S I L V E R E Y E . C Z

Taiji, technique principles

The book "Taiji, technique principles", is written by MgA. Vlasta Pechová.
It is edited in Czech language in February 2009 by Grada publishers.
 
Annotation

The book strives to acquaint the readers with the original Chinese Taiji martial art. It is designed to a wide group of readers, from potential prospects and beginners to advanced adepts and Taiji teachers. There is also precious information for students of other martial arts, mobility and health systems.

The author proceeds from her long-term experience of Taiji studies and teaching. She uses the words and cogitation common in our culture background. The reader is completely acquainted with Taiji configurations and their artfulness that finally result in the high sophisticated Taiji technique. Apart from technical point of view, she also clears up some myths and problems one can meet in Taiji learning and exercising. The text is accompanied with the author's own illustrations that contribute to a very deep insight.

The book also refines both practical and theoretical Taiji knowledge. The readers can try the basic motion principles through simple exercises. These exercises are like building blocks in the detailed structure of the whole system. They offer real incentives for understanding and imagination of this beautiful, however difficult, martial art. The book information helps to create one's own point of view at Taiji, to cultivate one's cognition and motion, and to take a better decision in selection of a Taiji school and teachers.
 
Excerpt from the book: Creation of the Taiji principle - stick on string
 
Make an aid to help you understand the Taiji principle. Take a long string and a straight solid stick that is at least 20 cm long (it can be much longer, of course). Tie the string at its centre to the stick centre. Fix the string ends in the vertical level (a). Try to get the situation that the stick centre cannot move aside when you exert tangential force to its end. If you fix the string in horizontal level, the aid works as well. Now, take both end of the stick. Push one end tangentially and sense the force reaction at the other end. Change the direction of your force and check the stick reaction (b). You are supposed to get a feeling as if you were pushing in a round ball that rotates around its centre and returns your force backwards (c).

If your aid is bigger, say the stick length is about 50 cm, you can work with it in pairs, similarly as it is in the following exercise. The real stick here is replaced with fictional points and the exercise is therefore much more sophisticated.

More pictures     Contact me for more information

Introduction by Robert Amacker

It is natural for prospective students of Taiji (Taijiquan) to look for traditional sources of instruction, in their teachers and in what literature is available, as well. One result of this is a preference for teachers of Chinese ethnic origin, on the assumption that they are somehow more connected with all things Chinese, including this most esoteric of studies. I have also heard it said that recent works on Taiji are superfluous, everything having already been said by great masters of the past. These are both flawed assumptions, but especially in the case of literature. First, it must be understood that the publication of one’s works in China was, until the most recent of times, not a source of income. There were no copyright laws, and works were freely reproduced by anyone. Consequently, there was little incentive to reveal one’s secrets on paper. One of my own teachers was against any books about him or his teaching because, as he said, “People will read the book and not need to come to class.” If this kind of thinking could apply to even elementary instruction, one can imagine the attitude regarding the publication of what were considered “secrets.” Rather, books were a kind of combination of authentication and advertisement, revealing just enough to convince and attract. Even that which was revealed was always in the form of method rather than analysis because skill, once achieved, obviated the need for scientific explanation or justification. But more than one master of old was quoted as saying that at some point just such an analysis would be forthcoming, and that Taiji would someday be described in terms of geometry and physics.

It is from this perspective that Vlasta Pechova’s current effort should be viewed. I have for decades tried to analyze and describe Taiji both in its underlying principle and in its various boxing manifestations, in an attempt to discover its theoretical basis. My own training and lineage are authentic and traditional, and I am quite conservative regarding any sort of new innovation in teaching, so it was mandatory that any such analysis would conform completely to traditional training, and produce results, if followed, that were identical to classical techniques and appearance. This has been the case, and the results, at least for western mentalities, has been dramatic in producing a school that practices Taiji on the most advanced and completely classical level of any that I have seen, and the highest percentage of students that achieve their greatest potential. Of those students, Vlasta Pechova is without doubt one of the most talented, creative, and hard working that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.

In only a few short years I appointed her as the official head of the Prague branch of my school, a position for which she proved to be more than qualified. In the years since she has become someone with whom I can practice and discuss techniques on the highest level. Her work is not a simple transmission of ideas, but the product of a thorough understanding and internalization of a complete system. Her approach in teaching is entirely her own, in some cases, I feel, more effective than mine. As a professional artist, her skill enables her to express ideas in visual form, greatly simplifying the transmission of things far more complicated to explain, and stimulating great envy on my part. In this book she explains many basic concepts and practices from a highly sophisticated point of view, something which should interest both beginners and experienced practitioners. She is by nature an extremely modest person, but her writing emanates the authority of someone whose knowledge and understanding goes far beyond what, in this fundamental work, she currently reveals. It also holds out the promise of future offerings, which I am sure will be eagerly received by those who meet her in these pages.

Robert Amacker October, 2008, Moscow, Russia