Wu Style Tai Chi?

[Mtal]

I am looking to get into Tai Chi again and found a school which teaches Wu Style Tai Chi. Has anyone studied it? What is it like? How does it compare to other styles (I do know with the stances the weight is more on the forward foot than the back)? What about the applications? Push Hands? What benefits do you get from it? Thanks, any info would be great.

[CTTKDKing]

I'm not very diversed in the internal arts, but I recently read an article on Tai Chi, and the man the article was about said that he practiced Wu style Tai Chi for 20 years, and it did many things for him. He was able to heal very fast from injury's, and was able to keep in excelent shape. He also was always very very focused. However he never really thought of Wu style Tai Chi as a fighting art. He then me the man who's ancestors founded Chen style tai chi and was shown how he can put all the movements from Wu style into practice for a fighting art. He then realised how brutal a fighting art Tai Chi actually can be. I guess this probably wasn't very helpful for what you want to know, but i thought it was kinda cool.

[bushido_man96]

That is kind of cool. You normally don't think of Tai Chi as a fighting art. I worked out with a guy a few times who seemed to have kind of a Thai background, but he said his dad taught "Combat Tai Chi." Maybe so, huh?

[MizuRyu]

My friend uses Tai Chi in his fighting 'mix'. It's very effective. It's strikes are so rooted and solid that if they connect they're probably going to break something. It also teaches you to attack with every part of your body (shoulders, hips, head, wrist). He says it's very useful in a clinch as it teaches you how to 'launch' someone away from you at any angle using mostly any body part.

[Kenpo5th]

Don't be fooled by the watering down of Eastern arts in the Western world. T'ai Chi Ch'uan (the correct name for it) is indeed a self-defense applicable art. Every single move, from every one of the 5 major T'ai Chi style forms is a Martial Application. The applications are broken down to three levels.:

Chin-na - Seizing and controlling

Ch'uan Fa - Striking

Tien Shue (Dim Mak) - pressure point activation and neurological shut down points.

If you ask your instructor to teach you the Martial Applications, and they say that T'ai Chi is for health only, they probably don't know pure T'ai Chi, but a watered down westernized version of it. Please note, this is NOT a slam on any style or teacher, just my version of the truth. And as my instructor (who I recently recieved my Wu's instruction certificate from) says, "The truth, no matter who it hurts, is still THE TRUTH".

[bushido_man96]

Thanks for the info, Kenpo5th. Very enlightening.

[cathal]

Don't be fooled by the watering down of Eastern arts in the Western world. T'ai Chi Ch'uan (the correct name for it) is indeed a self-defense applicable art. Every single move, from every one of the 5 major T'ai Chi style forms is a Martial Application. The applications are broken down to three levels.:

Chin-na - Seizing and controlling

Ch'uan Fa - Striking

Tien Shue (Dim Mak) - pressure point activation and neurological shut down points.

If you ask your instructor to teach you the Martial Applications, and they say that T'ai Chi is for health only, they probably don't know pure T'ai Chi, but a watered down westernized version of it. Please note, this is NOT a slam on any style or teacher, just my version of the truth. And as my instructor (who I recently recieved my Wu's instruction certificate from) says, "The truth, no matter who it hurts, is still THE TRUTH".

A friend of the family was into Tai Chi and a guest instructor came, who was into this full application of the martil aspect. She felt that it sullied the art of Tai Chi and that it promoted violence. I wasn't old enough at the time to understand the differences or even to challenge her opinion but she was adamant that it was for health purposes only.

It's only recently in my life that I learned of a martial aspect (for lack of a better term) of Tai Chi. Shuai Chiao is an example of that as well I think.