The Chinese word “Tai Chi Chuan” means supreme ultimate boxing. Is Tai chi a sedentary exercise relegated to the old or is it a potent, modern, martial arts system? Is Tai Chi taught correctly or is it the basis of western boxing that prizefighters use to make millions of dollars annually? A long time ago, the Chinese nobility used to promote free-for-all fights because they did not have the internet or planes to take them on vacation. The nobility chose several martial arts systems to be part of the aristocracy or “Internal sect” and they became what is now known as the internal systems. These systems that the aristocracy chose for their own are, Hsing-I, Pa-kua, and Tai Chi. Only Tai Chi Chuan made it to the United States. The internal systems are first and foremost an exercise system to be done solo every day to promote cardiovascular health. If a student practices the movements of the internal systems daily, within twenty years they become a potent system of self-defense. The reason a student practices every day is to integrate the movements into ganglionic memory and install a no-mind response when confronted by an adversary.
The fundamentals of Tai Chi Chuan are:
The idea
The steps
The five postures.
The idea behind Tai Chi is the oscillation of a string or the sine wave. When a string is plucked, it bounces back and vibrates, so it is with Tai Chi as in saber fencing. Lunge, Parry, and redouble. When an enemy attacks, a student parries, and punches, and if they miss they redouble. This action must be a no-mind response to be effective.
Tai Chi Chuan is also known as “One step boxing.” In boxing a practitioner usually only needs one step to carry out their admonition. This is why Tai Chi is known as an exercise for the old because old people can’t move around or dance like they could when they were young. The steps in Tai Chi are:
Waist drawback stance
Toe step
Archery posture
Heel stance
Step to the side
The waist draw-back stance or posture puts sixty percent of the weight on the back leg in an on-guard stance. This is a comfortable posture that readies a person to step forward and punch. The toe step is when a practitioner brings back one leg in front of the other and is akin to the cat stance in Okinawan Karate. The toe stance is the parry. From the toe stance, a boxer accelerates his or her mass forward with a punch or strike to an archery stance. In archery stance, a student has sixty percent of his or her weight on the front foot. This is the one step. After entering the archery stance a student follows steps on the rear foot to enter into the waist drawback stance again. The heel stance is a specific posture used when a boxer has a reach advantage. They put sixty percent of their weight on the rear foot, and forty percent on the front foot sitting on the heel and lunged forward into an archery stance to deliver a punch. Step to the side starts from the waist drawback and a boxer steps one foot to the side and brings the other foot to cat stance to evade a lunge punch or flurry of punches.
The steps are all of Tai Chi Chuan. Everything else derives from the steps. The feature that makes a punch powerful is the acceleration of the body mass coincident with the punch. An expert boxer can deliver their body weight in a punch in the blink of an eye.
In all of Tai Chi, there exist 108 postures. Only five make up the basis of the art which evolved from the martial art postures of the Kodiak bear. Tai Chi is the art of the bear. This is why orthodox practitioners use the palm. Bears do not have fingers and use their palm. Human beings should use their first instead. The fist causes more damage than the palm. The five basic postures used in Tai Chi are:
The single whip
Brush the knee and press
Fan penetrates back
Hands build clouds
The expansive push or step up and punch.
There exist many more and some instructors place more emphasis on some rather than others. The most lethal postures in Kung Fu include tai chi. The five basic postures make up the whole of Western boxing. All the boxers in stadiums, or on TV, utilize tai chi to make money.
The single whip is also known as the jab. From a ready position, a boxer moves his weight to an archery stance and accelerates his hand in a straight fashion. Then he or she initiates the follow-step.
Brush knee and press is the same as an overhand right. A boxer circles his left hand to brush away a kick to the knee and circles the other hand in a looping punch. A boxer can eliminate the circling left hand if not necessary. Then a boxer follows steps up to the waist drawback stance.
Fan penetrate back is the most used posture in all the martial arts. It is also known as the straight right hand. A boxer waves his left hand upwards to block a looping left or overhand right, then he or she punches outward with the right standing fist to the face.
Cloud build hands are the same as bumping in a White crane or flapping in the style of the phoenix. A boxer circles both hands, one clockwise and the other in a counterclockwise fashion like he or she is building clouds with their hands. The effect is a short hook to the face that Muhammed Ali tuned to perfection. The open hand is slightly faster than the fist and in Cloud build hands a boxer uses the open hand. A person can use the fist if necessary. Use an archery stance and initiate a follow-step.. This is one-step boxing.
The expansive push is what all bears use initially before they engage. Step forward into an archery stance and push forward directly with two open hands. A boxer can use their fist. This is the Tai Chi version of crushing used in Hsing-i. It is directed against the body, more specifically the solar plexus… A person can use step up and punch instead which is the same as the spear hand in Pa-kua and Okinawan Karate.
These are the basics of Tai chi. There exist only two leg movements in Tai Chi. They are kicking against the kick and the lotus kick. Kick against a kick is used against a kicking expert who dances around and throws kicks at your knees or head. In kick against the kick, when an enemy lifts a foot, any foot to kick, a Tai Chi boxer snap kicks their groin. The only time a tai chi boxer uses a kick is to kick another foot expert in the genitals. The other kick is the lotus kick which is the same as the crane kick in Soft Wing Chun. It is called the lotus kick because if you connect, the adversary falls asleep. Swing your extended leg in a big circle that connects with the head. When your hands hurt or you are holding a weapon, a boxer can use the lotus kick.
Like stated before there exist 108 movements to Tai Chi. One of the movements is using your head to beat someone into unconsciousness. This movement is not recommended. Another called the shoulder strike is for advanced students to use their shoulders to strike a grappler. There exist many others in many other tai chi styles.
The other basic movements of Tai Chi Chuan are:
Send tiger back to mountain- a huge hook
Repel the tiger- the hookercut directed against the groin
Slanting flight- an open-handed backhand directed against the throat
Step up and form seven stars. A cross-hand punch with both hands to the carotid arteries against a grappler
Golden Cockerel hangs on the ears- A straight hook simultaneously with both open hands to the ears meant to deafen an opponent
Backstep the monkey – The only posture where you defend against a karate expert with a flurry moving backward. This is the only movement in the martial arts meant to be done backward
This is the system of Yang Cheng Fu. The author practices Hsing-I and Pa-ku instead. There is simply too much to know. Hsing-I is consecutive step boxing, and Pa-Kua is circling step boxing. There is too much to master in a lifetime. Choose one internal system and become adept in it. The main benefit is cardiovascular health. If a boxer does the postures on both sides religiously, he or she becomes ambidextrous. The perfection of the self is paramount in the quest for the TAO as outlined in the I-Ching.