I would like to add to this topic, but would prefer not to engage in any arguments about the issue of Tai Chi versus other martial arts.
The best way to evaluate the effectiveness of Tai Chi is to experience it for oneself. If we are talking about martial effectiveness and the type of Tai Chi represented by the Association and similar traditions, the pathway to this lies through push hands. If you do not do push hands, you cannot understand our approach to the martial side.
Doing push hands and doing solo form practice both share an internal and an external aspect. It can be rewarding to do either while basically only paying attention to the external aspects, but it is much more so while paying attention to both. This requirement introduces an element of subtlety to this type of Tai Chi that is hard to teach, learn, discuss, or demonstrate.
Tai Chi is not alone in such subtlety. Consider swimming or bicycling.
If you can swim, you are probably familiar with one or more types of strokes. If you cannot swim, you may think that learning to swim basically involves learning and perfecting one of these strokes. If you do swim, you know that there is some truth to such a statement, but that it fundamentally does not capture the reality of what it takes to learn to swim and what you do while swimming. Both my father and I learned to swim by different methods without having even ten seconds worth of instruction in stroke mechanics.
If you can ride a bicycle, you know that it requires a certain amount of balancing. If you cannot ride a bicycle, you might think there are some movements to learn or that balancing is the core aspect of riding a bicycle and that having excellent balance is a requirement. If you do ride a bicycle, you know that what you learned is not easy to put into words and that learning how to balance your torso was not really part of it.
As you start Tai Chi, it is inevitable that you will pay attention to external things. This is actually a good and necessary step. But more accomplished practitioners know that the core of Tai Chi is not about externals, but rather about managing energy. It is not really about any particular movements or techniques, even if it might seem so.
From a scientific standpoint, I could describe “energy” as generally referring to kinetic, elastic, and potential energy. You must learn to manage these in yourself and in your opponent.
Until you reach a certain level of Tai Chi, managing energy seems only like coordinating your limbs in a particular way and perhaps adding a few of the more internal concepts. This is like trying to learn to swim by perfecting your strokes or learning to ride a bicycle while focusing only on balancing the torso. Actually, the more internal concepts are fundamental and integral to the movement and cannot just be added in.
In swimming, managing your effect on the water and the water’s effect on you is more fundamental than any preconceived position of your limbs. In bicycling, managing the energy of the bicycle by pedaling and steering the wheel is more fundamental than how you balance your torso. In Tai Chi, learning to manage energy is more fundamental than any movement.
In learning to swim or ride a bicycle, your psychological state is usually a very important aspect. Managing fear is a major element of the learning process. In Tai Chi, your mental state is also very important, not because of fear, but because of the temptation to manage your body according to old habits in a more external way. Those who learn best learn not only because of good teaching, but because of putting forth the right mental attitude as a student.
Only when you get to the level of understanding energy, can you really learn to neutralize/dissolve/化/hua it. Only when you learn to dissolve it can you issue properly. Our path to learn this requires learning to stick during push hands circling. Some of this can be learned merely be blind repetition, but I think that it usually requires close attention to the principles and a teacher with knowledge to guide you. It is hard to see or learn it from the outside, just as you cannot really see what a swimmer does to avoid sinking or what a bicyclist does to avoid falling. Even if you are observant enough to see, you will not really understand what they are doing.
Upon reaching this level of mastery in Tai Chi, you will have learned the equivalent of learning how to swim or ride a bike. This does not mean you are like an olympic swimmer or cyclist, just that you have entered the door to the fundamentals. Your technique will be crude and needs to be refined. As you refine it, you can manage fiercer and fiercer energy defensively and offensively.
While you are learning to swim, it can be less than useless to discuss the finer points of the dolphin kick that works best for the butterfly stroke. While learning how to ride a bicycle, it can be less than useless to learn about minimizing wind resistance or about drafting techniques. While learning the basics of Tai Chi, there is much of the Tai Chi classics and Tai Chi applications that it makes little sense to discuss or to try to emulate.
My experience with our system and similar ones is that after studying Tai Chi between one to five years and progressing in push hands past the basic circle patterns and beginning to practice limited applications and counters, you will begin to experience the martial side of Tai Chi and can begin to judge it for yourself. In other words, you can then be at the level of being a beginning swimmer or bicyclist. Depending on the goals and the diligence of their practice, many people do not reach this level even after twenty years of practice centered on solo forms.
The last thing I should say about martial Tai Chi is that high skill in it demands arduous practice, just as hards styles do. Few people really want to do this. I personally would like to taste it and dabble in it, but really am unwilling to put in the work to get to a high level of fighting skill. I want to experience high level Tai Chi, but really don’t care about being a high level fighter.
At my age and level of fitness, I have no problem launching people into the air or being launched or taking or receiving a punch at moderate force and speed. I am unwilling, however, to seriously risk bruising friends or breaking bones or being bruised and having my bones broken. I can still roll to the floor to a limited extent and have some limb flexibility, but really don’t want to be slammed to the ground or test the limits of my ability to deal with short energy on my joints or my internal organs. I do occasionally practice fajin according to our method, but am not dedicated enough to make it a regular part of my routine. I can issue (fali 发力) much harder than I would be willing to do on even a willing practice partner, but true mastery would require more dull and exhausting practice than I am willing to engage in. What I do not doubt, even at my modest level of skill is the effectiveness that such practice can give.
If you want to test out whether Tai Chi has martial application, try out our style or a similar one, practice solo form diligently for 1-3 years, and then learn push hands from a competent teacher for another year. Then you will have your answer. In all, I think no more than 2-6 years are necessary to get a real taste, but that does not mean you will quite be in a position to take on all comers quite yet.
Take care,
Audi