Taijiquan

[jubaji]

So, has anyone else ever seen/been in a fight with folks trained exclusively in taijiquan? I have (along side, not against) and what struck me most really was just how much it all seemed just like what I had experienced a bunch of times in the states when me and my friends (mostly wrestlers) got into scraps. People getting popped in the head when available, but a lot of throwing people into tables and walls and over chairs and stuff and general ass-kicking the likes of which you'd find anywhere when folks who know what's up are set upon by drunk assholes who don't.

Very low on the mystical, very high on the ass-kicking. Now, these cats I was with were pretty tough and the drunks who just had to have some attention weren't, but I remember thinking how familiar it all seemed.

[jubaji]

Oh, and nobody died from fajing heart explosion or flew 20 feet through the air, though some folks got whacked pretty good and knocked on their ass several times.


It was funny a few years later when I was back in the states seeing first the old ladies and happy hippies, and later the even more entertaining 'combat' tai chi folks who tended toward a lot of the same pretentions as the 'kungfu' folks, walking around with their eyes half closed, making unsubstanitated claims of amazing feats, and quibbling to death over 'lineage' and favored translations and interpretations of this or that ancient text like geeks at a Star Trek convention hyperventilating over whether Kirk or Picard was the better captain.

At the time I was struck by how practical and NOT pretentious the guys I was fortunate enough to train (and non infrequently drink) with were. They had the same hard working, no-nonsense attitude as the guys on the Shaanxi Provincial Wrestling Team I worked out with.

In fact, WHILE I WAS THERE LIVING, WORKING, AND TRAINING IN CHINA, about the only thing related to texts or lineages that I can remember is how they were made light of to encourage us to just focus on working.

But hey, I'm no taijiquan master and can only tell you what I actually experienced first hand, so take it for what it's worth.

[jubaji]

But hey, I guess everyone has their own experience. That's what makes it so interesting to discuss things.

[jubaji]

Or maybe not. I guess no one has any actual, first-hand experience to share right now. Hopefully someone will come along who has done more than listen to stories and read a book or two. I know I'd be interested.