What's Wrong with Tai Chi?

[Guird]

I have a recollection of there being several examples of tai-chi schools consistently producing competent wrestlers and kickboxers. The 'full contact kung fu' thread has a few.
I'm surprised I haven't seen them brought up in the discussions surrounding this event. Also, wasn't yang-style largely spread through challenge matches (well prior to being adopted and modified turned 'long form' by the chinese government.

I mean, obviosuly tai chi has no fighting application as practiced by the vast majority of people, but I get the impression that what is practiced by the majority of people is somewhat of a mis-characterization of tai chi. I've seen a few demonstrations of tai chi applications that were pretty similar to well-known wrestling techniques.

this post is a little all over the place, sorry, I just wanted to remind people of this, see how it influences the discussion.

[slamdunc]

Tai Chi is for pussies.

Tai Chi is for old people and pussies.

[Pship Destroyer]

I read somewhere Tai Chi wasn't necessarily that good if you have arthritis...I need time to find the study, but stand by.

Still can't find it, but I found these.

Efficacy of Tai Chi on Pain, Stiffness and Function in Patients with Osteoarthritis: A Meta-Analysis
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3631149/

Tai chi may be as good as physical therapy for arthritis-related knee pain
http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/t...n-201606159780

Exploring Tai Chi in rheumatoid arthritis: a quantitative and qualitative study
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2845097/

Conclusions

Improved muscle function in lower limbs was also reflected when patient experiences with Tai Chi were studied in depth in this explorative study. The combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods shows that Tai Chi has beneficial effects on health not related to disease activity and standardised health status assessment, and may contribute to an understanding of how Tai Chi exerts its effects

[TheAngryOrange]

I have a recollection of there being several examples of tai-chi schools consistently producing competent wrestlers and kickboxers. The 'full contact kung fu' thread has a few.
I'm surprised I haven't seen them brought up in the discussions surrounding this event. Also, wasn't yang-style largely spread through challenge matches (well prior to being adopted and modified turned 'long form' by the chinese government.

I mean, obviosuly tai chi has no fighting application as practiced by the vast majority of people, but I get the impression that what is practiced by the majority of people is somewhat of a mis-characterization of tai chi. I've seen a few demonstrations of tai chi applications that were pretty similar to well-known wrestling techniques.

this post is a little all over the place, sorry, I just wanted to remind people of this, see how it influences the discussion.

People view martial arts as a set of tools. If one is not working, it is useless. If one outperforms the other, it must be better. But martial arts is a pool, a skill pool. Different arts take different things from that pool for different reasons, each one modified for their own purposes and utilized based on what rules do and do not exist. Tai-chi (and aikido for that matter) take from a very small section of that pool. Close quarters, forward moving, aggressive opponents are what these two martial arts specialize in but that is also what they require. If the other person is not being a committed aggressor, then Tai-chi and aikido practitioners have nothing to do. Other grappling arts like wrestling, judo, and bjj cover the exact same facet and much more. That's why the the former always melt under pressure. They need very specific situations to work and the latter martial arts cover what to do in the same situations as well as many more. These two martial arts work well as a way to reinforce or strengthen existing skills. Much like how when i went into MMA I had a boxing coach improve my hand game, these two martial arts should be used to improve your usage of your opponents movement and momentum (and the skilled grapplers you talked about do that). But on its own, it doesn't cover enough to be effective.

(Of course I say all this assuming you are going to a descent tai-chi school and not one of those ones with an instructor who says he can knock you out by flicking you or throwing chi balls at you)

[Holy Moment]

Close quarters, forward moving, aggressive opponents are what these two martial arts specialize in but that is also what they require.

They're not good at it, though.