Tai Chi as a martial art?

[Xue Sheng92]

Yeah.
I took Yoshinkai Aikido for a while, though, and they are really good at teaching breakfalls, as are many of the Japanese styles. Helped me a lot when teaching beginners, especially those who are timid, as the Aikido people are really good at breaking down exactly how to fall.

Our club in Toronto had mats from day one(mid 70's), but I heard something funny from a guy who trained in HK with Wu Ta Kwei in the 1950's. He said they tried mats for a while, but felt it was making them soft, so went back to just bare tile floors. To this day, you'll see demo's of full throws done by them on cement floors. Middle aged guys, and older too, some of them.

Chinese martial, trained with guys from china, tends to see no problem with hard floors. My first shifu (taiji, xingyi, bagua, changquan), we trained on the tile floor, in parking lots and on hard ground. My yang Taiji shifu knocked me onto the floor a few times, no mat. And my wing chun Sifu, who has a hung ga background, but shuaijiao into his Wing Chun… yup, no mats there either.

I’m thinking they enjoy hurting me

 

[Kung Fu Wang98]

I took Yoshinkai Aikido for a while, though, and they are really good at teaching breakfalls,

When using this kind of breakfall,

- Your head has chance to hit on the hard ground.
- Your opponent's elbow/knee has chance to drop on top of your head.

You need to protect your head both from below and above. This kind of break fall can protect your head better.