Toughen Up! Tai Chi'ers

Johanna Zorya makes an enthusiastic and hard-hitting case for putting the Quan back in Taiji. She asks for us to drop down and give her 20 push ups, really do some fighting, toss out all the wimpy Qigong fluff and pointless choreography of forms ... it's time for us to get tougher. We need to return to our roots of iron inside cotton. We need to float like a butterfly (be in better shape for moving with speed) and sting like a bee (smack the suckers to the wall). No more of this New Age genteel softness, dancing with fans, grasping sparrow's tails like Audubon Society bird lovers, or limp wristed old fogies brushing lint off the knees of our floppy pants. She is fighting mad about the topic and uses the full frontal fighter's rhetoric to slap our weak, soft, overly relaxed minds around the debate room.

If fighting interests you then the first step is to engage in a rigorous and daily physical training program that will improve your fitness and conditioning. I would recommend that Tai Chi Chuan players use conventional strength training techniques (weightlifting) to get stronger, conventional cardio-vascular training techniques (walking, running, cycling, rope skipping, fast martial forms, stepping, etc.)to increase endurance and speed, and a variety of techniques for increasing flexibility (yoga, mat exercises, stretching, pilates, etc.). They need to eat properly, get adequate rest, and keep a positive mental attitude. Real fighters must be tough, and be able to fight on when in pain or injured and when they are very tired. Real fighters must have considerable aggressiveness, some meanness, and a willingness to hurt their opponent. Fighters need quickness, fast reflexes, speed, and enough aerobic capacity to move quickly even when tired. Finally, fighters need to learn techniques of fighting - both offensive and defensive techniques, by sparring with other martial artists. If you train hard to fight, you will be in great condition and highly fit, even if you never fight.

I don't think that Tai Chi as practiced by most people would be useful or effective in real fighting situations. However, our real opponent nowadays, an actual opponent that hurts, maims, and kills millions of people, is unrelenting stress. "Fighting" stress requires learning new skills. Tai Chi, even without the Chuan, combined with other types of exercise, can help some of us "fight" stress. Real fighting or extremely complex and long forms, however, might increase stress for many people; and, therefore, they probably should be avoided by people "fighting" stress. Choose your battles wisely.

As for regular full speed fighting and getting hurt ... for me, at 61, this is not high on my agenda. However, practicing Tai Chi as a fighting art, and thinking of having a fighting opponent while practicing, and pushing hands and sparring a bit every once in a while, does greatly enhance the value of my practice. I also think hitting bags is great fun and useful for developing some fighting skills. I add a kick boxing class once a week to pump up the jam.

On the whole, I agree many of the points of Johanna Zorya.

Put up your dukes, Johanna, let's mix it up! Yeah!! ;-)

Johanna's background includes in Chen Tai Chi Chuan and the practice of silk reeling.