Would Tai chi work in a street fight? it looks like their dancing.?

i dont think it would, but i want to know what you think.

Would Tai chi work in a street fight? it looks like their dancing.?
I do not believe Tai Chi would work in a street fight. Tai Chi, like so many other Traditional Martial Arts, is designed for defending against other martial artists, not a street thug. So many of the positions and movements in Tai Chi bring you off balance, and the first opportunity that a street fighter sees you cross your legs or put most of your weight on one leg, he's going to throw himself on you and bring you to the ground and pummel you. On the ground Tai Chi is useless.





Tai Chi is beautiful, and there are lessons to be learned from it that would apply, but as a whole, it doesn't apply to street fighting.
Reply:you do not know Tai Chi.


The founder of Yang Tai chi who studied Chen Tai Chi went to Bejing. No one could defeat him and he was called 'unbeatable Yang' and he was selected as the instructor of the Royal Guard.





The Chinese Emperor was not that stupid to ask the Royal Guard to learn Tai Chi. Report It

Reply:it is a soft art which has slowly turned into a chinese office exorcise almost. However, there are masters out there who do martial applications with the art. It's not the best no, but i wouldn't go up to a grand master and say he couldn't use it to kick my butt cuz i'm sure he could. Internal arts are the most scary. You blink, then you're on the ground holding an internal organ in place in the fetal position.
Reply:I think tai chi is not meant for fighting, but what tai chi brings is what helps bee a better fighter.





It's like an upgrade to a fighter.


Internal arts is badass.
Reply:Learning tai chi in the park from a city program is just to give people something to focus on to stay mobile %26amp; breathe (yes dancing in the park). But if you learn tai chi from a real school that has a traditional style, it will definitely teach you self defense in principle. On its own tai chi is internal and not explosive form of martial arts that you would need to have in a fight, but it teaches how to use all your energy %26amp; your opponents energy against them. Even though real tai chi masters do have explosive strikes, but this comes after a very very long time of training from what I understand. Tai chi masters can turn the fight against you so fast you don't know what hit you.


For me I had done kung fu for 4 yrs when my sifu made me begin a tai chi program in addition to the kung fu. About 6 months later I started noticing that people were falling back when I punched them.... something that was definitely new. I'm 124 lbs and was pushing back 185lbs guys. It seems that this was totally because of the tai chi training teaching me how to connect my whole body to my punch.
Reply:tai chi is slow and calming and balancing your body! If you were fighting on tp of a fence yes, otherwise, you wouldn't be able to land a punch!
Reply:Tai Chi definitely can work in a street fight. The original Tai Chi is the Chen Style Tai Chi which was passed from generation to generation within the Chen village. The secret of the Tai Chi applications was not taught to people other than the Chen clan in the village.





That is the reason why not many people understand it. The founder of the Yang style tai chi who actually practised Chen Style Tai chi was the martial arts instructor of the Royal Guard in Ching Dynasty in China. If Tai Chi cannot be used for fighting/defence, the Chinese emperor would not hire a Tai Chi master as the kung fu instructor for his Royal Guard.
Reply:Hi Jay J, Tai Chi IF it is taught in its martial form is one of the most effective arts out there, it's name means "Ultimate fist". You are taught to flow with the opponents force while using very little energy in defence and in offence you are taught to use your WHOLE body in your blocks and strikes while not losing your balance. You are taught to be like water in that you yield for the blow then close in on your foe. I take Ba-Gua which is a sister style to Tai-Chi and they take years to learn, but the benafit of the "soft" styles are that most of your energy will be used in training NOT in it's application. A old master told me once "Your foe should sweat not you", and "If you come hard you will go hard", a master can beat and you will not have any idea how it was done. Be like water, the harder the attack the softer the defence. Your answer is Yes it is very effective, but you have to find a instructor that can teach it in its martial application, Soft styles can take a longer to learn than "hard" styles (karate,TKD,kenpo,etc) so there are fewer soft style instructors. I hope this helps!