Back Again This past Saturday's Fu Style class was all about the advanced taiji. Master Fu has abreviated the full 105 form to just the individual patterns performed on the left and right sides due to the difficulty of not-so-advanced students performing an advanced set before they've reached a level in their training where their chi moves their body instead of muscular effort. Just the muscles means you actually lose energy performing the full set. It is strenuous. So much so that I reactivated a back injury from earlier in the week that my TCM doctor had alleviated on Wednesday. Oops.
To get an idea of advanced Fu Style Taiji you can see a short video clip of it on fustyle.org. Click on Shop then scroll down until you find it. The clip is of the Grasping Sparrows Tail pattern.
From the diagrams I saw on Master Hon Sat Chuen's site (dantao.com), advanced Fu Style Taijiquan looks quite a bit like the Dragon Style of tajiquan. Dragon Style is probably the rarest taiji system out there right now. Both Dragon Style and advanced Fu Style break the conventions of taiji by bending at the waist all throughtout the set. They require so much more flexibility and balance than other systems. If you perform these styles regularly you'll definitely increase the power in your waist. You'll also feel as agile as Spiderman. I'm guessing that's a nice feelin'.  ¶ 12:34 p.m.