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TIL sword yoga is a new fitness trend.
(nypost.com)
This is idiotic. It's not yoga. The "Jian" is used in many forms of Chinese martial arts, Tai Chi being one of the more famous... We would also recognize this sword from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - the Green Destiny sword was a "jian" style weapon.
Yeah, I get it... it's just exercise, but there's no substance to this. Might as well hold a stick. There's no "martial" to this art, in other words. The woman in a horse stance pointing her two fingers forward in the same direction as the sword is doing a strange move.
Typically, -in combative forms of Tai Chi, such as Chen Tai Chi-, the empty hand will make this shape to "release energy" in the opposite direction from the blade. In practice, this is a way to get your hands out of harm's way of the weapon and create a structure to the method. Tai Chi is all about balance, ergo the Yin Yan. For each movement, there's an opposite yet equal motion that has a meaning.
25 years ago, I fought in a Chinese national kung fu competition in Yantai. I was still a young pup doing Wing Chun style kung fu. This is long before the entertaining but silly movies "Ip Man" came out and made the style popular. Anyhow, Wing Chun has a practice technique called Chi Sau (sticky hands). Tai Chi also has a practice technique called Push Hands - both similar concepts.
I was able to touch hands with a Chen Tai Chi master - a woman who at the time had been practicing her style for 40+ years. To say I was outclassed would be to say a cat 5 hurricane is just a mild breeze.
Anyhow. Sorry for the rant. I find this style moronic.
Here's a photo of the lady I trained with briefly - she's in the center with white.
Here's my brother and I "fighting" on one of the steepest parts of the Great Wall. (sorry for all the JPEG in this one, it's old.)
