Tai Chi

[A.D.D]

[meng_mao]

I think we scared Shingami away from this thread. Hopefully he learned a lesson.

[eyebeams]

Chen is the only variant of Taiji that is practiced with quick movements in the forms.

Not necessarily. I'd say that Chen has the most in the way of codified portions of fast movement in the set, but it's relatively common to see people do specific bits quick (kicks, usually) or practice parts or all of the form quickly as well.

I'd sai Tai Chi's Shuai techniques and its aggressive approach to closing the distance are notable, but there's so much crap about yielding and lousy soft pun out there you don't see its characteristics too often.

[kungfujew]

I see lots of Tai Chi bashing going around, with only a few people trying to argue against it. I read one earlier about how Tai Chi uses chi to defend you.... which is not very true, and is not exactly the biggest help to the arguement.

Basically, here's my arguement. You don't know what Tai Chi is, so don't bash it.

That really looong, sloooow series of 88 movements you see a the YMCA and available on DVDs and stuff? Not Tai Chi. That series of movements is actually a pre-Tai Chi exercise designed to get your body used to certain movements and make you flexible, and it's supposed to be done fairly quickly too. Don't ask me why it's so damn slow, I blame the first McDojo rep who claimed it was an easy form of Yoga. Learning these 88 movements and claiming you know Tai Chi is like touching your toes and claiming you know Ju Jujitsu. You aren't going to win fights with this set of slow, even movements, not in a million years.

Actual Tai Chi is practiced a lot like a Karate kata, except involving a great deal of sidesweeping movements, spinning, stomping, and jabbing people in painful places. All of it is very fast and hard to follow if you haven't already done the moves slow-mo in the workout. This doesn't mean that just becaues it's gone from Yoga to Kata it's suddenly t3h styl3 of t3h g0dz0rz!!!!11! It's a martial art, like any other, and has problems like any other. There are some moves that are worth learning though.

I'm not asking you to rank this higher than any other flawed art, I'm just annoyed at all the people claming it's nothing more than yoga. It's not.

Look man, I do Tai Chi, and yes there's a lot of Tai Chi bashing here; but for the love of Mike, this does not help. I find it works for me and what I want to do, so I don't feel the need to defend it to a bunch of closeminded lunkheads.

Also, there's a TON of Tai Chi related bullshit floating around; and you comparing Tai Chi to Karate katas is not helping your case. Ayee-yah, xiao gao!

[liokault]

If you think theres tai chi bashing here, go look at a tai chi forum. Nothing a tai chi guy hates more than another style of tai chi!

[Cullion]

I don't think there's much Taichi bashing here. I came to Bullshido not doing Taichi and found the Taichi teacher I'm now with through Bullshido.

[I aint punchy!?]

I remember being at WC grading several years ago, and there was also a group who did Tai Chi there. Both groups did sparring as part of the grading. When the Tai Chi guys sparred each other it was very interesting - several blood noses, black eyes... it looked like a free-flowing long-fist style of kungfu.

[Cullion]

Sounds like the right sort of Taichi to me.

[Fantasy Warrior]

Not me, when I get old and winkley I'm going to take up taiji for health. No fighting for me.

[Cullion]

At least make sure you go to a club where they also teach it as an MA for people who want that side of it.

How can you trust what somebody says about the stretching and strengthening effect of a stance movement on the legs and hips if he can't kick somebody in the gut hard enough to knock them down ?