What I have below is a post from a taiji mailing list that I'm on. It describes an exhibition that recently took place in China, were a 95 kg taiji player took part in a pushing contest with a 223 kg Sumo wrestler.
Yes, it was an exhibition and not a real fight. You might look at the pictures and decide that the taiji player wasn't using perfect form. You might say that the taiji player had the advantage of technique. But Sumo isn't all hard; it's hard and soft, with plenty of soft and timing techniques. Sumo is after all essentially about pushing your opponent out of the ring. However you want to pick nits, at the end of the day, the taiji player gave up 128 kg, which is over 250 lbs. I think this is a remarkable feat.
If you click on the title of this post, or follow the link below, you'll be directed to the original article in Chinese. I'll have to rely on one of my Chinese literate friends to translate, but at that website, there are more pictures of this exhibition.
The sumo wrestler was the first foreign grand champion in Japan (his name is "Akebono" and his rank was "yokozuna") although he's retired from sumo right now he has fought in K-1 and Dynamite tournaments in Japan. He's not some pug. He was at one time, at the top of the Sumo world.
There is a video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpdzhYjx_zw&search=%E7%8E%8B%E6%88%98%E5%86%9B
Have a look.
Until now I have never thought it is possible that a Tai chi practitioner pushes with a Sumo wrestler. But it did happen on 10 June this year. A top Sumo wrestler visited China and did “push-hands” with Wang Zhan-jun, a Taiji push-hands champion.
The competition was for four rounds. The rule was that the participants stands and pushes each other. Whoever moves his feet loses.
The wrestler was 2.03m tall and weight 223kg. and Wangwas 1.8m tall and weighed 95 kg.
The competition was filmed on He-Nan TV and Fuji TV.
The competitors tried each other out before the formal competition began.When the competition started, the Sumo wrestler grabbed Wang’s arms and pushed at Wang’s chest. Wang neutralized, discharged power and sent his opponent off balance. This was the first round.
In the following 3 round, the wrestler could not any advantage and conceded that Wang was better at pushing.Photos of the competition can be seen on this site:http://www.taiji.net.cn/Article/Class50/Class87/Class88/200606/3689.html
Is it Taiji or Taichi?
ReplyDeleteIt was a copy and paste
ReplyDeleteIN response to the question about Taiji or Tai chi - it's both.
ReplyDeleteTaiji is the translation of the chinese using the Pinyin method of translation. T'ai chi is how you spell it when you are using the Wade Giles method of translation. In chinese, however, it is the exact same word.