Tai Chi SURGE: Radical ZMQ Energetics

First thing to be understood is that Scott Meredith is a energy cultivator and not the usual martial arts practitioner you may know or wish to emulate. This concept {cultivation) is not known nor understood poorly in the West. If you are looking for combat techniques or practical self defense this is not the book for you. If you are interested in developing your internal energy than this is a good read with plenty of practices to futher your developement. This is stated clearly by the author within the description of the book but still people just do not understand and then rate the book poorly due to there own ignorance. Sad really. Explaining cultivation is not easy. First you need to believe in internal energy. And then see the benefit of practicing methods to increase and regulate it. The methods rage from meditation, breathing and body movements as well as diet and herbal supplements. Tai Chi and Aikido are the most well known of these arts.

Honestly, I should start out by adding my whole-hearted praise of JUICE, PENG and RXE, because they really are great precursors to this book if you decide to pursue energetic centric martial arts, but here's what I can happily report after about a month and a half of consistent (and I do mean at least once a day) practice - it's exactly as Meredith outlines in the Introduction. My legs and focus are stronger. I can feel a loosening of my body, but maybe most importantly, I can feel in my body the energy Meredith describes exactly as he describes it. And it continues to grow as I continue practicing. SURGE is a practical way to efficiently start to really feel the energy that the taiji masters of the past and present are actually talking about. As a guide, it's one of the best out there. I also appreciate Meredith's writing style straight forward, at times, tongue-in-cheek way of talking about internal arts. If you actually tried and diligently worked with an open mind the practice points he talks about, I just don't see how you wouldn't be able to feel what he's talking about unless you're blocked in some other way. Still, not for the feint of heart, it's definitely written in a different style than most internal arts books out there. One last thing, I think the artwork is pretty great too, but that's really just icing. The meat and potatoes part is the energy. Enjoy!

Any one of the practices in this book will absolutely transform your Tai Chi experience. Just the Cat Step Protocol alone is worth more than the purchase price. I went from feeling basic tingles with a few surges here and there to a consistent experience of energy running through my body at each step. And that's just ONE practice that Meredith has included in this new volume of his. For me, this book gave me the clearest method for fully experiencing the energies he described in JUICE (which is easily the most comprehensive description of Tai Chi's energy development I have ever seen in my 20 years of practice).I admit that the hard-core traditional Tai Chi folk may balk at some of the practices herein as over-the-top. To them, I say, "Just TRY them out." Give them a fighting chance, and you'll feel the kind of results that line up perfectly with the descriptions in the Tai Chi Classics themselves -- feeling the qi flowing like the Yangtze River, feeling it spread through certain key points in the body, feeling the wave-like oscillations of energy pulsing through the body just as described by revered masters. I had none of that before consistently working the material in this book! So get it, but only if you are interested in really feeling the energy.

This is was a great book, I agree with all the other reviews. But again, it will only be useful if you actually practice it in depth for more then 5 minutes. If you take it seriously, you will feel serious results. I also recommend all the previous books as prior reading (Juice, Peng, RXE)... Surge is another gem that rounds-out much of the previous material, and you will be floored if you practice these methods. Yes, I have reviewed the others as well, because I believe what they offer is truly unique and extremely efficient. I have met, learned and pushed with the author directly, AND many other contemporary experts on the subject. I am an experienced martial artist with a professional school, and find these methods to be the best that I have ever come across, which is why I will always default and recommend these methods to any serious practitioner.

SURGE teaches two practices -- Cat step and Counter Sink -- that will put the "Surge" of energy into your form. These are explained clearly and in detail with extensive notes on their implementation in each position of Meredith's favorite style (Cheng Man-Ch'ing's 37 postures) and concludes with a very interesting section on "Advanced Work." It is an excellent book of very great value to serious practitioners of Tai Chi.While "SURGE" can be used alone, the reader could benefit even more by reading Meredith's two earlier books "JUICE" and "PENG," before taking up "SURGE."This reviewer practiced Tai Chi for many years with a feeling that it was a nice exercise but that he had no access to the deeper levels. With Meredith's published works this has changed. I strongly recommend everything he has published and look forward to his future books and DVDs.

Though I am primarily a practitioner of xing yi quan, I use the techniques detailed in this little book, TCSRZE to effectively maximize the cultivation of chi (energy) build-up and flow. Before any neijia (xing yi quan, taijiquan, baguazhang) martial artist can even consider fighting applications, s/he must first clearly and distinctly feel the flow of chi (energy) within. Along with the author's other books (also available for sale at Amazon.com)---  Radical Xingyi Energetics  in particular, I have been able to build internal chi power in a meticulous and methodical fashion. I am extremely thankful and I consider myself extremely fortunate to have stumbled upon Meredith Shifu's books.

This book is essentially a How To manual for those who want to experience Nei Jing/Internal Energy in their T'ai Chi practice. There are certainly books "about" Internal (or Intrinsic) Energy and its use in T'ai Chi, but these rarely offer much in the way of instruction on how to self-cultivate the ability to experience it at will.So this is the need that Scott Meredith tries to meet in this and in his other instructional books and films. This is not a book which shows the complete novice how to do a T'ai Chi Form. It is best suited to those who attend a T'ai Chi class and are already able to execute a Form but who want more from it than simply an evening out in pleasant company, or gentle regular exercise, or a taste of something exotic.....or 'Better Balance For Seniors'.If the reader should take only one thing away from this book then it must be the Cat Step Protocol. This formulation of the T'ai Chi Cat Step is absolutely essential to all Scott Meredith's later writing and films. If the Cat Step is not performed correctly then it will have little or no internal energetic effect, and so neither will any of the later drills/form that rely on it i.e. nearly all of them. Elsewhere the author has clearly stated what it is not:•Not: shifting your weight back and forth or side to side as a comfortable Tai Chi-ish warmup•Not: turning your waist, revolving it back and forth as a comfortable Tai Chi-ish warmup•Not: just 'stepping softly'•Not: just 'stepping with no weight'And in this book a full explanation of the Cat Step is given nine pages of text supplemented by a series of pictures giving an example of its correct use in transitioning into Ward Off Left. So it would clearly be a mistake to suppose that the reader can simply busk through the Cat Step Protocol based on previous T'ai Chi experience. And it has to be done exactly as the author says - even slower and more deliberately if anything - because otherwise it will not produce an Internal Energy experience.[ It may actually be helpful to skip to the Advanced part of the book and so to explore Cat Step Cycling before attempting the entire Form using the Cat Step Protocol. This is because Cat Step Cycling involves taking a much longer time holding a posture transition and thus gives more time to experience the initially quite subtle effect of the Cat Step Surge. ]The other protocol given detailed treatment in this book is the Counter Sink Protocol. This is a way of maximising the Internal Energy experience potential of a T'ai Chi posture by pausing during the execution of the posture and slightly sinking into the lower body while mentally engaging the surfaces of the palms and the soles of the feet.The author has 2 free videos on his Youtube channel which give detailed and lengthy instruction in the correct way to sink into a posture, as well as how to check that correct sinking has taken place (this requires the assistance of another person to deliver a push to your lower back).To repeat: this book is a How To manual for those who want to give substance to their T'ai Chi Form and experience Nei Jing/Internal Energy. Thus the author is in this sense preaching to the already converted, since there is absolutely no other reason for reading this book. And those readers who already have such a genuine need will simply roll up their sleeves and start practising straight away.

Pleasure to read

Ok but a lot of personal reference to the author and things he has written make it strange reading

An interesting practical insight into the the thread that runs through the Tai Chi Classics that it is energy movement and discharge not body mechanics and physical pushing that exponents are seeking achieve in the enjoyment of their practice.

Another masterful display of clarity and generosity of spirit from Scott Meredith.His book “Juice” introduced me to taiji.Alongside his entertaining blog these works help me cope with an extremely debilitating neurological condition.I can’t recommend any of his products highly enough.