People are drawn to Tai Chi for many reasons, such as seeing something in a magazine, on a television show, reading about it on the Internet, hearing about it in the news, or hearing about it from a friend. Others may have more experience and information about Tai Chi, but do not appreciate the full depth and breadth of Tai Chi practice.
While the exact same physical movements are performed within Tai Chi alone or in self-defense methods, there are seven distinctly different approaches that have been present in all traditional Tai Chi (this is true for both Qigong and Bagua).
The first approach Tai Chi is for general exercise and deep relaxation of the body. As you age, if you don’t keep your body moving, your body starts to degenerate. This is the type of Tai Chi that is known to be done in parks. If you ask people who do Tai Chi in the park why they do it, the majority will say “it makes me feel better” – it’s a way of doing Tai Chi for overall health.
The second approach to Tai Chi is used for stress relief, a systematic stress relief that directly relaxes the central nervous system by sensing and relaxing physical structures such as muscles connected to nerves. Most often, when someone uses the word relax, it refers to emotional relaxation. Tai Chi is a method of stress relief where focusing on physical relaxation (relaxation of muscles) also results in emotional relaxation.
The third approach toTai Chi is less common, and this is how Tai Chi works as qigong medicine, that is, how to use the internal (under your skin) techniques of Tai Chi to heal certain ailments. Most of the Chinese Tai Chi schools are famous for this. In contrast, most Westerners who study Tai Chi learn it for their general health and never learn about its medical aspects. For those who have learned some medical aspects, their knowledge is primarily about healing the negative hangover of physical trauma, how to get your bones, ligaments, and physical structures back to normal and functioning properly to get rid of pain. However, Qigong medicine is more comprehensive and can treat a much wider range of health problems and diseases.
The fourth approach Tai Chi is a way to understand the inner workings of your body. All Tai Chi movements are based on the principle that when one part of the body moves, all body parts move. In this approach to Tai Chi, you need to understand how to connect every part of your body to the rest of your body both internally and externally. A billionaire is not so much interested in making $5, but someone who can keep investing and growing their money until they become rich. Likewise, one who learns, understands, and practices how the inside of the body works through the practice of Tai Chi gradually makes a greater investment in one’s physical health and martial arts competence.
The fifth approach Tai Chi is the knowledge of what these movements in the form are supposed to be used for in a martial application, so when you do the form, the form comes to life. Also in the hope that if something of a rude nature were to happen to you, you would at least know how to do something in response instead of standing there frozen and not knowing what to do.
The sixth approach Tai Chi is the martial art side that includes three aspects:
- The first is the fighting game (push hands) – Push hands is not self-defense, it increases your physical abilities in everything you need to do to make self-defense techniques work. Push hands teach the basics of fighting techniques, but they are not fighting in and of themselves – they are a good learning tool, but not enough to be successful in a fight.
- The second is combat fighting – real self-defense – learning how to use each form of movement in combat, which is called bunkai in karate. This includes everything from self-defense to street fighting to incapacitating your opponent. Tai Chi originated from the tradition of bodyguards, convoy guards and the Chinese military. So these people weren’t kidding—they learned to kill.
- The third aspect is the application of martial arts techniques with extreme speed. Many people see the slow movements of Tai Chi and mistakenly believe that they are used for combat and mistakenly assume that it is not effective. However, this is not how Tai Chi moves are used for combat – in combat, Tai Chi moves are performed at a very fast speed for maximum effect.
The seventh approach Tai Chi, related to the martial aspect, develops strength. My teacher originally came from a very rich family in Zhejiang Province. His family had been Chinese doctors for 11 generations and were influential people in the herbal medicine business. When they finally moved to Beijing, my teacher took it upon himself to train me in Tai Chi to make me strong because he is thin and weak. Tai Chi makes you strong, but it makes you strong from the inside – it’s not about pumping iron or lifting weights, it’s about making the inside of your body incredibly strong and incredibly healthy
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