I want to start Taijiquan

[EskrimaFan1]

I want to start training Taijiquan, but being a martial artist my whole life, I don't want to train with vague people that only do it for health benefits, but also do the martial art side of things.

Which style match my wishes? Or do all the Taiji styles have these aspects and is it purely up to the teachers ability?

Thank you in advance.

 

[mograph]

Find a club that teaches applications, no matter the style.
The style is likely to be Chen, but ya never know.

 

[EskrimaFan1]

Or is it better to do something like Xingyiquan?

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf104]

From personal experience, your best bet is to try finding a place that teaches tai chi, in addition to another martial art. That normally results in the teacher being more martial focused

 

[Xue Sheng98]

@EskrimaFan

Taijiquan school with martial arts can be hard to find. Many who teach it these days don’t know it and those that do know either don’t don’t teach it because nobody wants to learn it. But there are a few in all styles: Chen, Yang, Wu, Wu/Hao, Sun. If you found a Zhaobao school it is likely they teach it, but that is really hard to find outside China and Taiwan. Use to be, i believe, 2 zhaobao sifus in the USA, but at least one returned to China, the other seems to be gone to, no idea where

Combination with other martial arts might give you training to fight, but highly unlikely it will be Taijiquan martial arts. Combat Taijiquan is not taijiquan IMO

Chen school may also get into martial arts , but the current generation seems to be teaching taijiquan forms and sanda for martial arts. Possibly Ren Guanyi would be the person to see

Yang style, be careful here, not everything called Yang Style is traditional Yang style. Some os the Yang short form, aka Beijing 24 form. It is based in Yang style but not from the yang family

The only person teaching 24 form with martial artd of Taiji is just outside of Vancouver.

Yang family Taiji
Not many teaching the martial side, and here is where i get in trouble. I have no faith in actually learning the martial side of Taiji from the current yang family. For that i’d look for people in the Fu Zhongwen or Tung Yong Chieh line. Also YMAA, Yang Jwing Ming (no relation to the Yang Taiji family) teaches Yang styke and teaches the martial side

Wu style, all i can tell you is they seem to be the only family teaching break falls. But that maybe only in the main school in Toronto

Sun style, i know of onky 3 or 4 schools in the USA and my guess is only 1 or 2 of them teach anything martial

Wu/Hao, good luck, there is a school in Toronto, i think, and a guy in California, and maybe one in Texas

Now, Taijiquan with martial arts intact is no quick study, it takes time. Likely learn forms first, then push hands and the mire martial, this can be a year or more to get there. Basically you need patience, lots of it. But it will include striking, shuaijiao and qinna

Xingyiquan, was my favorite style. You will get the martial side sooner, but most, IMO, teach it to fast. Plow through the five elements to get to 12 animals and still don’t understand the 5 elements. But if you find a truly traditional school, they will get you there. But understand traditional training is painful, can seem boring at times, and not a pretty flowing form.

I apologize for any spelling issues in this post, i am on my phone and the text tends to be hard for me to read so proofreading is mot easy

Not knowing where you are may mean all of this is of no use. But that’s what i got

 

[Kung Fu Wang104]

When you learn ballroom dancing, you learn dancing step first (such as fox step, Cha Cha step, ...). When you learn MA, you learn stances first (such as horse stance, bow-arrow stance, ...). You then learn how to transfer from 1 stance into another stance (such as horse stance -> bow-arrow stance, bow-arrow stance -> horse stance, ...). After that, you are ready to learn MA.

For example, the Chang Taiji 108 moves long form starts from horse stance -> left bow-arrow stance -> right bow arrow stance -> ... If you have learned the stance transition first, it's much easier to learn the form afterward.

Many years ago, when I taught Taiji in Austin Community College, the first class of my Taiji course was 8 basic stances. One student stood up and said, "This is not Taiji". He then left.

I like his Taiji form in this video. He had good foundation.

 

[drewtoby]

You may also have luck if you look for push hands groups/events.

 

[mograph]

Tai Chi and Xingyi are quite different experiences when it comes to practice.

Why do you want to move to Tai Chi or Xingyi?
What do you hope to experience, or what skills to you expect to gain?
What are you missing from your current practice?

 

[Mostly Wu1]

Wu Family Tai Chi Chuan style clubs(including, but not limited to, Toronto, London, Detroit, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc.) will show some applications as they teach they form, then more as you progress to pushing hands, and ultimately "freestyle" pushing hands, with mats out, which involves locks, sweeps, full throws, etc.. Usually blows are left for sparring sessions, which are more like boxing sparring, except usually without gloves, or if there are any, are very small MMA or cotton ones.

You have to feel out the club. If it has an older membership then the fighting component will tend to be more limited, even though the skill might still be there. If there are a significant amount of younger/aggressive members, then there will tend to be more martial activity.

In general, there are a fair amount of "refugees" from hard style MA's in TCC. There usually is some fighting skill to be found of one sort or another, but there is no doubt that things progress more slowly than in most other martial arts, where you are kicking/punching/throwing from day one. My experience was somewhat unusual in that I was sparring and doing throws after about a year, but;

- I was 20 yo, and had some other experience
- our club was composed of a lot of young, fit, people at the time.
- there were skilled teachers there keeping an eye on things.