Tai chi : is it an actual martial art? It seems like an awfully slow way to actually hurt someone?

Answer 1

Well, first of all we need to understand that Mars, god of war, is what martialism is all about. I don't think of myself as a follower of Mars especially, but I've trained a LOT. I take as my group's 'founder' the bodyguard who excorted and protected the monk who brought the sacred scriptures from India into China...but anyway:
I've had about forty years of various kinds of martial arts training. I remember five years when I was doing the 37-move Cheng Tai Ch'i style, and being a guy with an attitude and some serious background I wanted to know the same thing you ask. I will tell you that I didn't believe there was anything to it as far as fighting until I asked a friend inChinatown who'd taught a lot. He did some of his 'slow' moves very quickly, and yes, he could hurt someone.
Much later, I analyzed the form I was practicing, and right in the middle there were four variations of the same move, to the four directions, just a sort of 'ward off and punch'? and yes, I found I could hurt people with those. The capability is sort of in there, but there's a catch. See, T'ai Ch'i isn't usually your first martial art: traditionally, as I got it, it was for old people, and it has in it a REVIEW of most of the arts you (should) have studied before!
In the system I got acquainted with, there was Youth Fist, Something else, then Shingi, then Ba Kua, then T'ai Ch'i. And of course by that time, you were OLD!
But I can tell you there are some interesting energies that are developed by T'ai Ch'i. Being a kind of brusque guy, T'ai Ch'i was good for my interpersonal interactions...it made me more aware of others and slowed me down in public!I found that I got a great deal of respect from people who knew nothing about me,simply by walking in the room. And another friend of mine, a private investigator of many years experience, told me that he'd been doing t'ai ch'i twice a day for twenty years. I would have liked to teach him the tricks and methods in his form, but it wasn't necessary...he said a couple of guys tried to mug him at an ATM in Oakland late one night, and this is important, that he had NO IDEA what he did, he just reacted, and broke one's arm and knocked the other one down. And that's the real ability you want to get to, no matter what method you practice to get there.
If you were a friend of mine and wanted to learn to learn real combat skills in a reasonable person's time, I wouldn't suggest T'ai Ch'i or akido...in twenty years you'll get there, but maybe you're worried about next month or next year. So I usually advise other kinds of training for survival skills. I hope this has been useful.

Answer 2

Yes Tai Chi is a martial art.

The reason why it looks so alien is that it is an internal martial art based on an entirely different principle than the hard martial arts.

Tai Chi is based on RELAXATION rather than TENSION.

Not all Tai Chi forms are slow. There are some fast forms and some mixed (fast & slow) forms.

Once you have learned a form, the next step in Tai Chi is called "Push Hands." This is practiced with a partner and the martial attributes of Tia Chi are much more apparant when you get to this level.

In addition to the empty hand forms, there are also forms involving Tai Chi weapons: Jian (double edged sword), broad sword, fan, walking stick, staff and cudgel are the ones that I know of (there are probably more.)

BTW: The objective of martial arts is not "to hurt someone!"

Answer 3

Tai Chi is short for Tai Chi Chuan and it began as a martial art. Today, however, most people who train and teach Tai Chi do so for the health benefits and not really for the self-defense aspect. There are still a few people in the world who still practice Tai Chi in its entirety - for both health benefits and self-defense. But they are very hard to find and that is part of the "cons". Most Tai Chi instructors were never trained in the combat aspect of Tai Chi although they may have some ideas as to the origins and purpose. To know a move is not the same as being able to apply it in real life situations, so this does not help you if your goal is to study Tai Chi as a martial art. The pros of Tai Chi is that it is something you can do into your elder years unlike other forms of exercises. And besides the physical, there are also the mental benefits. Tai Chi is often called meditation in motion and not without good reasons. -- "Is it very hard to master this martial art?" There is no such things as an easy to master martial art. Plus, no one totally masters a martial art. No one has complete and perfect knowledge of anything and that includes martial art. Martial art training is a life-long pursuit, not something you reach a level of mastery and stop. There is ALWAYS more to learn.

Answer 4

Tai Chi Chuan actually roughly translates to "Supreme Ultimate Fist", so based on the term alone, one can discern that it is an extremely effective martial art.

The reason it is performed slowly is two-fold (mainly): one, for health benefits as the body's organs are being massaged while doing the movements as well as cultivating chi (if you believe in that, which I do), and two, since there are no basics. In fact, if certain basic moves are performed at full speed with improper form, the practitioner can get very badly hurt!

People who know the martial applications of this very symbolic system do practice at full speed, and are very accomplished martial artists.

If you want to learn more, a great book is available called The 13 Treatises on Tai Chi Chuan by Cheng-Tzu. This book can be applied to everyday life as well as martial arts; a great companion to The Art of War.

Answer 5

There are different styles of Tai Chi.

It is often promoted and practiced as a martial arts therapy for the purposes of health and longevity, and there are recent medical studies support its effectiveness.

Tai Chi is considered a soft style martial art, an art applied with as much deep relaxation or "softness" in the musculature as possible, to distinguish its theory and application from that of the hard martial art styles which use a degree of tension in the muscles.

Answer 6

Taichi was originally founded as a self defence system that helped villagers to ward of brutal horse gang bandits that tried to loot their village (Chen's village, thus Chen's style Taichi). Alot of philosophy and knowledge goes into this artform. A taichi teacher once told me the essence of taichi is "body coordination" where the qi's cultivated throughout your body to the point where "when your mind's there, your energy's there". One will often find the greatest taichi masters known in history often reaches to a point where they no longer needs the many fancy moves but boils down to only few very simple moves because they've mastered all the "inner workings", but it is with these couple of simple moves(all that they need) that they were able to remain undefeated by challengers from other m.a. even at an old age. There's much much more that goes beneath what meets the eye.

Answer 7

Tai Chi Chuan as it was originally taught was a highly effective martial art. It is still taught that way but this sort of teaching is rare.

Here is a good question dealing with it from this very website. I could not have said it better than is said in this question:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061127210607AAAKHUR

Answer 8

you may want to ask yourself why it's practiced slow. are there any benefits you can discern?

no one fights slow and the art wouldnt be around as long as it has if it actually taught you how to fight moving slowly.

while there can be some experiience/understanding gained from slow partner work, any good tai chi instruction for self defense purposes will incorporate fast/real life exercises that use tai chi principles and mechanics/movements, so that you learn how to apply them.

yin and yang / slow and fast = balance

Answer 9

tai chi is actually known as the deadliest martial art.what we see is the slowed down(very)version.there are still some ppl teaching the real style but hard to find.most of them would probably be frauds anyway.

Answer 10

Tai Chi helps with martial arts by helping you focus, relax, and balance yourself.