Tai Chi and Sparring

[SatyagrahaKF]

I was wondering if Tai Chi skills such as ward off or basic push hands could be performed/used effectively while sparring with gloves on.

[Gaoguy]

Sure why not? Ward off is the first contact in PH. The you you use both arms to tie up, hit to hurt and throw or lock.

[lordtariel]

Sure, you're a little limited as there is a lot of grabbing/redirecting and palm strike application in tai chi, but there are other strikes in there if you look for them. (Grasp Sparrows Tail, Fair Lady Works at Schuttles, Ect.)

[dtstiachi]

You lose the trapping capabilities of the techniques, but they can be used effectively while sparring. A follow up question is this, what type of sparring is it? It sounds more like traditional boxing.

[SatyagrahaKF]

Yes, it is fighter training so you could compare it to boxing in a way. There aren't really opportunities for grabs.

[shogeri]

I would tend to believe that you would lose some of the sensitivity factor, as well as some of the qi factor.

[Chaz]

I would assume so, if you really wanted to. But I never have myself.

[ovine king]

some things translate, some don't.

you can do pretty much do all of the basic ward-offs as they don't really use the hands; them being more about elbow+balance.

a class i know that also practices kickboxing under san shou rules teaches tai-chi as the "parent" class and they have no problems when it comes to the national (san shou) competitions.