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Li Style Taijiquan Fighting Applications
Like most styles of Taijiquan, the Li style Taijiquan is mainly practiced for its health benefits by many of the individuals who teach and practice this little known and fascinating style of Taijiquan. This is mainly due to, that most of the individuals who study the Li style are not interested in learning the martial art side or were never actual taught any of the martial art by Master Chee Soo.
As a martial art, Taijiquan is known as an internal style. This is because through its soft, relaxed flowing movements it generates a strong issuing power (fajing) within its martial art techniques. This issuing power is a kind of whipping energy that starts in the feet and travels up the legs into the hips and waist, where it then travels up through the spinal column and the big muscles of the back into the shoulders, arms and out through the hands, where it is issued into its target. When you co-ordinate the physical structure with the minds "intent" and the energy circulation then Taijiquan becomes a very powerful martial art that incorporates Striking (da), Kicking (Ti), Wrestling (Jiao) and Throwing (Shuai) that is used in medium to close range fighting.
Through its relaxed body movements, concentration and inner feeling of energy circulation. The student who practices the martial art side to the Li style Taijiquan, begins to develop a kind of whipping power through his or her practice of Taijiquan. This whipping power is like cracking a whip and can be generated using any part of the body to issue this force out of. This is a soft energy (yin jing) as the body is kept as relaxed as possible until the moment of impact, where its force is then extended into the target. The target could be any of the vital acupuncture points that are used to cause serious damage to an attacker.
Below is a typical example of a Li style Taijiquan fighting application which has been taking from the Li style Taijiquan form and is demonstrated by Laoshi Keith Ewers.
Li Style Taijiquan "Repulse The Monkey"
Fighting Application
1. The Attacker strikes forwards with a left lead straight punch, which is immediately followed by a right hook. The defender uses his lead right palm to deflect the straight punch downwards and uses his left forearm to shock into the attackers right hook.
2. The defender then uses his right forearm to strike into the attackers side of head.
3. He then quickly uses his own right arm to coil around the attackers head and holds it underneath his own right armpitt, applying a Qinna neck lock, while still maintaining his grip on the attackers right arm.
4. Finally the defender uses his right arm to lift up the attackers head to expose the front of his body, where he now delivers a double palm strike to the attackers chest sending him flying away off balance.
Master Chee Soo not only taught the Li style Taijiquan for health, healing, meditation. He also taught the fighting applications as well, sadly, towards the last years of his life he decided just to teach the health side. This ment that a lot of the so called teachers of the Li style Taijiquan never learnt the fighting applications of the Li Taijiquan forms and because of this their own art suffers.
Laoshi Keith Ewers still teaches these fighting applications of the Li style Taijiquan as taught to him by Master Chee Soo through the Li (Lee) Family Internal Arts Association in classes and course structures.
