How deadly is tai chi???

[ovine king]

simple, they are not athletes....

you train in tai chi chuan not to fight but to enter in harmony and health, the last thing you want to do is get yourself into a dangerous or "hostile" environment like a full contact tournament.

being as they are, not many tai chi chuan practitioners focus on training for fights, rarely would you find one.

Also, many athletes like the ones that compete in Full contact tournaments dont find Tai Chi Chuan as a means to be an effective fighter in a short time...they look for faster results.

again, partially valid but not totally acceptable.

like it or not, tai chi is a fighting art; it's inception and history of development is based around its applications in fights. whether or not you fight with it isn't the point. The point is, it should be taught as a fighting method and not as a health/mentality exercise.

some say that the fighting aspect is a side-effect of the method of health training;

i say that the health/mentality is a side effect of the fight training.

you are however, right in that if you are wanting to train for a particular fight format, the obvious way to train is to do what the other competitors do because that is the quickest way to get yourself to a competitive level.

i'm not sure if this happens in the states much, but here, most places that teach tai chi are also registered with the BCMAA who regularly hold free form/san shou rules "kick-boxing" tournements. I know people who train mostly in tai chi (at least a form of...) and take it apart in terms of ward-offs, follow throughs, step throughs etc etc andgenerally other things that can be used in a kick-boxing format. If these guys can do this for kick-boxing, why not do it for a mma rules fight?

[Goju_boi]

hey elbows_and_knees ,that was exactly who I was talking about

[Zappa]

I think there's an important point that has been mentioned, but keeps getting glanced off. Yes, Tai Chi is a martial art, but most people who practice it don't practice it for martial reasons, they practice it for health reason. In my class we focus more on Chi development, but we also do push hands, and anyone that wants to learn the martial aspects the Sifu will show them.

Also, anyone who questions the effectiveness of Tai Chi as a martial art should look up Chen Xiawong. Having had the chance to see him in action, I can assure you he can stand up and too the best in any field of martial arts. He is truely a master.

3rd, the highest state of martial use of Tai Chi is to be able to avoid fighting altogether. Anyone can start a fight, it takes a truley powerful person to stop it before it starts.

4th, referring back to the reason for practicing Tai Chi slowly, another reason for this is to help build the stabalizer muscles that are so criticial to practicing Tai Chi at a high level.

[ovine king]

that is something that i am also uncomfortable with.

if you aren't doing the whole aspect of something, are you actually doing the thing properly?

doing the movements as they are, without outside interference is good and all that but the next level comes from actually doing them in a stressed environment with resisting partners. That would be the test and eventually, the training ground for how good your control/form really is and if you re in in for health benefits, then missing out on an actual physical work out that also happens to test/work your "chi" (you know what i mean so no flaming please) seems a bit daft.

i believe that if you don't go to that step, you are always, without fail, going to be lacking when compared to someone who does do the full range of training.

incidentally, push hands is a drill/exercise/test.

it isn't and shouldn't be taken as a fighting drill.

when i was in a tai chi class, fighting drills involved actually getting hit if i messed up a movement or it involved me getting thrown to the ground via lock gone wrong on my part.

[White Warlock]

Okay, your avatar is starting to freak me out. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/White_Warlock/icon_eek.gif

[Kajukenbopr]

that is something that i am also uncomfortable with.

if you aren't doing the whole aspect of something, are you actually doing the thing properly?

doing the movements as they are, without outside interference is good and all that but the next level comes from actually doing them in a stressed environment with resisting partners. That would be the test and eventually, the training ground for how good your control/form really is and if you re in in for health benefits, then missing out on an actual physical work out that also happens to test/work your "chi" (you know what i mean so no flaming please) seems a bit daft.

i believe that if you don't go to that step, you are always, without fail, going to be lacking when compared to someone who does do the full range of training.

incidentally, push hands is a drill/exercise/test.

it isn't and shouldn't be taken as a fighting drill.

when i was in a tai chi class, fighting drills involved actually getting hit if i messed up a movement or it involved me getting thrown to the ground via lock gone wrong on my part.

pushing hands in the excercise/step you are taught before fighting free style using tai chi.when you reach free style sparring, you can use tai chi as a fighting art, agreed.

but most people dont use it for fighting, even the ones who've mastered the art avoid fighting altogether.

[ovine king]

I know.

I am just pointing out the not so obvious for the others who read these things.

A lot of people will see something like tui sau, chi sau, the roda, tapi tapi etc. and think that is fighting training or sparring.

one thing though and please excuse me for i know that it really is just picking on particular words but non-the-less, something i feel is important;

it isn't that you can use tai chi as a fighting art, tai chi IS a fighting art.

[Goju_boi]

"A lot of people will see something like tui sau, chi sau, the roda, tapi tapi etc"

what are you talking about?

[Muaythaiboxer]

forms of training in variouse styles that are oftain confused as sparing.

roda = Capoeira

tapi tapi = kali (i think)

others in not so shure.

[Goju_boi]

I thought that the roda was sparring?