Tai Chi

Tai Chi

The link

Tai Chi on Wikipedia

Hong Ying

What it is

Tai Chi is an ancient Chinese martial art. Tai Chi emphasizes ‘soft techniques’, which don’t strike the opponent directly, as well as meditative breathing exercises. It may be best known for photos of early morning Chinese practitioners in parks.

The school I go to, Hong Ying, teaches Yang style Tai Chi alongside Kung Fu, a much more ‘hard’ (and more well-known) Chinese Martial Art. Hong Ying is a member of the International Plum Blossom Federation.

Tai Chi has some resemblance to Yoga, and is said to originate from an Indian Yogi who travelled the Himalaya and visited Buddhist temples. In practice, Tai Chi is a bit more martial than Yoga: it has self-defense applications for all steps, which are often pushes or joint locks. I occasionally joke that Hong Ying teaches ‘full contact Tai Chi’.

What it means to me

I started doing Tai Chi for two reasons: all my friends were doing it, and I wanted to teach myself patience by picking up an activity that would take a long time to learn. I’ve stayed because, five years in, I’m still trying to learn patience, and because I have come to appreciate how Tai Chi teaches softness.

A core concept of Tai Chi is to not meet force with force, but to deflect it. Martial arts like Karate and Tae Kwon Do teach blocks, where you stop your opponent’s movement; Tai Chi aims to redirect your opponent’s movement and use it against them.

Competitive Tai Chi (also called ‘pushing hands’) involves pushing your opponent until they are forced to move their feet and take a step. It revolves around reading your opponents movements and finding where they are unbalanced or inflexible. If your opponent’s body part is rigid or ‘locked’ you can use it to move them, which is why looseness is very important. At the same time, you must connect to your opponent to be able to read their intentions. The ultimate Tai Chi is to be so fluid that you cannot ever be pinned down, yet to remain in contact at all times.

Years ago, I took a personal development course, and one of the teachers there also taught Tai Chi (I was already training at the time). I told him I had difficulties to communicate with people who disagree with me. In reply, the teacher told me to treat these conflicts like pushing hands: don’t try to win with force, but keep contact with your opponent so you know what their intentions are. If you know someone’s intentions you can work out a win/win solution, and you only get to know this by staying in the conflict – whether it’s a competition or a conversation.

In a way, Tai Chi teaches a generalized version of the message “Bargaining for Advantage” teaches about negotiation: framing a situation as an A versus B conflict is a choice, and often not a productive one.

Tai Chi has given me an appreciation for all things soft. I credit this regular mental and physical exercise (as well as parenthood) with the much calmer demeanor I enjoy these days. Also, enough soft exercise will eventually make your muscles harder – I have built a lot more muscle over the past five years than one might expect!