Taiji as reverse engineering
As I always think, Taijiquan can be treated as a reverse engineering problem. Or more specifically, an inverse kinetic problem.
When a Taiji exerciser attacks, say, make a punch. The punch arrives the opponent and start pushing the opponent. But at the same time, the opponent starts pushing the attacker. The problem is not what the displacement will be if opponent is pushed with a specific force or impulse, the problem is in fact how the attacker can keep pushing his punch so that the opponent loses. It means the attacker, namely, the Taiji exerciser is working primarily in a totally passive way. He simply reacts to what is imposed by the opponent rather than actively exert forces to his opponent. All forces applied are passive. He just adjust the way that the forces are going inside the opponent. The opponent then loses his balance and finally beaten for the round. This process repeats until the fighting ends. So, if one would like to master Taijiquan skills, he must first learning how to move in a entirely passive way.
One may question why to move passively? My answer would be that saves your energy. As we know, forces are defined as effects between two objects. If you are not the object active, then the other must be, since no force will appear if both are passive. The active one must travel longer distance to arrive the passive one, hence more work done, more energy consumption. Imagine a heavy cart. Pulling it will be much easier than pushing it, because when pulling it you just need to aim at the destination and walk, the cart will just follow you. But when pushing, you have to adjust the direction ceaselessly to aim at the destination. The pulling movement is passive, because you just react passively to the direction change of the cart when the cart pull you at a different direction. The pushing movement is active, because you are actively changing direction of the cart. The pulling, trajectory of the cart naturally converges to your destination, but in pushing, trajectory of the cart naturally departs from your destination. So, as just in Taijiquan’s movement, we always prefer passive movements. And our problem is always to lead the opponent into his dilemma by passive reactions.
