We have been having a great old time discussing the essence and secrets of ‘The Erle Montaigue System’ in a closed discussion group on Facebook. If you ask Nasser politely he may let you in if you are involved with the Erle Montaigue system…the group is regulated and only open to serious Taiji martial artists.

We all have our strengths and weaknesses…we all approach these differently. A common weakness is due to lack of suitable training partners…You can use a Punching bag in many ways to supplement your training…

I call my bag ‘Mr. Everlast’.

This video is for you to play with the P’eng and Hinge principles as used all through the Erle Montaigue system.

Al Krych, Eli Montaigue, Colin Power, Erle Montaigue, Nasser Butt ...USA workshop

The job of the editor is to sort out what is worthy and what is not…well so they tell me. Actually it is a humbling experience. When fellow Renegades of the Tai Chi world contact me for a chat and to share common experiences it reminds me of why I also train in the Internal Martial Arts.

We gain so much from sharing and opening ourselves up…

So we are going to share an article written by a young man willing to as he said ‘out’ himself to the martial art world. We think his story should resonate with quite a few of you…it did with me after all these years.

A letter from…

Ramakrishna Chedumbarum Pillay

Hey mate I wrote that essay on Erle I’ll send it over and you see what you think.

Why do I do tai chi? I once asked myself this question but I found the answer was not really needed. 

About a year ago I decided I was going to be the next Bruce Lee (a cliché if there ever was one.) I looked the part, I was the same size, weight, similar proportions. Body building was going great, loads of cardio, I was going to be the best. I originally started doing TKD, Tony Jaa was my idol as much as Bruce, but what especially was his extremely humble attitude. 

I wanted to do ten spin kicks in the air I was going to be a stunt man. I bought all the magazines with master X Y Z telling me his art was the best. But there was still something amiss inside me. I found I was naturally drawn to the reality side of martial arts, and taking the word of those magazines instructors as gospel I started my (short I’m glad to say) journey into boxing and krav maga that “Israeli martial art,” but there was still something amiss. 

Out of all these magazines it was always those articles on tai chi mentioning internal power that drew me, how this deadly art could make you unbeatable. So the first time I stepped into the KM dojo the instructor was there, about my height but at least 1.5 times wide and heavy as me so this was it. So I patiently sweated and bled (often as much as each other) every night three time a week in the dojo, the testosterone flying everywhere, the knife disarms, the lock escapes, the gun disarms (don’t laugh they took this seriously) , but there was always this belief in internal power. The first time I mentioned it to the instructor he said “I don’t believe in that stuff,” so I quietly agreed to disagree. 

A few more months went by, pumping my muscles, cramming food into me, then one day my mind just pulled me up and said what are you doing? What are you afraid of? Ever since I started this journey I was becoming more and paranoid, is he dangerous? He looks big and strong be careful? Every time I went out I was afraid of being mugged of being stabbed , and with all this self defence I was just covering up my fear. I wasn’t making myself less afraid I was just isolating myself.

Each time I went to the dojo, all these muscled up men were civil … not genuine friendship. Just aggression, sweat and most importantly ego, tons of it. It was the most uncomfortable place I had ever been in my life and I was dragging myself there three time a week, but now I had had enough. Then a close friend of mine, Chris said “come and try Tai Chi with me in Leicester”. 

So I went to Leicester, with no expectations, well maybe thats a lie, I always had a ‘thing’ for that martial art with internal power. Little did I know this would be a life changing experience for me. I walked into the studio in Leicester it looked amazing, bags and weapons, but more importantly it felt good, fresh , clear, friendly. In walked Nasser Butt, for some reason I could not and certainly did not want to judge the man. He shook my hand, and asking me how I was. 

Nasser Butt was the kindest instructor I had ever known, I felt he meant it. No silk pyjamas, just a man. But then so was everyone there, almost unnervingly friendly, nothing I was used to. So we started, three circles, 3 minutes in and this was the most physically demanding exercise I had ever done in my life. I had never sweated so much while standing still, (or maybe I had never stood still before), then the wudang hammer, then post work, then fajing, something so alien to me …it felt awkward. Nasser then hit the pad for me, my arm seemed to vibrate as it was blown away, I had never been hit that hard before. He then took the trouble to casually uproot all my prior knowledge of martial arts. 

When we finished I sat on the sofa and could hardly speak, my mind was reeling, and when we left I never thanked someone so genuinely in my life. The rest of the day I couldn’t speak, from then on I read as many of Erle’s articles, watched as many videos as I could , amazed at his teaching style, generosity with the amount of information available. In between I was going up to Leicester as much as I could craving those hours. I have to say now that Nasser is one of the people I respect the most in my life, he is not just my teacher he is something more important, my friend.

Now 11 months down the line I still have one regret and that was never getting to meet Erle. Through his teaching I have realised many things. Sure I have learned a lot about martial arts but it extends far beyond this. Just through his teaching, I know Erle was a man who was never afraid of speaking his mind, whose discipline was second to none, whose knowledge was as deep as an ocean, whose life was colourful and varied, whose humbleness, selflessness and generosity was something special that doesn’t come around very often and whose friendship extended to everyone. One of the most poignant things he said was, you don’t live for martial arts, your art lives for/through you. 

The same thing Nasser has always said to me “Don’t forget to live.” Now I realise even though I never got to meet Erle in person, his teachings show me the qualities to aspire to throughout life. And by being so generous Erle lives in everyone in the WTBA (World Taiji Boxing Association), and I am grateful to belong to this family.

So what about my paranoia? I won’t be bold enough as to say it has gone, but now I realise fear is something unique. You can choose to cower and never step out your door, or you can try and build up walls and challenge the fear but it is always there, the only way to ‘escape’ fear is to observe it , until fear is nothing but a word, and there is no ‘fear’ associated with it. So when I walk down the street I say, if something happens, then my training will deal with it the best that it can and if something happens then it was going to happen, that is it, I have other things to concentrate on. So when I ask myself why I do Tai Chi, I realise I don’t need an answer I just do it, like Erle tells me to.

Have a think about why you train so hard…

It has been nearly a year since Tai Chi Renegade died…

I’m talking about the website not the man…Erle Montaigue was much more than a Tai Chi renegade.

Those of you that knew Erle personally knew that he was many things to many people…least of all being a Master of the Internal Martial Arts. He was so much more…

The stories that people could tell about the man we knew as “Erle” would fill a number of books…No worries Mate! He was a funny bugger…equally happy in and out of the lime light. He had lots of great life long friends, he always shared …he gave back to the world wherever he could.

Erle Montaigue and Eli mucking about for the camera

Just prior to Erle’s death we were discussing the Martial Arts community , peoples expectations and the state of the Economy. Things weren’t going as well as could be on the sales front… video sales had declined dramatically , business wasn’t booming, the whole world was hurting and his sales reflected this.

We had a New Economy …didn’t we all know it, the world had changed, making money had gotten even harder for some … people were pointing fingers all round.  People were angry and resentful…lashing out at anything they could. Erle’s business was no different to others and he was having difficulty trying to work out this New Economy …trying to figure out how to Survive.

What you may not realise is that the internet has helped create the New Economy…blame the Bankers if you will but we are all responsible to some extent. The Bankers took advantage of a human weakness…the internet stimulated this weakness.

We seek the Holly Grail…“Something for Nothing”. Let us call the New Economy the Free Economy. People want their music for next to nothing or free…Movies for free (even if they have to steal them) and it seemed they wanted their Taiji for free.

Many of you know that Erle was way ahead of the New Economy ,he gave a darn lot away for nothing. He had been giving stuff away for years so that people could learn. Erle tried to fit in with the New Economy …so he built up a tremendous following on Facebook,poured his heart and knowledge into Facebook only to one day turn it all off.Why did he do it…he had his reasons.

Let’s just say he was sick and tired of inappropriate comments…

Taichirenegade.com was getting some inappropriate comments behind the scenes so I understood how he felt. People can be very demanding of free services…without a second thought. They have been trained well by the masters of the New Economy.

Now not everyone is cut out for Taiji or any form of Martial tradition. It takes a special someone to train hard …question themselves and the Status quo…a true Renegade. 

As I’ve said before …

“Pyjama wearers just don’t understand”

Erle Montaigue and Son Eli showing "How Push Hands should be done"

Some people are just collectors of information and video content…waiting for that magic something to land in their lap …make everything right.They don’t do anything with it. They think they deserve something for nothing…maybe they’re right.

No problem…we’re not here to judge what should be and what shouldn’t and discuss non-duality verses everything else.

We didn’t want to change the world (it could use a little changing though)…we really wanted to find more Tai chi renegades that would get it…

..Like you.

More friends to train with and share ideas…Hang out , be around like minded people.

It had to pay its way though…you know the drill, bills to pay and a family to support. You know…real stuff.

We had come up with a plan to create New video content and give it away for free…not just snippets on Youtube but full feature video …action packed with content on Taiji, Bagua, Qigong and the Internal Self defense arts.

I was going to come up with the platform for this video content and Erle was going to supply “the good oil”.

It was worth a try. What did we have to lose… now I have to admit that Erle wasn’t 100% convinced with my plan and he probably had good reason. We were going to try something new, not sit back and blame the New Economy like so many people do.

We were going to kick it off with more interviews like the Taichirenegade series and Erle was going to start filming the New segments.

We were going to take a risk, hopefully the Martial arts community was going to support it…

…but first Erle said “if we are going to be in business together you have to know one thing, we are in bad shape”.

OK I said “How about you get some friends together that you like training with and make some videos…I’ll worry about trying to make this Bloody New Economy pay for itself”.

Maybe he liked the idea of training with a few special people… putting it on video, just training with the people he loved. Maybe he was going along with my crazy plan…because we were friends, maybe he didn’t know the extent of my vision but just wanted to support me as friends do.

I was going to keep our plan a secret but that wouldn’t be very friendly would it. Ok…we were going to create a Martial Arts ATM website.

An ATM website is a little different to the magical whole in the wall that your bank provides. It is a website were you get your first withdrawal for free and then if you like what you see then you can make a small monthly contribution…then make as many withdrawals as you like, when you feel like it, wherever you are. No big outlay for say 20 DVD’s at once just so you can get a discount.

Just imagine it…a website of real content…access from any computer, smartphone, iPad etc. You wouldn’t have to worry about lugging DVD’s around, if they got damaged or lost. Access to what you wanted when you wanted it…and no risk of buying a DVD that you may never use. You would be truly part of the Renegade family with help at your fingertips…you would belong. We would build it for you…and Yes we would give and give and give. We decided we would build on what Erle had already given but in new revised content and then invest in better ways for you to receive all that you wanted and more.

That was the Plan.

This was my last conversation with Erle…you know the rest.

I can’t tell you the pain I felt with his departure, you may have felt it too.

Erle Montaigue had left the building … maybe Taichrenegade.com and all the content should depart as well. I did pull down all the previous posts…maybe this was a mistake.

I tried to keep it together and made a few attempts…then I took a Gap year to sort my head out and decide what to do.

This is the final try…to make it work… one thing has to change.

I realised that inappropriate comments were not my biggest worry…but they sure as hell can give you writers block.

Well Erle’s business is still going on at TAI CHI WORLD and I can still help  his family.

So I’m turning comments off…I need to concentrate on getting the job done and frankly they were paralysing me.

You can’t effectively write whilst worrying about peoples misconceptions and knee jerk reactions…well you just go round in circles.

Those that have a need to comment try our Facebook Page…

What can you do to become a better Tai Chi Renegade…that’s for you to decide.

What is the single most important thing for your Taiji…what would Erle say,

“Just Bloody well Do it”

Better yet…go and buy some Bloody DVD’s at Tai Chi World and support the family of a true Tai Chi renegade. The Martial Arts ATM website never came about due to Erle’s unexpected death so you need to have a look at Erle’s video trailers on his YouTube channel for a better understanding of what to buy then take a leap. Don’t be a Tai Chi conformist…become a Tai Chi Renegade.

Like a true Aussie Erle Montaigue died on Australia Day, 26th January 2011…