Tai Chi

Popular images of Tai Chi Chuan (‘Grand Ultimate Fist’) are of older Chinese men and women arranged in lines like soldiers slowly performing dance like movements below the first rays of the morning sun in parks across China. While this is certainly the way most practitioners pursue the path of this mysterious internal martial art, contrary to common perception, Tai Chi Chuan is simultaneously a superb method of self-defense for all ages. Famous for claims to develop chi, or an intrinsic ‘life force’ enhanced by controlled and concentrated breathing and stretching exercises, Tai Chi Chuan (Dai Ji Juan) traces its ancestry back into a murky past. The founder is said to be Chang San Feng (Zhang San Feng), a Taoist monk heavily steeped in the philosophy of Yin and Yang and the pursuit for immortality (the merging of one's personal chi with the universal chi). He is reported to have been impressed upon seeing a snake defeat a crane using natural evasive movements combined with fast counters. If that was the case, then it can be surmised that the original form of Tai Chi had little in common with what is seen and practiced today. Nowadays practitioners develop a finely honed sensitivity to the attacks of an opponent before redirecting the energy and augmenting it with a little of their own to often produce spectacular results.

Training consists mostly of continual practice of a series of linked movements known as a form. Each style of Tai Chi Chuan has its own form, though certain movements may be replicated from school to school. In addition, each tradition may inject a slightly different feel or energy level into the execution of the techniques that make up the form, though most practice tends to be done softly and slowly with minimal muscular tension. This approach ensures that muscles are stretched and oxygenated properly, the body remains relaxed and an awareness of balance is enhanced. Shortly after beginning to learn the form, a student may progress onto elementary pushing hands practice. This popular Chinese approach to training is conducted slowly and gently to begin with, often in patterns of movement with no deviation. Partners facing each other touch outer wrists together (or maybe just one wrist in the early stage) and, while maintaining contact, move their arms around. Whenever a sense of imbalance is detected one partner gently thrusts his arm through, attempting to push the other and unsettle his stance. This practice can be very confusing to a beginner as it is not clear initially what impetus initiates a successful push, but patience pays off. Pushing hands should not be discounted as a less effective means of developing fighting skills than free sparring. One of the greatest Tai Chi Chuan teachers of the twentieth century, Cheng Man Ching, retells his experiences that saw him being repeatedly knocked out from being pushed by a partner into the ground or a nearby wall. Higher levels of training involve lengthier form practice and pushing hands while moving around the training hall. Some Chinese weapons are also taught to more advanced students, though the emphasis is on using the weapon to promote empty handed skills.

The key to using Tai Chi Chuan as an effective combative art lies in detecting a point of imbalance in the opponent and exploiting it, often sending the unsuspecting foe flying back several meters through the air with little more than an apparent slight push. Exponents tend to favor pushes for initial defense so as to discourage further aggression. Should an opponent continue to act rashly punches and sweeps are favorite defensive tools. If such punches are used they generate a different type of power to the more dynamic boxing-type strikes of many arts. By staying relaxed the practitioner is able to transfer his force 'into' the target and an expert can easily drop an opponent without appearing to make very much effort at all.

Schools of Tai Chi Chuan include Chen (the original style), Yang (the most common), Wu, Sun and Cheng.