Can Tai Chi fight? Well, Tai chi is only as good as the practitioner. It’s not Tai Chi’s fault if you can’t fight or if you just suck. Or is it? Then who can fight? No one can fight. Maybe a few top fighters with broad experience from the street and from the mat can fight. Maybe. The Real Life, the Real Deal fighters, would probably have had to work as bouncers, guards or similar. Or at least have lived in an environment where violence was an everyday occurrence. But most modern people can’t fight. I know a few things about fighting, but I am certainly not one of those who could claim that they know how to fight.

One of the big issues with “fighting” is that no one knows how a fight will begin. No one knows how violence will come in your way or when or what will happen in a real situation. To be honest, if someone asked me if I could teach him to fight with Tai Chi, I would probably say: “sorry but I have no f-ing idea”. I would never claim that I could teach someone. I would never claim that I know how to fight. I don’t. It’s called being aware of reality, being aware about risks and your own limitations. Even the best fighters, even in MMA, tend to hate fighting more than common people. They understand the unpredictability of fighting, that anything can happen. You can never be prepared enough and you cannot predict what you have no clue about. So in general, no one can fight.

So why learn a traditional martial art? Sorry, but I don’t really know a good answer on that question either. I don’t believe in having too much faith in set techniques. Schools that rely too much on set techniques probably don’t understand the real spirit of T’ai Chi as a Martial Art. “If he does this, I’ll do that” doesn’t work in reality. No one who fights will offer you a perfectly straight fist. No one with a little bit of fighting or sparring experience would telegraph his movements or make it easy for you to understand what he is up to. In T’ai Chi it doesn’t matter how or what a person does. Most people learn traditional arts because of the social environment, to get to know people and maybe to have a reason to put on a fancy dress. Some people wants to compete. But to be completely honest, I believe that very few martial arts teachers can teach something valuable about real fighting. Ironic, isn’t it?

Then how about T’ai Chi? Well, something I really appreciate with T’ai Chi Ch’uan as a combat art is that it does in fact acknowledge that anything can happen, that you never know what will happen in a real life fight. Maybe T’ai Chi won’t offer you an exact way to approach violence or fights. Well, it doesn’t. But it can offer you some very important knowledge about timing, movement and distance. At its best, T’ai Chi Ch’uan can also teach you some very valuable strategies you can put into practice.

So what exactly can T’ai Chi teach you about fighting? Are there methods and strategies you could really use? I have tried to sum up a few of, IMO, the most important ideas. I will probably try to re-visit this post and think about more aspects and maybe return later with more details in another post.

Emptiness – Wuxin

Emptiness is not a strange philosophical expression, in fact it’s about something quite practical, something you “do”. Wuxin, “no heart” or munnin in Japanese is the warriors mindset. First you must acknowledge that anything could happen and clear your mind from any preconceived idea about what could happen and how you could respond. Your mind must be blank so you can respond to reality. Maybe it’s slightly wrong to label this as a “strategy”, but it’s really this mindset that makes your T’ai Chi work for real. I will try to return to this aspect of the art and explain it more thoroughly in another post.

Following and adapting

In T’ai Chi, you don’t choose what to do, your opponent does. In T’ai Chi, it doesn’t matter what your opponent does, what kind of kick or fist he throws at you or from what angle. Your opponent is merely a physical body in movement. Treat him as such. Treat him as such before he forms his limbs into weapons. Follow and adapt to the body always, even on distance. Follow the whole body, focus on the center and balance, the limbs are of less importance. If someone throws a kick or moves in for a take-down, it’s the same. It’s just a physical body in movement. Always consider the distance and angle and position yourself accordingly.

Positioning

Using distance and angle, position yourself always where you have as much advantage as possible and he has as little advantage as possible. For instance, a kicker or someone with long reach, always try to be inside his reach and closer than his favorite distance. With a little bit of sparring knowledge you could easily learn to determine your opponents favorite distances. Don’t wait until he goes in or throws something at you. Even before you know if you will fight or not, use distance and angle to make sure that you are in a favorable position.

“If my opponent moves slightly, I move first”

This might appear a bit cryptic, but it’s an important rule about timing. Every slight move your opponent does is a “tell”. It can teach you when to move in and when to position yourself into another angle. Again, always adapt to your opponent’s center. The small changes can tell you a lot about the changes and preparations for his overall strategy.

Enter and make contact – ASAP

If you encounter someone aggressive and you know that there is going to be a fight, don’t wait. Don’t take distance. Don’t go into a chasing punches sparring mindset. Just go in and make physical contact. Don’t do it fast, aggressively or something similar. Just walk in and put your hands on top of his. Now you can either wait on his reaction or you can separate his arms: to the sides, one arm up and the other down, or you can push both arms to one side. All of these methods give you different opportunities to enter and bring him down to the ground. From a T’ai Chi perspective, when you go in to touch him, you need to connect with his feet and center. You need to learn how to feel this. This is real T’ai Chi skill we are talking about now. If you have this physical connection through his structure, you will be able to follow and guide his ever slightest movement. If you have this connection and he moves first, you could probably find it ridiculously easy to guide him to the ground. But this is really where T’ai Chi practice as free push hands comes into play.

“Suddenly appear, suddenly disappear”

This is a traditional Tai Chi expression. It means that you need to completely hide your intentions and intent. Your stance must be natural, no aggression or preparation must be visible. Every of your attempts to attack must come suddenly out from nowhere. This could seem different compared to many other martial arts, but it’s in fact one of the real benefits of Tai Chi practice. You won’t need to visually withdraw a fist before attacking. You can also learn to do it with a good amount of speed. Your balanced structure, you rooting, will support the fist upon impact. Strike from a completely calm and balanced body, from a natural looking posture and from close distance. Your opponent won’t even have a chance to know what happened.

If you want to know more about my own experiences, you can read this post.