That youtube footage is just wrong on so many levels!

The short answer is no, TCC is not an effective martial art.

What about the guys from Chen village? They don't do the fluffy new age tai chi to the best of my knowledge.

It looks like they are doing the same fall on purpose stuff that mostly all aikidoists do. It's almost as if someone could fart hard enough and knock the guy down.

It looks like they are doing the same fall on purpose stuff that mostly all aikidoists do. It's almost as if someone could fart hard enough and knock the guy down.

It makes you wonder what the world would be like if Judo had been ruined by compliant'ers instead of Tai Chi Chuan.

like all martial arts it depends on the methodology used when training it.

I don't actively study tai chi but have played with peopel who can use it and have picked up a few good things for throws from them.

obviously as mentioned before if you only do pushing hands, your training methodology is about as effective for training in martial arts as learning to cook will help you with football practice.


the problem is that tai chi has become more of an "old people's excercise" than martial art and most people teach it as a form of geriatric aerobics- which is fine for the old people who want to get some excercise, but even among the people who purport to teach it as a martial art and claim to teach martial applications, many many many don't actually teach it.

possibly because they themselves don't know it and have never really trained it against a fully resisting opponent, or maybe because they got in a car crash and mysteriously got amnesia that only affects the "tai chi" learning and application memory in thier brain.

who knows, point is in tai chi, there are a select few that even claim to be able to teach it for fighting applications, even fewer among those who actually can.

If I was to be PC, I would say "Sure, if it's taught effectively on resisting training partners", but I get the feeling that that isn't very common. Tai Chi lends itself to larping simply by having Chi in the name. That alone will attract larpers who envision an uber far east martial art that is mega effective and which doesn't cause you to break a sweat while pwning meatheads (similar to Aikido in that fashion). That and the flashy katas complete the package.

Tai Chi is one of the last things you should consider when looking for an effective martial art. Why would you pass up BJJ, Sambo/Judo, Wrestling, Boxing, and Muay Thai/Kickboxing (which can be found in just about every area) for something that is largely unproven and lends itself to larping?

I'm not saying Tai Chi isn't good for health or flexibility or whatever, just that it's not an art I would even consider when talking about effective MA's.

I'm not saying Tai Chi isn't good for health or flexibility or whatever, just that it's not an art I would even consider when talking about effective MA's.

Some of us, though few, are lucky enough to find a school that teaches combative applications and offers full-contact sparring (with adequate protection of course) for all arts on our designated fight night and application focus weeks (fight night is every week, focus week for application = whole school forced to learn application of technique and sometimes sparring).

I will definitely not deny that Tai Chi has helped my flexibility, endurance, and weight control. It's done a lot of great things for me. That, and the ability to stay rooted and flip people in mosh pit fights, that was fun.

Tai chi (太極拳) does have chi in the Wade-Giles transliteration of the name, but of course the "chi" in that transliteration isn't "chi" (気).

As far as why one might consider tai chi, that was discussed in the thread on the CMA forum I linked to in an earlier post.

Anyone familiar enough with this site to grok what LARPing is in a martial arts context can spot the sort of class he or she would not want to take after watching one session anyway.

most people doing it being hippies and old people.

I freaking hate hippies

What about the guys from Chen village? They don't do the fluffy new age tai chi to the best of my knowledge.



Chen village is like a TCC theme park. They will basically sell whatever is in demand at the time. Expect ground fighting to 'become available to the public' at Chen village soon.

And again its time we got over this good/bad TCC (insert aikido, wing chun, krotty) and just looked at good v bad training ......being style specific is so 1981.

Not much in TCC is unique to TCC. Perhaps the only unique thing is the deep mass belief in craptitude.

I fucking hate old people.

I hate fucking old people.



Well, no one is saying you have to.

Well, no one is saying you have to.
You fight like old people ****

You fight like old people ****
With the help of Viagra?

And again its time we got over this good/bad TCC (insert aikido, wing chun, krotty) and just looked at good v bad training ......being style specific is so 1981.

Not much in TCC is unique to TCC. Perhaps the only unique thing is the deep mass belief in craptitude.

You have hit the nail on the head, liokault.

Evil Solvalou

We take fistfulls before every class! Qi gong isn't qi gong without trying to maintain a low horse stance on viagra.