I’m into yoga, and I always hear how great these Chinese martial/internal arts are. With a standard karate background, I’ve been trying to understand if these arts are similar - minus the belt ranks.

Are there set forms, or just individual techniques?

Is there a curriculum for these forms/techniques, depending on the style/lineage?

Have you noticed anything in particular that you’ve gained from practicing these arts, and can you share some of that experience?

What online schools do you trust to learn from and/or get certified from?

Thank you in advance!

Hi there, I have trained Chinese martial arts with a highly graded Shifu here in Belfast, who’s main gig is Tai Chi. He was a judge at the Wushu World Championships where I competed in Sanda.

Tai Chi and Qi Gong are pretty different. Tai Chi is a martial art, where Qi Gong is kind of a meditative practice of trying to influence the ‘chi’ energy within the body. As a firm NON-believer in ‘chi’, I was more interested in Tai Chi, which turned out to be quite a difficult art form. It involves a lot of isometric strength which isn’t as practiced in Karate. So it can make you feel like a baby when you realise that these slow movements are a bloody challenge for a big strong karate enthusiast.

Some of the principles of Tai Chi overlapped quite nicely with the ideas of Wado Ryu karate when I was training, and the Tai Chi complimented my Karate with some conditioning and flexibility that wasn’t really developed in the Dojo.

Thank you for the response, Seamas! I’m glad that you included which one was a good addition to your karate. I recently read that Chojun Miyagi had some training in Baguazhang during his travels to China. I’m curious to know how that helped shape his Goju Ryu!