Tai Chi,good self-defense art or not?

[Mo Ling]

Heads up;

"The ultimate martial art" is a poor mistranslation of the meaning of "Taijiquan"

A proper translation is:

Taiji= the concept of (universal) cycle between Yin and Yang energy.
Quan= fist (martial art)

This ultimate is not the same meaning as in "the greatest" in English. Instead it is the meaning of "ultimate" in English as in "universal" or cosmic system of change...a philosophy.

So in essence one could say it is the "concept of Yin Yang universal change martial art," but in Chinese that is just the word; Taiji...then add Quan for fist. Please make note, as this mistranslation has been going on for AGES in the west, we can end it when ready.


M

https://www.taijigongfu.com

[bbbb]

2 out of three of the Wudang systems and you are "sitting pretty": is that about right??!(Where did I read that!!?).

[lavoll]

.

hi i'm new

here's an old lady from the park that can kick all your butts



all of you could probably easily kick mine in my experience anyone trained will most likely defeat anyone not trained unless they get really unlucky.... that's deep ain't it?

[Crabpuff]

are you sure that is a lady

[lavoll]

.

are you sure that is a lady

uhh.. not sure if you are joking or seriously asking.. so i'll respond as if you are asking

that is profesor Kan Gui Xiang in the picture. she's a woman, yes.



about the original question in this thread (15 pages ago)... as many have stated here there's lots more to a complete taijiquan training than just form.
"taiji for health" as you often see is maybe taoistic inspired meditative gymnastic moves. taijiquan is a fighting art. it is in the name. quan.

maybe i am simplifying too much, but isnt this also a common "western" misunderstanding of "eastern" thinking? that one thing excludes another instead of complementing each other into a whole.. like the two fishies in the taiji symbol.

about being effective in the streets.. who knows? who hits first and hardest? who has most friends? will the police think "here's a martial artist honorably defending himself against an attacker" or "here's two drunk idiots, let's take them both to spend the night in the drunk arrest".
when is it not self-defense anymore but just a fight?

some other random thoughts

in a sport the rules dictate what is most effective. bringing a motorcycle to marathon run is cheating. punching the goalkeeper before you shoot is probably also cheating. arent MMA fights sporting events? they are at least controlled to some extent. if there's no control, bring a motorcycle.. or a sword.. or a shovel.

but i'll be the first to admit that i have extremely little experience in fighting. my last "street fight" must have been when i was in 6th grade lol.
i've practiced taijiquan for some years and i think it should be easy for "fighters" to see how they can benefit from taijiquan when they are exposed to "real" taijiquan. i practice with lots of people who are from other martial arts, and as other people here have stated, it's a very good compliment to any other martial "style"... but you can say that about all arts... and at a "high" enough level, won't most arts looks similar both in theory and practice?

find a good club and try it is my recommandation. myself, i'm planning to start a "2nd" martial art that has uhh.. more of a tradition for even more contact in training (if that makes any sense in my poor english)... just to see if that makes my taijiquan better. Also look into Sanda (san shou), thats the sporting tournament rules for chinese martial arts.. looks kinda like k-1 but with more throws... there's also places that just practice push hands... there's even push hand world championsips.

[Yaberdaber]

I am new to this forum and this one thread caught my attention. I haven't really read the comments on this page, so forgive me if I may be repeating someone else's thought.

In my opinion, taiji is very destructive as well as probably one of the deadliest arts I know. I am no taiji martial artist, but I have seen one of its practitioners(been doing this 30+ years) dodge kicks and push some guy 5 feet away with less effort than breaking a twig. Seems impossible, but living in Asia, you tend to see weird stuff. Now, there is a thing as taiji for exercise. It's good, but I believe that true taiji as practiced in the old days must be informed to the public eye. It is an art of war with very practical defences and offenses.

[jubaji]

living in Asia, you tend to see weird stuff.

What a load of crap.

[AlexJitsu]

Wow.

This thread is filled with so much bullshit it's ridiculous. I've heard bullshit like:

Street fighter would kick a Tai Chi person's ass.
Karate and TKD are useless.
Muay Thai ownz all.

First of all, I do Hsing Yi Ch'uan. I also do Judo, Ju-Jitsu, and have studied Tae Kwon Do, various things from books, seminars, friends, etc.

First of all, street fighters will rarely beat any practitioner of martial arts unless:

*The martial artist doesn't know how to relax his mind in a real confrontation
*The martial artist doesn't practice and train
*The martial art is not geared for real combat (Tae Bo)
*The martial artist only trains within their sport and only follows its rules(TKD, Karate)
*The Street Fighter is ridiculously tall (Tank Abbot)

Street fighters suck hard, they're uncoordinated, don't know how to block a punch, don't kick, throw arm punches, don't know any joint locks or any sort of techniques, and are just plain retarded.

The creator of Tai Chi took many techniques from various arts (Shaolin, Taoist), and added alignment and proper structure. When the other gung-fu practitioners saw him, they laughed and said, "What the hell are these slow movements, etc.", however, when challenged, the creator of Tai Chi beat everyone in China.

Next, I understand why someone would say Karate and TKD are both useless, however, I can assure you this is not true. When I trained in TKD (for a month crash course), the advanced practitioners were incredibly fast. TKD definetly builds great speed in your kicks, and same with Karate (provided you do the drills). In Gladiator Challenge, I saw some idiot MMA do a shitty slow roundhouse kick and spin around!

Lastly, I'm sick and tired of everyone going on and on about how much MMA and Muay Thai ownz. San Shou fighters (which in my opinion, is modernized gung fu) kicked the Thais fighters asses all over the place despite the fact that San Shouers don't use elbows and knees to the head.

Tai Chi is not the weakest link at all. In the Martial Arts Club at my school, this one guy that does Tai Chi kicked this awesome Hapkido kids ass. My Hsing Yi teacher showed me the kick defense from Pi Quan and made me go flying. Hsing Yi practitioners have some of the hardest punches in the world.

I don't know what else to say.

[jubaji]

This thread is filled with so much bullshit it's ridiculous. .

And you just added another load. Thanks.

[AlexJitsu]

Wow, nice analytical assessment of my kick ass post.

[jubaji]

Wow, nice analytical assessment of my kick ass post.

Yeah dude, it sure did kick ass, dude.

[Michael Maison]

You haven't noticed? This guy is an asshole who only knows how to criticize. He can't and doesn't ever form anything substantive to say, so he criticizes your spelling. That shows nothing but a huge, Jupiter sized inferiority complex.

[jubaji]

You haven't noticed? he criticizes your spelling. That shows nothing but a huge, Jupiter sized inferiority complex.

That, or it shows that you can't spell. One of those.

[AlexJitsu]

You haven't noticed? This guy is an asshole who only knows how to criticize. He can't and doesn't ever form anything substantive to say, so he criticizes your spelling. That shows nothing but a huge, Jupiter sized inferiority complex.

Are you talking about me? Because if you are, you are surely mistaken. But not spelling correctly makes you sound significantly less intelligent in a debate.

I'm not an asshole at all, but if you insist on calling me one I will be.

[jubaji]

I'm not an asshole at all, but if you insist on calling me one I will be.

............................

LOL