recognize and develop ones own attributes.

[bruce]

smaller, weaker man beats larger ,stronger man. statements like this are said very often about cam and especially ima and tai chi chuan in general.

this leads to a few questions and comments:

-i am 6'2" and 275lbs. when you listen to a lots of peoples comments and read old writings a smaller, weaker man beats larger ,stronger man.
it seems much of the training is geared for a smaller person so how does a larger person use these ideas.

-there are obvious advantages to being big i have a lot of mass to move so if my skill is not as refined i can still get some effect just because i am big. this is something i have to think about in training all the time. sometimes tai chi chuan people will claim i am too strong or big but then i wonder how the adages actually work. should it not be easy for a tai chi person who is smaller to "beat" me?

-those of you that are 6' and taller and 250lbs or more, how do you train while keeping 2 things balanced.
on one hand we are training to move our mass efficiently and to use our weight and size attributes to the greatest advantage on the other hand big guys need to not just depend on being big and strong but need to develop "subtle skills".

-i think that a big guy has more to worry about in a self defense situation that a small guy. some of the reasons i think this is a 5' 3" 148lbs man will feel more threatened than a 6' 225lbs man and i think will be more likely to do more drastic things to injure me and would act in more haste than a guy my size.

-big guys are not a tough as people thing, small guys are not a weak as big guys think. they just have different attributes.
for me i have found it best to embrace my size and strength and to figure out the most clever and creative ways to use it to my advantage,
i think it is important to find your strengths and weaknesses and to understand how both affect your skill development.

please add your comments to the topic:
how does one recognize and develop their own attributes.

[wayne hansen]

The big man should train like he is smaller and weaker than the small man

[amor]

smaller, weaker man beats larger ,stronger man. statements like this are said very often about cam and especially ima and tai chi chuan in general.


-i think that a big guy has more to worry about in a self defense situation that a small guy. some of the reasons i think this is a 5' 3" 148lbs man will feel more threatened than a 6' 225lbs man and i think will be more likely to do more drastic things to injure me and would act in more haste than a guy my size.

yeah a big guy has a higher Center of Mass. Small guy with an 'IMA body' has lower CoM so no worries in that area. Although big guy has more leverage to work with and can fire more back in addition to 'something else'.

[Bao]

-i think that a big guy has more to worry about in a self defense situation that a small guy. some of the reasons i think this is a 5' 3" 148lbs man will feel more threatened than a 6' 225lbs man and i think will be more likely to do more drastic things to injure me and would act in more haste than a guy my size.

-big guys are not a tough as people thing, small guys are not a weak as big guys think. they just have different attributes.

Nicely said.

I have practiced with a couple of big guys and they echoed the same thing, that it can be very frustrating to handle someone smaller and that's it can be hard to keep them on distance. When you are not so big, like me , your punching and kicking distance is shorter than a big guy. So for sparring, free PH and similar, I always try to keep very close and get every opportunity to close in. But for real fighting? I have never met someone with rooting skill or any kind of footwork skill, so I have found it very easy to handle bigger guys. I guess just because my center of gravity is always lower than theirs. If you go in close and they are already balancing on their toes or heels, they have no strength to do anything really. So there's not so much to worry about.

how does one recognize and develop their own attributes.

... It took me a long time to figure out why certain techniques work better on some people and other techniques work better on other people. But that's how it is.

It's just about getting out of your comfort zone as much as possible. ...I guess.
IME, the most important is to practice against many different people with different body types, people from different styles or traditions. I did some sparring against ground fighters, wrestlers and a couple of big guys who had entered different formats of full contact competitions. That was a couple of the most rewarding experiences yet. I am by no means a fighter (, IMHO not very good as I don't have anything like a fighters mind set) ... But at least they thought it was fun sparring with me and they didn't want to quit, so I think I did ok.

[MaartenSFS]

I'm 192cm tall (about 6'3", you're welcome) and lean. I've got long arms and longer legs. I've got to push myself to get in closer. One would think that I would be at a disadvantage there, but I can use my long limbs to tie them up and, when I find an opening, strike surgically from further than they can. I can also rain down on them from a distance. If I was tall AND big I suppose I wouldn't care about body shots too much and just plow over them from long and medium range.

[fuga]

Maybe the opening statement is not an absolute truth but rather an ideal.

A smaller, weaker man can beat a bigger, stronger man but only (IMO) if there is a vast discrepancy in skill and no mistakes are made. As Bao stated, he handled bigger guys who did not know rooting or footwork. His skill level was higher.

But if skills are close, the big man will more likely win. Never underestimate the advantages of size and strength.

[Michael Babin]

Interesting topic and I have a couple observations based on many years of meeting experts, famous and not-so-famous, as well as teaching for three decades.

- size, contrary to what is often said piously by taiji and IMA practitioners, does matter in a fight. It may not be a decisive factor if the smaller person is much more experienced and skilled; but if those factors are equal, I'd put my money on the bigger person.

- recreational martial arts instructors are often either somewhat smaller than average or larger than average and/or have a subtle but real advantage like having an arm length disproportionately longer than their torsos; smaller instructors often are technically more advanced than larger instructors as they need the edge that precision can bring whereas larger specimens tend to achieve a certain amount of skill and then coast along happy to stay only somewhat ahead of their students.

We won't talk about the tendency of aging Yang style taiji teachers to turn into lard balls [he wrote with a polite belch while trying to digest two helpings of Chinese food after an evening with the in-laws].

[bruce]

smaller instructors often are technically more advanced than larger instructors

one of my training buddies who owns and runs an mma school is a smaller guy 5' something 145 or so lbs. he is one of the most precise and technical teachers i have ever learned from. i have found this to be true.