no Tai Chi sparring, Too Dangerous

**johnny3443** · Posted On: 10/26/2006 3:44am

OK I feel I have to throw this out here. This was posted in the Diary of a BJJ Teen, for those who have not seen this. See bolded text.

Lorhax wrote:

You are correct on the balance statement, but in this instance I was talking about the pong lu ji on principles wich are tai chi.
Yes I will call tai chi and aikido fighting arts, the problem with both is there there is a lot of bullshit masters. I do Yoshinkan Style Aikido and Tai Chi Quang Yang Style, now if you are telling me that my aikido instructor 4th dan is a fraud you'll than have to talk with the Jacksoville SWAT team cause he teaches them too also he is a memeber of the team. If you want to check on his or any of my dojo's Sensei's/Sifu's expertees feel free to take a look at http://www.wsmabudo.org/ under the about us section you will find my instructors qualifications.
Finally push hands is absolutely not like sparring but teaches you too feel your opponent to know where he is locked and throw him out of balance.
Tai Chi in combat is extremely fast due to the huge amount of relaxation that the performers have, to achieve that everything is practiced in slow motion. Also there is no such thing as tai chi sparring because it's a little too dangerous given that every hand strike could possibly be the last using soft punching and Fajing. The way to train Tai Chi for the street requires a padded attacker if you are going to use strikes. While for the use of joint locks or throws it can be practices like every other martial art.

Am I being riled up by a troll? Is Tai Chi the “teh d34d1y"? Is this guy crazy?
Have any of you heard this claim before? (in regards to Tai Chi)

**LolodesBois** · Posted On: 10/26/2006 4:36am

Yes, no more than other arts, probably and yes :-)

As soon as you hear someone say "we don't spar because it's too dangerous" you know they aren't learning correctly.

No tai chi sparing ? there's are enough youtube video of tai chi guys in diverse competition to see that this claim is crap.

**Doctor X** · Posted On: 10/26/2006 5:32am

Agreed, but you are not being riled by a Troll, you are being riled by a Fool.

Push hands is useless to less-than-dangerous.

That is right, I wrote that!!

--J.D.

**FictionPimp** · Posted On: 10/26/2006 7:26am

According to the website, his instructor managed to train 5 years in both bjj and gracie bjj (aparently it's not the same thing) yet acheive no rank. Plus he got japanese rank in the ATA.

**PointyShinyBurn** · Posted On: 10/26/2006 7:31am

Cullion, on this board, trains TaiChi and he and his gym fight in San Shou. From what I hear he's not excessively dangerous...

**OnceLost** · Posted On: 10/26/2006 7:40am

REAL Full Contact Tai Chi Sparring - caught on film, baby...I love this ****.
http://www.ilram.com/M_taichimasters_temp.html

This was also posted in the Diary of a BJJ Teen thread (which is a great story):

Originally Posted by selfcritical

So, not to defend tards or anything, but to my understanding, most forms of tai chi are descended from mongolian wrestling, which is a fully alive takedown oriented style. As you up pushands intensity(at least from what i've seen by watching some of my friends competition stuff) walking push hands slowly begins to blur the line with roman-greco wrestling. The early goofy drills are supposed to isolate unbalancing movements under resistance, and then transition into what is essentially a clinch game. Do i think it's the most efficient way to train those skills? Hell no. Are there in fact quite a number of competitive tai chi guy's with solid takedown defense who can dump you on your ass? San Shou competitions would seem to indicate that there are. Just because i think training greco works better doesn't mean that it's neccesarily bullshit.

**jubei33** · Posted On: 10/26/2006 7:42am

push hands when its practiced (rarely..) in a resistant setting looks like suai jiao. The only people who believe in deadly touches are energy fairies.

"hey guys, take it easy, I just had a brush with death today. Mr chow massaged my 'abdomen'."

**datdamnmachine** · Posted On: 10/26/2006 9:29am

Originally Posted by FictionPimp

According to the website, his instructor managed to train 5 years in both bjj and gracie bjj (aparently it's not the same thing) yet acheive no rank. Plus he got japanese rank in the ATA.

Exactly how the hell does that work; considering that I will give the guy the benifit of the doubt and say that he is telling the truth. The Gracie Academy is known, per Helio's own words, for not giving out black belts unless you've trained with them for 10 years. This man should be at the least a purple belt if that's the case. I'm going to go with door number 3, he would take a "seminar" once a year while crappling with DVD's and books the other 364 days, 365 for leap year!

**Epicurus** · Posted On: 10/26/2006 9:36am

Originally Posted by datdamnmachine

I'm going to go with door number 3, he would take a "seminar" once a year while crappling with DVD's and books the other 364 days, 365 for leap year!

Give this man the ten thousand dollars!

**OnceLost** · Posted On: 10/26/2006 9:54am

Sorry, that was behind door number 4 - He thought very very hard about going to a seminar but instead spent his time practicing moves from his DVD and book collection against a grappling dummy. That's kind of 'alive,' isn't it? I mean, the dummy isn't going with the moves, right...

[Edit] I'll certainly give the guy props if he's on the J-ville SWAT team, but he's going to lose major points if he's supporting the 'tai chi is too dangerous for sparring' rational.