My experience with the Tai Chi guys…
Back in the States I’ve never really had too much exposure to Tai Chi guys who practice the art as a “martial art” rather than an artsy ****sy health hobby type thing. Anyway, I got the chance to meet some tai chi martial artists during my time here in China. In Qingdao I watched a few guys do tai chi sword sparring. They’re very quick and they move around a lot. Their timing, footwork and reaction was impressive although the techniques that they apply seem a bit soft and flowery.
But more interesting was my experience with a tai chi competitor in beijing. I spent a few days in Beijing not too long before I came to Qingdao. A friend of my father who lives in Beijing is a disciple of some recently deceased tai chi sifu. He came to meet and greet me while I was in town. Knowing that I am an experienced martial artist, he brought along one of his tai chi brothers who was one of their teacher’s top disciples, and also a push hands competition champion. He told me that this guy’s skill was very high. He mentioned that the guy had fought a bigger and stronger opponent in a push hands match a little while ago and broke the guy’s ribs. For the record, I don’t know how true this is. I’m just taking his word for it. So anyway, using my limited and sucky ABC Mandarin speaking ability I discussed MA with the guys. The tone is friendly, but they kind of imply that the stuff that I do is lower level and less beneficial to internal health than Tai Chi. I mentally roll my eyes at that nonsense but I wanna be polite so I don’t push the issue too much. After I’ve watched the competitor demonstrate some tai chi, my dad’s friend suggests that I play fight with his buddy. He wants me to feel how tai chi is used. Well, I’m tired from travel, I haven’t worked out for days, I’m still feeling the effects of the previous night’s banquet, on top of which I don’t have any sort of gear with me. But I guess they want me to light contact barehand spar. I’m not too fond of that kind of “sparring” and I’m wearing jeans and a collared shirt standing in a hotel meeting hall. So its not the right time or circumstances as far as I’m concerned. My dad’s friend actually thinks I’m nervous and tells me, “Don’t worry he won’t hurt you.” I actually chuckled a little bit at that, since it definitely wasn’t what I was thinking about. Anyway, since he was so eager and insistent, I figure what the hell. At least this would show me what kind of techniques he tries to apply in a free moving situation.
So I moved around with the guy for a little while. Although he didn’t leave me with the impression that tai chi is the most practical fighting method out there, I will give credit where its due. The guy did show an aspect of applicable skill. Although not all his techniques were great, he had strong energy in the clinch, pressure sensitivity, and short movement explosiveness. He’s clearly not a judo guy or a wrestler, but for lack of a better term I’d say he had good grappler’s energy. He knew how to play the pressure game pretty well. He almost threw me on my a$$ a few times. My practical opinion is that his strategy had holes in it, but there was definitely a physical ability there. Under certain circumstances, I don’t doubt that the guy could use his skills effectively. That being said, if we’d been going hard I’m pretty confident that I would’ve taken him out decisively. Primarily being a kickboxer, I can’t do much by slap fighting. If I’m not allowed to hit hard, I simply can’t show much of my effectiveness. I saw holes in the guy’s defense. If we had been fighting, he would’ve eaten some combos. But not wanting to pi$$ anyone off, I didn’t even want to throw a moderate legkick, let alone punch him in the face. To be fair, he was holding back too. But when I train or compete, I’m always taking and dishing out real punishment. Lacking that training mentality and technical background, I doubt he could stand toe to toe with me. Perhaps he could’ve knocked me down with those slams and sweeps that he seemed to prefer. But I’d answer that by getting up and hitting him some more. Or if we both end up on the ground I could submit or GnP.
Anyway, that was my interesting close look into tai chi. When I have time i’ll post some other experiences.
