What Martial Arts Style should I study?
I want to study Shaolin Kung Fu. But the place I’m looking at is going to be changing their curriculum to: Xingyi, Bagua, Tai Chi and QiGong. Which one should I take if I want something similar?
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Tai Chi was developed at a time in China when there was no police force, so either you defended yourself from attackers or you got beat up, mugged or killed.
Modern Tai Chi emphasises the healing aspects of the art, so it is not so obvious what the combat applications are, but they are there and they are brutal.
The approach it took was to deploy techniques to disable an attacker by any means necessary as quickly as possible, so there’s limb breaks, eye-gouges and all sorts of other nasty stuff along with the punches and kicks etc.
Check out someone like Erle Montaigue for what Tai Chi used to be like before they modernised it.
Bear in mind that the Old Yang Tai Chi depends on that level of nastiness to be effective, it is of no value for fighting in a ring as in a ring you can’t eye-gouge and smash limbs.
All styles of Tai Chi originated from Chen Tai Chi. Chen Tai Chi is first and fore most a martial art. It was developed for war and to protect the Chen village (Chen Jia Goa). Its objective is to quickly and efficiently kill or maim single or multiple enemies. Other styles of Tai Chi have removed most of the original martial aspects leaving the health aspects. Tai Chi is an internal MA that takes years to learn and it doesnt rely on physical strength. Its practiced slow so u can develop chi while moving every single part of ur body and feel how its circulated through ur body. Speed and power all come from chi. I cant really describe how its used because its fluid all of its moves have offensive and defensive aspects. Its really hard to find a real Tai Chi master and even harder to find one thatll teach u the secret uses. It has no secret ultimate moves, every move has many uses and every move is effective. U use the opponents strength against him. A Tai Chi master can end a fight in a matter of seconds if not sooner.
Tai Chi can be slow and peaceful. The idea is that your strength comes out of relaxation. When you are relaxed it is easier to generate speed. With speed comes power so the first thing you will learn in Tai Chi is relaxation and to move totally relaxed and only use as much energy as is absolutely necessary. Most people do not stick with Tai Chi long enough to actually learn the explosiveness of Tai Chi. Advanced Tai Chi is not slow at all. Some people just love the relaxation of Tai Chi and never go beyond this point of learning.
Tai Chi is the most deceptive of the martial arts I know. It involves punches, kicks, pushes, strikes, take downs, you name it. Check out Chen Tai Chi on youtube performed by the Chen family (Chen Xiaowang, Chen Bing, Chen Ziqiang) or watch the videos on chenbing.org. It is most impressive. I love this one too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh5-MRdz5QQ