Tai Chi

[Dan]

Originally Posted by overdrive77

It's the Yang chen-fu form which I think is the more common one.

Yes the chen-fu is more common. Yang Chen-fu, if I remember correctly, was the grandson of Yang lu-chan. Chen-fu changed his grandfathers form to make it more accessible/easier, to the ailing chinese nation. Not to take anything away from the chen-fu but I have heard that you should do the chen fu both sides because it is uneven whereas the lu-chan is totally rounded., eg, snake creeps down on both sides.
When you feel you have mastered the chen-fu try on the lu-chan, the martial applications are much better and it includes fa-jing movements instead of being the same pace the whole way through apart from the brush-knees which of course need to be done at half pace.
In the system I study we learn the chen-fu first then progress to the lu-chan. It is said you can learn the chen-fu and the lu-chan in the same time as it takes to learn the lu-chan from scratch as there are only a few variations.
Personally, I prefer the lu-chan but have been told the healing benefits of the chen-fu are more accessible because the moves are less strenuous thus allowing internalisation easier. Less thought involved.
Do you care to mention the lineage of your style?. Not trying to challenge you its just that ther isnt many of us martia taichiists out here.

[overdrive77]

Hello Dan.Your post was interesting,cheers.My teacher is an old chinese man who's own teacher studied under Cheng man ching who of course was a student of Yang Chen-fu.I consider myself lucky to have found him as most Tai-Chi Chuan seems to be taught from a new-age, hippy-dippy standpoint when it's actually a lethal martial art.By the way have you come across an internal martial arts forum called empty flower?If not I recommend it.