Right, Crane... sounds more like an Unsolved Mystery than a True Story.
Anyway, a friend of mine studied Tai Chi (Yang Style I think) from an older Chinese Immigrant here in town. This was apparently before the guy became a citizen. He was still very unfamiliar with our culture and language.
At any rate, this Tai Chi instructor is slightly built and is older and was at a party with my friend (his student) when a young tough-guy kept harassing him to "show me some of that stuff..." the guy was tipsy from drinking and 2-3 times the Tai Chi instructor sent him away/diffused him.
Finally the guy comes up and puts his hand on the teacher. The teacher stepped back and circled a hand behind this guys' head and dropped him to the floor. My friend says the move was straight out of one of the forms, he has shown me the move, it was very simple.
Anyway my friend says you could hear the guy's head crack when he hit the floor. They actually waited a bit to call EMS/the police because they were not sure of the consequences for the instructor. It may have even happened at the instructor's house. So the guy nearly dies but all the witnesses recounted how this tough "kid" would not leave the old man alone... and nothing came of it.
Later the guy recovered and went to see the teacher. He told him he apologized. The teacher said that he did the right thing, but that "I never want to see you again."
It is actually a funny story when my friend tells it. He first told it to me when he was recounting some of the violent, effective moves in the form he was learning. He liked studying Tai Chi and says that while he was doing so, our Kenpo instructor and other students did remark that his power had noticeably improved.
Sorry for the long story, but I like that story and I used to always think of Tai Chi as "moving meditation" and overlook it's combat application. As another instructor of ours, a Tai Chi teacher as well, once put it "Tai Chi Chuan means Grand Ultimate Fist." I hope I quoted that right.
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