EU-Zertifizierung für europäische Schulen: Yang Chengfu Tai Chi Center

Der gesteigerte Kommerz der "International Association" richtet sich auf China. Zu dieser Expansion gehört naturgemäß eine Abkehr von Kampfkunst und der Ikone Yang Chengfu.

Yang Family Tai Chi hat ein neues Logo. Da wir in China expandieren, sollte es ein in China lesbares Design werden. Großmeister Yang Zhenduo hat die Kalligraphie für das Logodesign angefertigt. Eine weitere Veränderung ist die Wortwahl "Yang Family Tai Chi" anstelle von "Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan". "Tai Chi Chuan" ist der Name unserer Kampfkunst. "Tai Chi" ist umfassender, geht über die Kampfkunst hinaus und erweitert die Bedeutung um Gesundheit, Business und viele weitere Bereiche.

Deutsche Übersetzung von Thilo Krienke Kiel aus CONNECTIONS.

Original: Yang Family Tai Chi has a new logo. It was designed to be readable in China as we expand in that country. Grandmaster Yang Zhenduo painted the calligraphy used in the logo's design. Another change made was to use the words "Yang Family Tai Chi" instead of "Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan". "Tai Chi Chuan" refers to the martial art itself. "Tai Chi" is more expansive, going beyond the martial art and widening the meaning to refer to health, business, and many other areas.

Source: http://www.yangfamilytaichi.com/v_newsletters/newsletter_5773629.htm

EU-Zertifizierung: Die ohnehin geringe Zahl der bei Yang Juns Association IYSTCCA autorisierten Yang Chengfu Taijiquan Center, Meister und Schulen ist nach dem massiven Mitgliederschwund "recht überschaubar". Doch aufgrund der mangelhaften "Corporate Identity" besteht nach wie vor erhebliche Intransparenz und Verwechslungsgefahr mit weltanschaulich neutral arbeitenden Schulen. Dies betont der Zentral-Verband DTB im Rahmen seiner EU-Zertifizierung.

The Rush to become 'Internal'

I can remember back in the days when rec.martial-arts was the major catch-all forum on the Usenet ... before there was a web and browsers. I had to get Terry Chan to show me how to even get on the Usenet groups ... there weren't any web-browsers and it was a matter of typing the right sequences to find things.

Back in those days, BJJ and Royce Gracie hadn't come along just yet, so it was sort of a free-for-all about whose style was the best. One of the main contenders, in terms of making noise, was Wing Chun (and all its various spellings), and one of the claims that came up was that Wing Chun was "internal". It wasn't just Wing Chun ... a number of martial-arts that you wouldn't think of normally as "internal arts" (part of the neijia) quietly swore that they were internal and if there were some guys in their style who weren't "internal", it could only be because they hadn't been shown the True Way (tm). BTW, the trick with the (tm) was another invention of Terry Chan's: he was quite the trend-setter, then and now.

Over the years I've seen many styles allow as how they were really "internal", as long as you know the "real stuff". Wing Chun claims were loud, but so were claims from karate, Aikido, Judo, Xingyi, Taijiquan, Bagua, Hungar, Southern Mantis, and so on and on. Most people don't really know what "internal" means, but they think of it as a desirable appellation and they claim it for themselves and their arts.

As more and more information has been leaking out about what "internal" and its subtopics mean, a lot of people have jumped up and claimed that they're "internal" and can teach it to you for a nominal sum. Most of those people are making it up as they go, so what happens is that people get stopped from further progress and get roped into believing each new Messiah as he/she comes along.

What happens often is something like this: Joe Blow has been doing some art for a while (Wing Chun, Aikido, karate, take your pick) and suddenly, with minimal training, he becomes an expert and will teach "internal" for an art that he used to be "external" in. These people get their secret knowledge from various sources, the "teach" the new material to a host of willing students and, too often, those students have now been sidetracked from the real "internal" they were looking for ... and instead they're roped into another song and dance routine. One step forward, one step backward.

I've been watching the growth of "internal" experts in Taiji, Aikido, Wing Chun, Southern White Crane, and so on, for a while. One that recently caught my eye was Keith Kernspecht of Wing Chun fame. Wing Chun is by definition an external art, but a lot of people think that if they get some jin skills they've become "internal". If someone is selling you jin as "internal" then you can know for sure that he himself is "external" and is trying to enlarge his mini-empire.

Apparently Kernspecht has gone to Sam Chin of I Liq Chuan, a family-style with no famous history in martial-arts, in order to learn how to make Wing Chun "internal". I didn't even know that I Liq Chuan was an "internal" martial-art, so I was a little surprised to see Kernspecht's Wing Chun, which apparently didn't even have the standard jin skills of CMA's, become "internal" because of an association with what would be termed an "external" style, if it ever got the attention of the CMA martial-arts councils. See how confusing and amateurish it all is at this point in time?

An "internal" style "hits with the dantian", in other words, it's a 6H art that uses the dantian for body movement. It's hard to do: ask the guys on the Cando-bar forum how hard it is to begin moving with the dantian. Using jin skills is common to both internal and external arts: someone claiming to be 'internal' because he can show you some jin skills is not knowledgeable enough to be teaching, if that's his premise.

The Asian martial-arts are in a state of flux, at the moment. Don't get upset if you're not sure about what you're doing ... most of the teachers are in the same boat. ;)

 

Source: Mike Sigman personal communication Facebook