[chun]

the guy seems to understand Bagua, but the dude talks too fuckin much...LOL


hot dayum, explain it simple and direct, I dont want to hear a movie about one pressure point

[Lion]

Yeah i think also about him the same way. And I don't like his bagua either.

[chun]

Yeah i think also about him the same way. And I don't like his bagua either.

ROFL - the dude does it so slow motion

[Juz]

didn't you know his taiji and bagua are the only genuine ones and every else is fake stuff watered down in the 1930s?
Now cough up if you wanna know the Real Inner Truth © (all major credit cards accepted but cheques are $10 extra...)

[sungoku]

saw a taiji vid of his once where he was striking a bag and every strike was acompanied by bruce lee style tension and a karate style scream, didn't look anything like any taiji i ever seen. seems to me like he is a hippy who learn some 24 form beijing shortened crap and added some shotokan to make it more martial. well i might be wrong..... maybe his style is so secret that it doesnt have to follow real taiji principles.

[mix]

I once knew a student of a student of Earle's who was very proud of Earle's stuff.
He said that he thought Earle was the best martial artist in the world.
I told him that he was full of shit and laughed. He never came to practice martial arts with me again.


Earle's stuff does nothing for me besides provide a laugh or two.

I love his bagua "hawk form" video. He's like "now we will do the hawk from. What sound does a hawk make? CAW! CAW!"
Now thats high comedy.

the other funny thing about Earle is that he seems to rate his videos with five stars on youtube and then close the videos for ratings and comments section for comments.
The force is strong in Earle.

[Tao Joannes]

saw a taiji vid of his once where he was striking a bag and every strike was acompanied by bruce lee style tension and a karate style scream, didn't look anything like any taiji i ever seen. seems to me like he is a hippy who learn some 24 form beijing shortened crap and added some shotokan to make it more martial. well i might be wrong..... maybe his style is so secret that it doesnt have to follow real taiji principles.

I started off in taiji learning his form, it's nothing like the 24 forms.

I feel that what I've learned since then is far more detailed, expandable, and useful, but that could be a function of the instructor.

[Alex]

I'm not a student of Erle Montaigue however I quite liked a lot of his early stuff and at least he shows a video of himself hitting a bag unlike a lot of Masters who just show forms and crappy apps.

I think he may have taken a wrong turn when he moved to England however I honestly believe that he cops more criticism than he deserves purely because he does not fit the cultural stereotype.

Remember it was Erle back in the eighties saying that all the CHI stuff that was being peddled about was bullshit.

I think we should accept some of the good stuff he has and in relation to the not so good accept the fact that nobody is perfect.

[Juz]

no body is perfect...especially ex entertainment wrestlers called Mr Derby who trash mouth every other branch of taichi...still caveat emptor...

entertainment wrestling then taiji...I am beginning to understand the EF ghey theory...

[Harvey]

no body is perfect...especially ex entertainment wrestlers called Mr Derby who trash mouth every other branch of taichi...still caveat emptor...

entertainment wrestling then taiji...I am beginning to understand the EF ghey theory...

How could you have forgotten his illustrius music career

Erle Montaigue had a number of hit records in the late 60’s and early 70’s in Australia and his portrayal of Judas on the first Australian recording of Jesus Christ Superstar won him fame with that particular vinyl album selling hundreds of thousands of copies in Europe alone.

Moontagu Rawks

[DeusTrismegistus]

When I first saw his stuff on you tube I thought it was a joke. When I realized it was serious I nearly cried. I don't know a lot of tai chi and I think he sucks. Never bothered watching his bagua or anything. However since then I realized that there are way worse instructors out there. I think he at least god some type of training, where as there are guys out there who look like the learned off of dvds and they teach.

[sungoku]

i know it's not the same as 24 form, i just meant it seemed very watered down compared to some of the other taiji out there, it is a good thing to show that taiji can be used on a bag etc but at least do it in a taiji way. it's good to have people representing taiji and other IMA's but i just don't like when people represent things badly. we need more people to show that taiji can be a very effective martial art, but at least make sure it is taiji and not just something else done slowly. maybe it's a good thing that people mis-represent it because they won't know what hit them when they try to fight a real taiji guy.

[Bao version 0.2]

the other funny thing about Earle is that he seems to rate his videos with five stars on youtube and then close the videos for ratings and comments section for comments.

When he started to put them on youtube you could rate and comment. It was a wise move to disable them

I have followed how those clips are put on the youtube and actually watched most of it. But you get tired fast. Hesay that he made 300 vids and all of them are just the same things over and over, and over, and over again.

But remember that there are people all over the world who started "montague system schools". He has reached some fame and people say that he is a very generous teacher.

I do think he has done good things for tai chi chuan. Many people who earlier only met "health tai chi" has started practicing with Erle and are greatful to what he taught them even if they moved on to other teachers after that.

[Chris McKinley]

Most Tai Chi "masters" in the U.S. would get their collective asses kicked by Erle on a bad day. This is (yawn) extremely old stuff.

[bestill]

if i studied tai chi all my life with top notch teachers and was attacked by a " real killer " i would be happy if i lived. i don't think i would give a "sh " if my punch looked good or not. if i happened to stuff my fist "xing i style" between his teeth, so what. as he was lying on the ground, i could always grab his arm and do a slow rollback for the cameras.








































'

[Methods]

I have talked with Earl a few times back in the late 90's. He seemed like a really good guy, and he wants to share what he believes to be "real" taiji.

I take him with a grain of salt, good guy, talks to much in his vids and Im not sure what he is teaching, but he likes to call it Taiji. Never the less he more than likely can whoop ass, and has put allot of time into learning, so I can only respect for that.

I always wonder why people think that a Taiji fist has zero power. Is it the practitioner's, which I am sure of, but also is it the teachers that are teaching bogus systems?

[Walk the Torque]

Bahh!

[Gary]

Most Tai Chi "masters" in the U.S. would get their collective asses kicked by Erle on a bad day. This is (yawn) extremely old stuff.

No kidding! Wow does this thread take me back to the old days of EF!

Erle is a great guy, and definitely has his quirks. Just like every other teacher I have met there are things I would choose not to learn from him.

In person he is much more impressive than on his videos, you have to touch hands with him...

Oh, and to the OP lovely critique, I would rather have a teacher explain too much than not enough, Chris M can relate to this quote "movement special"--F that guy! LOL


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This post has been edited by Gary: 19 January 2008 - 09:26 PM

[zenman]

In person he is much more impressive than on his videos, you have to touch hands with him...


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One of his senior students touched hands with my teacher and I think at that moment Erle's student finally knew...

[Gary]

One of his senior students touched hands with my teacher and I think at that moment Erle's student finally knew...

Who is your teacher, the senior student, and what did he finally know and why? Could make for good discussion! Better than...he talks to much...yada yada

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