Tai Chi Fighting Set: 2-Person Matching Set DVD

Dr. Yang and his students do an outstanding job of providing guided instruction for the 88 step two person fighting set. (44 actions for each person) Each movement is an attack and a neutralization/counter-attack. This stuff IS practical if you practice properly. (see below) I think they did this one right!I consider this material to be an essential component of martial taijiquan practice. (If you aren't concerned with being able to apply your taijiquan real-time to self-defense, we aren't thinking on the same page.)I have often heard the argument that just by memorizing and practicing a fighting set, you won't be able to use it for real defense. This may be true because that (by itself) is not the way the set is intended to be used.DO NOT WRITE OFF THIS FIGHTING SET. IT IS OF CRITICAL VALUE TO THE SYSTEM.It is a catalog of taijiquan applications. Individual exchanges should be pulled out of the set and practiced with variations, counters, modified conditions, and with scenario based circumstances. Don't forget that when you practice applying this stuff, you had better use both sides of your body. The form only teaches you one. Dr. Yang specifically says that you must innovate and think, or that the form will not be "alive" (paraphrased).It is easy to take one single exchange and practice variations on it with all different levels of student for multiple classes. That's just one exchange (2 out of 88 movements). Just by doing this, you will add tremendous depth and understanding to your solo form.I find that it is fine if only the advanced members know the actual sequence of the form, while less experienced students still learn single exchange applications and variations from day one.Learning the set itself is advanced material, and probably takes a fair amount of background to do it well, but the individual exchange training method will help students to gain that background, add depth to their solo work, and enhance possibilities in push-hands and fee-sparring as well as teaching you how to use taijiquan (if and only if you innovate.)If students practice the variations from day one, then by the time they are ready to learn the form, it will already have "life."

The 2 person fighting set shows the application of the forms and the necessity of proper foot movement and weight balance. My Taiji Chuan master is going to teach all his advanced students this set. Thank you very much.

The Tai Chi Fighting Set is to me, a student of Yang and Chen Tai Chi, the most important intermediary step in Tai Chi training. This is where the student really begins to develope his/her understanding of why Tai Chi is the "Grand Ultimate Fist". Master Yang's DVD is by far, a superior piece of training material for getting the "combat mind set" of this set in Chinese internal martial arts. Or for just getting the form down well.

This DVD is most useful when used in conjunction with in-person instruction from your taiji teacher. Trying to learn strictly from this DVD seems as if it could introduce poor technique. I would expect a taiji teacher would suggest learning solo "empty hand" forms, and partner practice via "push hands" rudiments before tackling the fighting set.The content is quite thorough, showing the sections of the fighting set at different speeds, and analyzed by the teacher in tremendous detail. Having the entire fighting set available is also useful for careful review.

Excellently done! Easy to follow, and every aspect of the two man fighting set!

I purchased many DVD's trying to seek a practical application of TaiJi. Some are in English and some in French and some in Chinese. This DVD shows a continuous application both in a teaching mode and actual fighting speed in English. Moves and counter moves are in fluid succession. I personally think the DVD is worth the money. Dr. Yang does a thorough job of explaining the Taiji fighting concept and application (defensively and offensively).

Another great teaching by Dr Yang. Great step up from push hands

Very comprehensive and easy to follow.

Great dvd

I love it. For me, it explains a lot about how to interpret movements and forms of Tai Chi and many other martial arts.

I already purchased the DVD and I found it so good that I bought another one for a friend.Dr Yang Jwing Ming is a master in this art and yet so humble and an excellent teacher.

Most taiji students are content jut to learn the basic form - 24-step, 88-step, or whatever. Like pushing hands, the two-person form is a step towards understanding the underlying martial aspects of taiji. This is therefore an important DVD, and Dr Yang Jwing-Ming is a good teacher, providing lots of insights. The reason I've marked it down a little is that it varies quite a lot from the two-person form as I have been taught it, and as I think it is generally taught in the UK. At the very start of the form (to provide one very simple example), 'A' steps forward to punch 'B', who diverts the blow, as in the way I have been taught, but then in this version 'A' then attempts to arm-lock 'B', who has to escape from this before 'A' steps forward to strike once more. Dr Yang explains these variations, many of which are much more drastic, by saying the two-person form is a living thing, which has been modified by different Masters over many years as they have sought to improve it. This may well be true; on one level that reduces the value of this DVD to me to some extent, but I am nevertheless grateful for the new insights I have received.