What does Tai Chi look like in a fight?

Following on from my last post (Push hands is not fighting) it's time to ask the next logical question. What is? What's a "fight" supposed to look like if you do Tai Chi? It's an interesting question, and to some extent I'm thinking out loud here, so please bear with me.  Practicing applications from the form to work on your technique is fair enough, but when it comes to actually applying your art in a free situation against a resisting opponent what would it look like? Would you expect to see picture perfect Single Whip poses? Brush knee poses? Some people would say yes.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

What should Style X "look like" in a real fight? If unique training methods with a history (obviously it's not always a current reality) of martial effectiveness don't produce an identifiable expression under pressure in a fight . . . then what are they for?

On video

Let's take a step back and review the evidence. Historically there have been a few examples of respected Tai Chi practitioners taking challenges that have been captured on film. Take Wu Gongyi (Wu style Tai Chi Chuan) fighting Chan Hakfu (White Crane stylist) for charity in Macau, as an example. What did that look like? See here:

It didn't look much like what you'd expect "Tai Chi" to look like, did it?

Perhaps the 'top' public face of Tai Chi is the current Chen Grandmaster, Chen Xiaowang. Here's how he looks doing Tai Chi applications:

There are no clips of him free fighting on YouTube, but here's how he looks when faced with a non-compliant opponent doing push hands:

Again, it didn't look much like what you'd expect Tai Chi to look like, did it? What did you expect it to look like?

Breaking it down

Tai Chi practitioners, regardless of style, have 3 things in common:

1) Form. All Tai Chi styles have a form - a set sequence of flowing movements that occupies the bulk of their practice time.

2) Push hands. All Tai Chi styles has a form of push hands exercise.

3) Applications. All Tai Chi styles of applications to movements in the form, which are often applies as stand-alone applications or in a push hands setting.

So how do you translate those 3 things into a fighting art? There are 2 common solutions I've seen people come up with to work out how you're actually meant to fight with Tai Chi. These are:

1) Ignore fighting altogether. This is by far the most popular choice, and it's often what people are doing without realising it when they think they are learning a martial art. Stick to doing 1-2 applications, drills and push hands. This, apparently, will prepare you for using the art freely. You are never pushed outside your comfort zone, so you never 'lose' or get defeated. Too much training in this zone only gives rise to the ideas of what Tai Chi "should" look like in a fight.

2) Train for competition. Cardio, pad work, bag work. Practice techniques over and over - set response to things happening - he does X so I counter with Y. Here the form takes a back seat and becomes something of a cool-down or wind down exercise performed after the hard physical training. But what about the idea of Tai Chi? Of balancing Yin and Yang. Yin becomes block and Yang becomes punch.

A better way, I think, lies somewhere between these two extremes.

When people try to fight with Tai Chi as if it were a technique-orientated art it just ends up being... nothing like Tai Chi. Tai Chi techniques certainly work, but they are more like examples to study principles through, rather than things to try in a fight. What Tai Chi really is is 1) a collection of physical principles of movement and 2) a strategy. Both need to work together for it to be "Tai Chi Chuan". The physical principles revolve around being balanced, integrated, co-ordinated and centred in motion, while the strategy revolves around yielding to force and following the opponent. Those are simple, but profound truths and all found in the Tai Chi classics.

But still the question arrises - what would it look like? The problem is those "internal" aspects are things that are hard to see on the outside. More technique-orientated arts will have a particular look or style to them when used for real. A properly trained boxer, for example, will look like a boxer. Tight guard, recogniseable hooks and jabs. You can expect a Capoeiraist to come out with a few spinning kicks. The techniques are part of the art. That's simply not true for Tai Chi.

This is the big problem with Tai Chi - where does the beginner start? A beginner needs something tangible to latch on to. Abstract concepts don't help. Some Tai Chi styles solve this problem by teaching basic San Shou or kickboxing-like techniques to beginners. Something solid for them to grasp before higher principles are introduced. That approach makes sense to me. My own teacher has a similar approach, which is to use Choy Lee Fut as a base style on which to build your fighting technique first before switching over to the Tai Chi principles and strategy later in your training. Of course, if you say you do this then immediately you can be criticised for being "not pure Tai Chi", but the result seems to be something that actually works - an art you can use for real. Of course, the danger is that you get too good at the 'base art' and never have the need to develop the higher principles fully. But what's the alternative? Seriously, I don't think there is one. You're best off learning a simpler art first, then basing your Tai Chi on that.

The Buddha likened his teachings to a raft. It helped you get across the river, but once you were across you were meant to abandon the raft.