose none of the benefits. I can use the word "love" in English or “amour” in French, which although may have different nuances convey the essence of the idea. Similarly I can talk about tai chi in terms of Chinese Meridians and energy flow, or I can talk about structural alignment and biomechanics, different nuances but the same idea. Chi of course is the language which the traditional teachings are written in so makes sense to try and understand it (even if you internally translate it) to gain some of the wisdom.

The science and tai chi quest

There is a great deal of similarity between learning tai chi and learning science. Both science and tai chi are based on the principles of understanding building blocks that are common across multiple different applications and situations.

Science is based on searching for simple rules that govern how the world works. Simple rules like multiplication and mathematics at a low level, or things like conservation of energy or evolution that appear again and again in different situations. It doesn't matter whether you are talking about planets and galaxies or car engines, the principles are the same, and if you understand them, you can see the patterns.

Tai chi is the same. It is made up of a few fundamental movements and principles that are applied over and over again. Although when we first learn it seems complicated with all sorts of different movements, as we progress we see the same pattern is emerging again and again. We see that movement X is just like movement Y. Movement Y is an exact repeat of movement Z, only now my arms are slightly further apart. We are hunting continuously for the grand unified theory of tai chi. This is why Masters of tai chi who have been studying the decades, emphasise the basics: standing and foundation exercises. They do not worry about exotic forms because they know that if you get the fundamentals and basics correct, you understand the core principles, and then everything else is trivial.

So it is the same with science. People do not try to understand every single car or every single planet. Scientists realise that they are all governed by simple rules and interactions. Every time one things happens another things happen, it doesn't matter whether it is a bus or a formula 1 car, the principle is the same once you understand how the system works.

Both science and tai chi are also searching for the most simple explanation. The joy is being able to suddenly unlock a secret which shows you that two different phenomenon are in fact the same. You didn't really understand why two things were connected before, but as soon as you understand the rule, it all makes sense.

Tai chi and science are both on the same quest to uncover the core principles. And to use one of my favourite quotes "if you can't explain it simply you don't understand it".

That's why i love tai chi, because it is the hunt and the search for the core basic movements in what seems like an elaborate form. Unlike science however, it's no secret what the core movements are, but we have to discover them

in our own bodies for ourselves. Feeling is understanding. And feeling only comes with practice.

Declining standards

Long time no blog - so I thought I would ease myself back into it by posting a link to this really interesting article about the decline of standards in Tai Chi by Master K.Y. Wong.

What really caught my eye was the following quote, that seemed to chime with what I hope to achieve by applying science to tai chi.

"There are also many new generation practitioners that train very hard to improve the art and are scientific enough to apply the old methods or techniques to "modern ways" to suit the present social structures and environment. This may help to elevate Tai Chi standards in the future."

So if I might paraphrose with my own spin - "Western influence" is both good and bad for tai chi. Good, because scientific principles and research can help to improve it, bad because capitalist and marketing influences downplay the tremendous amount of effort that is required to actually learn it.

The reason I blog....

Just saw this over on reddit and couldn't help myself, as it sums up my feeling about why I want to look at tai chi from a scientific perspective.

Tai Chi Elements virtual training environment

[Thanks very much to my friend, and reader, Ashley for pointing this out to me]

An interesting kickstarter proposal for a new virtual environment for training in tai chi, is currently open for backers.

The idea seems to be that it's a virtual world where people can study 3D models of "Tai Chi masters" developed through motion capture technology. This is an interesting project and I've made a pledge. I have to say though that I'm sceptical as to what the real benefit of this might be, but am supportive of it as an interesting initiative.

The reason I'm sceptical is that they don't talk about things like being able to capture your movements directly using a kinect for example to match your body positions to that of the motion capture model. Without this feature, I can't really see what the benefit of the motion capture is. Tai chi is after all about subtle rotations of the body core/centre/dan-tien. The positions of your arms and legs are a secondary consideration, as they should follow the movement of your centre. The 3D animated model would potentially suffer from the drawback of capturing limb position very well but miss the movement of the centre. In other words, why not just watch a video (even a multi-angle video) of a real master, rather than removing yourself one step through this animated 3D model. Because it's an immersive 3D environment/game that's why - which I guess in itself is a benefit if you are into computer games.

So it's obviously not the all singing all dancing virtual in training environment that I would want. But as with most things in life, that would need to be developed over time. This project looks to be a good first step on that road, and perhaps if I help them out it might open up chances to include all these "more advanced" features in the future. I'm happy to put a little bit of money towards it, to reward their initiative. It's easy to talk (or write), I give respect to people who are actually trying to do.


PS.  I notice that some of the larger pledges include all-inclusive residential courses. Now I don't know anything about who is running these or what they might include, but giving them the benefit of the doubt that it will be a fair amount of tai chi tuition, these prices seem to be pretty good value. Hence even if you don't care in the slightest about the 3D game, it might be quite a cheap way to get some good residential tuition, or a tai chi retreat holiday!

EDIT: Having failed to get anywhere near their £75,000 funding target, they are trying again with an "incremental approach" and a radically reduced target at only 7% of the original goal. At the time of writing it looks to have attracted roughly the same level of interest (i.e. mainly people buying residential courses who they presumably know already in most cases).

Structural warm up exercises

About time I posted an actual tai chi video, so here's one I really like. Great set of generic warm-up exercises with a detailed commentary. Extremely articulate explanations based on structure and bio-mechanics, without any supernatural mumbo-jumbo, which makes it all the more authoritative for me.

Simple exercises, but if you understand the principle they can be powerful. That is the secret of tai chi - being able to do a small number of things extremely well. The art of course is understanding what those small number of things actually are!

Demystifying chi - a must watch video

Wow, I have just discovered the most wonderful video thanks to my fellow blogger at internal gong fu. This video is called demystifying chi and is essentially reinforcing the point that I have been making (as regular readers will know), that I am not a big fan of "chi" and all it's connotations as energy. Where does this apparent translation come from? This video provides the answers:

Direct video link

But for those of you who don't have time (it's ~1 hr long but I suggest you make the time if you are interested in internal arts or "energy") or just want to get the gist of it, let me quote from internal kung fu on his write up:

"[Dr. Nugent-Head] begins the seminar with a brief history of the word "Qi" and follows this with presenting nine primary definitions for Qi. He then reads through a list of 163 definitions where Qi is the first part of a compound character set and and then reads a list of 235 definitions where Qi is the second part of a compound character set for a total of 407 definitions that use the character Qi. This largely consumes the first 37 minutes of this lecture.

While you might think that listening to a reading of definitions is boring, if you only know Qi as "energy", "life force", "pneuma", "breath of God" or whatever, then you are in for a real surprise and listening to this list is absolutely essential! I found my understanding of Qi shifting and changing as he read through the list.

In my opinion, by us (American's) translating a non-definitive, non-elemental word-concept like Qi into definitive, elemental terms like "energy" or "life force" or whatever, this flawed "translation" process has resulted in some real silliness in the internal martial arts."

Good summary - and now let me add a couple of highlights of my own from the video, that I would draw your attention to:

• At time index 03:00 (and then discussed at 40:00), he points out that if we want to talk about a word from another language (chi) rather than arguing about it we should go to a dictionary first of all. He then points out that not a single one of the nine English to Chinese translations of chi is energy. Go figure. Why has this come about? Through his language grinder concept and for historical and co-incidental reasons (watch the video).
• At time index 51:30 - "The concept of chi as energy creates an aura and vaulted status to practitioners; to demystify it would leave them naked to the scrutiny of their own skill level" [and later on] there are a lot of unscrupulous people making money off chi, not like the proverbial snake oil salesmen - they are snake oil salesmen.

Representational not definitive

Frankly a wonderful video in which I found very authoritative, entertaining and based in reality not superstition. As Dr. Nugent-Head says at the end in summary, chi is not a thing (a thing that confounds Western science), it is a "representational not definitive" concept of a pictorial language.

In other words chi is more like an adverb or an adjective rather than a noun or verb. Adverbs & adjectives on there own mean nothing, but they give flavour and emphasise to meaning. So as a little though experiment; imagine that for some reason the word "very" had been translated into Chinese as "strong". A whole lexicon and theory had then grown up around the concept of this "English strength", intermingled with some hypothetical cultural feature. Chinese practitioners would spend years of their life debating this "very" concept, trying to find and explore it. It sounds ridiculous, but neverthless that is exactly what has happen with "chi means energy" in the west.

"What is very?" a Chinese person might ask you, "well it doesn't really mean anything on it's own" you would reply "it depends on the context of the sentence". And low and behold that is the same answer a Chinese person would give to you if you asked them "what does the word chi mean?". Chi is just a way of language, of culture. It is not a thing. It is not energy.

Humiliation for Yan Fang

I'm glad to see some action has been taken against that obvious charlatan Yan Fang that I wrote about before. She has been striped of all of her tai chi credentials and denounced as a faker and fraudster by her closest peers. As Xiang Guoyuan, is rightly quoted:

"I've told her to stop faking the technique years ago, but she never listened... Such foolishness can damage the image of Tai Chi."

Tai chi as a martial art

People often wonder if tai chi has any real martial value, and indeed I have written about this before. I said then that seeing was believing, and so here are two videos from China which I think go a small way to ticking that box.

First of all a student of Chen Style tai chi winning a mixed wushu competition on Chinese tv. Read about the details here and watch the video below (note the guy with the red sash is the chen tai chi student):



Secondly a video of Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang demonstrating the technique of tai chi rooting to overcome China's strongest man. Yes that's the current strongest man out of a population of over a Billion, being unable to push a 70 year old man over (in three 1 minute rounds). Amazing demonstration of technique over strength.

Tai chi zero trailer

Ahhhh.... the serene and spiritual practice of tai chi originating in chenjiagou. I'm sure Hollywood will stay true to the art and do it justice....

Eco Hovis Lite tai chi robot

Yet again another robot doing tai chi, this time the "ECO Hovis". It's becoming pretty clear to me now that there is no better way to show off the capabilities of your humanoid robotic skills that to demo it doing tai chi.



As I talked about before, tai chi is really an ideal tests case for robotic capabilities. Just as the Turing test is a wonderful benchmark for the social abilities of artificial intelligence - the "tai chi test" could be considered as an analogous test for robotic anatomical abilities.

Giving tai chi a bad name

Look at this video to see just how ridiculous tai chi promotion can be. A great write up here by global times, and I fully agree this looks more like a comedy sketch than push hands ;-) This video and the implicit claims are quite simply ludicrous. This is what happens when people think tai chi is all about mystical supernatural forces, rather than simple physics and bio-mechanics.

There's no point even articulating a rational argument against this type of stuff (although that Global times article does a good job of highlighting the issues). If someone thinks this type of stuff is "real", then they almost certainly have a religious belief in "chi and super powers" - and we all know you can not use logic to argue against religion.




Edit: Follow up here.

Tai chi and the road to self defence

I recently got an enquiry from a prospective student which I would like to share with you along with of my response (both suitably edited / annoymised).

Hi, I am wondering if you can answer a question for me please. I have been interested in Tai Chi for a very long time, but one thing has made me hesitate. Can Tai Chi be used as an effective martial art and defence art for the world we live in today?

Great question - I could talk about this for hours! I think there are basically two questions here: Can it be effective? And is it likely to be effective for you?

First of all can it be effective? Simple answer: yes. Internal arts are extremely effective once mastered.  I have seen Masters drop people to the ground and nearly break limbs almost without thinking about it (these were not set pieces either). In a real fight, I dread to think... I have seen others too who I seriously respect - essentially seeing is believing. I have seen and I believe.

The second question is, is it likely to be effective for you (in the "one" i.e. general sense)? The issue here is that tai chi is like the tortoise in the fabled hare and tortoise race. Ultimately tai chi will be one of the best things you can learn, but in the short to medium term you will essentially have nothing. There are no shortcuts, no tricks, the only way to get any level of martial arts ability is to practice. And practice A LOT. Traditionally, people could obtain some decent level of skill in say 3 to 4 years. But that's the traditional model, where the student would practice five hours a day, every day, during those years! Tai chi was their full time job.

The point is that (in my opinion) there is a fundamental minimum level of training required before any real martial arts / self defence skill can be claimed. 99% of tai chi people never get anywhere near this level, simply because we do not train hard enough or long enough. This problem is not unique to tai chi, but because external martial arts give you some techniques and sparring upfront and from the outset, the difficulty is not so pronounced. "Applications" in tai chi come much further down the line, in some senses after they have already been learned subconsciously.

In practice therefore, it is likely that you would need to study for decades to have any real martial arts skill (I would not yet consider myself to be over this threshold yet, but I am training hard and believe I will get there). It simply depends on how much you want it. Train like a demon every day, and within a year say, you could become a direct student of a skilled Master, who will open the door for you if you continue to train. Alternatively, you could go to a class or two a week and occasionally remember to do a bit on your own. In this scenario, you would get the health benefits but in practice never attain an "effective martial art for self defence".

Tai chi is a long road. If you want a life long learning challenge it's perfect. If you want instant results it's not.

100 posts and counting...

Well here we are. Since I started back in July 2010 on my quest to try and understand tai chi scientifically, I have finally reached my 100th post milestone, which is a good opportunity for a bit of reflection.

Numbers numbers

So first of all some raw statistics to share with you from Google analytics. They compare quite favourably (i.e. better :-) than a number of other hobbist tai chi blogs from what I can determine. But I'm still climbing the ladder and have some way to go before I am at the level of, say, Violet Li's professional blog (who only has ~40% more subscribers than myself), or David Gaffney's well respected blog (who probably has about 400% more than me):

• 12,965 page views
• 6,703 unique visitors
• 100 posts
• 37 comments
• 32 regular subscribers
• International readership

Visitors to this blog come from all over the world (with a strong showing from the USA)

Looking back, there are a number of posts which I am quite proud of and are linked to in the highlights section. But surprisingly, these are not necessarily the most popular ones in terms of Google searches. After "tai chi", the second most highly ranked and popular keyword phrase is "tai chi kinect" - who would have thought it? :-)

The journey so far

I have enjoyed writing this blog immensely, not least because it has help me to develop and refine some of my ideas. Equally, it has been a useful archive for me to gather all my thoughts together in one place, which I'm sure would otherwise have been lost! In the course of my writing I have discovered a small number of others, who would seem to have a similar outlook or agenda to myself (e.g. Martin Mellish, Meditation in Motion, Martial tai chi, The Qigong Institute, The Australian TCCLCHSoHSD). But we are quite definitely in the minority so I'm glad to be helping to fill the niche. To me, being part of this evolution-in-tai-chi thinking movement (as I might rather grandly characterise it) is exactly where I want to be. On the cutting-edge of developing tai chi, treading ground that is not well trodden and [business speak mode] removing the barriers to promoting tai chi beyond its core market (i.e. hippies and senior citizens). Of course I'm only a tiny cog, but I'll keep rotating.

For me, I feel that the most significant development of my own thinking that has so far taken place, is with my understanding of chi. I always felt that chi was the elephant in the room for tai chi in Western cultures. It sits there rather uncomfortably as this nebulous quasi-religious beast. Western tai chi teachers have to choose between either being a zealous new age preacher type, or trying to brush it under the carpet in a rather embarrassed self-conscious way. 

I do not want to conform to either of those types, and this blog has been, and will continue to be, a way for me to explore the third way, the scientific way. My 100 posts have now got me to a point where I am entirely comfortable with the fact that, through rational deduction, it is quite apparent that chi does not exist. There is nothing supernatural, mystical, occult, or non-scientific about it. Chi is a concept nothing more. Paradoxically however there is a wonderful duality about it, because it is in fact meaningful and powerful. An extremely good analogy is that of love. Love is also a concept, but not a physical object that can be measured. I'm sure however there are many who would argue that love is one of the most powerful forces in nature.

To look forward

So where to now for my next 100 posts? Who knows. But I feel like I should return to my mandate of trying to translate Eastern concepts into Western concepts. Just like learning tai chi, I will aim to drop a level of subtlety refining my ideas into more detail - spiralling down and going deeper.... The guiding motivation I always like to picture is that of Star Trek's Data walking into one of my tai chi classes. How would I teach him? He wouldn't be capable of "feeling the chi", but he sure as hell would have the potential to become the greatest tai chi grandmaster in all of history!

Finally a thank you to all of you who have visited, subscribed and commented on my blog in the last two years. You have been immensely helpful to me and it is rewarding to know that there are people out there reading and thinking about my work, even if I never know who or where you are. THANK YOU!!

Peace, Love and Chi to you all.

Using or researching tai chi?

People who love tai chi continue to practice it because they derive some benefit for themselves personally. I too fundamentally believe that tai chi is good for you. What I'm not necessarily convinced of is that tai chi is the most-ultimate-form-of exercise-ever-which-improves-every-aspect-of-your-health-and-life (everyone needs a balance exercise diet after all). Unfortunately most reporting of "scientific tai chi research" implicitly (usually through ignorance and good intentions) tries to claim/hint at the latter, rather than the former.

What it boils down to, is that you need to compare apples with apples. Unfortunately, trying to conduct tai chi research using this methodology (i.e. double-blind trials) is extremely hard if not impossible. So we generally find people comparing apples with oranges. Although the actual researchers no doubt understand this (and are in fact asking some quite specific question), as the reporting makes its way out into the wider world, these caveats are slowly lost. Eventually down the reporting chain this science (as it is branded) is reported as if it had compared apples to apples. The result is that tai chi (and in the same way alternative health) people at the end of the chain, feel as if they have scientific proof to backup their beliefs. These people then become aggrieved as they feel that the "stupid western doctors" are ignoring the science. The reality is that very little, if any, apples with apples studies have been conducted, so there's no point holding up an orange to claim that it has.

So let me explain by way of example, using two bits of tai chi research that I have seen publicised in the last week or two by respectable sources.

First of all that tai chi helps to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In summary, it seems that it does and I am happy about that, but look closely at the setup of the study and you find:

"The research team worked with 42 people with COPD with incurable lung diseases including emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Half the group attended Tai Chi lessons twice a week and practised at home, and the other half followed their usual medical management, which did not include exercise."

Did you notice that? The control group did not do any exercise at all! Surely then the headline result should be that exercise helps treat people with COPD and in this case, tai chi just happens to be a suitable form of exercise for them to undertake? I think pretty much the whole world is in agreement that doing exercise helps to improve your health, which is what this article should be saying. Exercise is good. Tai chi is exercise so that ticks the box. It may not be the best form exercise though. Perhaps yoga would be better? Maybe swimming would be better? Maybe an individually tailored programme including all sorts of different forms of exercise would be better? This study can say nothing about the marginal benefit of tai chi over other forms of exercise, only that this one particular class of exercise showed some benefits. A specific point result, not a general one. A study using tai chi, not a study about tai chi.

Secondly, Tai chi increases brain size and potentially delays the onset of Alzheimers. Clearly it does, that's great and I'm glad, but again lets look at the study setup:

"A representative sample of 120 non-demented, aged 60 – 79, selected from the same district in Shanghai was randomized [in] to four groups (Tai Chi, Walking, Social Interaction and No Intervention) for 40 weeks. One of the exclusion criteria is that participants could not have prior Tai Chi experience."

Do you spot the flaw with this? The exclusion criteria was not that people should also have had "no experience of walking" or "no experience of social interaction".... So what we get is four groups, one of the groups is learning a new skill, and being challenged in new ways. The other three groups are basically doing things with which they are no doubt highly experienced. Hence the result is that learning a new skill, or keeping mentally challenged helps to improve brain function. Well of course, pretty much everyone knew and agreed with that already. I bet if you had done the trial with "tai chi" replaced by "Scottish dancing", the results would have been similar.  The marginal benefit of tai chi over other similar activities is not being researched here. Violet Li doesn't claim that it does, but that's the tone and impression of her article. The next person in the chain will likely dilute it more (naturally), missing out some details, so that is begins to look more and more like an apples vs apples study.

For those who are interested Meditation in Motion has a third example which is deconstructed exactly as I have done here. This "tai chi study" producing the gound breaking result that getting up and moving is better than sitting around. Hardly revolutionary tai chi research I think you'll agree.

My point is that none of these examples are really tai chi research, rather they are examples of research that use tai chi. Tai chi research must compare tai chi to other equivalent forms of activity in a fair and controlled manner. If you don't do that, then you're not really saying anything about tai chi. Just because a study shows that tai chi delivers a benefit (which is good), it does not mean that that same or greater benefit cannot be delivered by other activities - a critical point that is almost always "forgotten" in the tai chi community.

Kung Fu Quest: Taijiquan

I just discovered a highly informative TV program on tai chi made in China called "Kung Fu Quest: Taijiquan". Obviously, it's slightly artificial (rather than a straight documentary) with the premise of taking three young martial arts practitioners and teaching them tai chi. Editing aside however, I found it a really informative and enjoyable little program focusing on the martial arts applications of tai chi rather than the health benefits. Moreover I found it sincere, genuine and respectful, especially as it features some extremely highly regarded tai chi practitioners including Grandmaster Chen Xiao Wang.

Fully subtitled and narrated in English, so if you have an hour to spare, I highly recommend watching it. [Note, the show is actually in four parts, but has been uploaded to YouTube in five parts, so you may need to skip through the gaps where the adverts are supposed to go].

More tai chi on kinect - but this time it's dangerous

I see there is another Microsoft kinect game on the market that uses tai chi, this time "Self-Defense Training Camp". As I have written about before, I do believe that the kinect system is a viable way for people to learn some basic tai chi and chi gung exercises.

However, I have to disagree with the whole premise of this program. There is absolutely no way anyone should ever attempt to learn any self defence techniques from the kinect system. That is just plain ludicrous. Even some real word self defence classes I consider to be a bit dubious, as no one should be attempting any of these techniques unless they really know what they're doing.

In self defence situations, overconfidence is an extremely dangerous trap - running away or screaming for help is usually the best defence. If you think you can perform a technique, and it goes wrong, there is a much more significant risk of you being harmed. The point being that I can almost guarantee it will go wrong if all you use is this kinect game.

Actually I think this is bordering on corporate irresponsibility by Microsoft. I mean listen to this trailer.



The woman says "self defence made me feel more confident...". But she is a black belt in karate! She doesn't mean "self-defence the kinect game" made me feel more confident, but is being deliberately ambiguous to mislead people. I should basically stop there before I go on an extended rant about how advertising (which is deliberate manipulation) is harming society. This is just an example which is actually dangerous.

In short do not buy this game. If you want to learn some tai chi (rather than self-defence) using kinect, I recommend you try "Your Shape Fitness Evolved".

The duan wei tai chi qualification system

My article on a mathematical way to calculate your tai chi skill level, was designed as an informal guide to your own progress. However (currently) the only true way to be able to gauge progress is to be judged by others.

I see that the Chinese Wushu Association has introduced a formalised assessment process to assign skill levels to practitioners. Given that it is all in Chinese, it's hard to actually see what the skill levels translate to. But Violet Li has a brief description, in her article about Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei being elevated to the 9th and highest level.

"The Duan Wei system is sub-divided into three categories: Elementary Duan Wei: One through Three; Intermediate Duan Wei: Four through Six; Advanced Duan Wei: Seven through Nine. For the Elementary Duan Wei and Intermediate Duan Wei, tests are required. Often times, practitioners need to score high in tournaments to qualify for a rank promotion. For the Advanced Duan Wei, practitioners need to have publication and/or research and exhibit significant contribution in promoting the art. There are also waiting times required between each Duan, for example, one has to wait at least six years before being eligible to apply for a rank promotion from the 6th Level to the 7th Level. With that, most masters who earn the highest honor of the 9th Duan have at least 50 years of experience in practicing the art and most of them earn their title in their 70’s or later."

I personally believe that formalised panels of senior practitioners conducting an "examination" over a few hours is most likely to give you an accurate reading of your skill. After all, this is essentially the same approach that we use for all other qualifications, academic or otherwise (this is especially true of nonscientific disciplines).

Tai chi ability is in some senses relative to the skill level of your peers (certainly when we are talking about martial arts applications). So what better way can there be to measure your own level, other than be to be judged by tai chi "professors"?