Taiji (tai chi) vs. Jiu Jutsu

OK, I'm not really righting about a vs. type scenario, but I thought this would be a fun title. What I am writing about are the results from a two day workshop that was just held in Fayetteville, NC. Now, this workshop was primarily Jiu Jutsu, with a bit of Aikido thrown in. The seminar was put on by Musha Dojo, head instructor Grandmaster Lioni Velazquez, top student of Dr. Philip Chenique, Atemi Ryu Jiu Jutsu. There were a bevy of highly ranked instructors there as well, from Sanuces Jiu Jutsu.

By now, you might be asking "what does this have to do with Taijiquan?" Well, the short answer is that myself and one other participant in the seminar are taiji practicioners. No, we are not switching arts. We were feeling other practicioners, were were testing what we had learned, we were seeing new relations between Yang Style forms and martial arts that might seem as remote as Jiu Jutsu. Guess what. We were not left in the dust. In fact, I would say that we held up as well as anyone with our level of experience in Jiu Jutsu would have. Naturally, our break falls were not so pretty, we did not roll as gracefully, but we certainly were just as effective with alot of the techniques.

Now, why do you think that I wanted to write a blog about this experience? Simple really, Taijiquan often gets the bad rap that it isn't really martial in nature. I seem to be on a one man quest to prove that Taijiquan is a different kind of martial art, but that it is a martial art and that it does indeed have martial application.

So, if you want to read about those continuing exploits, feel free to read my blog.

BTW, I am not however one of the guys that thinks Taiji is a hard style in disguise. Nor am I one of the guys that thinks I can knock you over with a Chi blast. I belive in the scientific applications of technique, and praticing those techniques until you can do them correctly, then adding resistance to the practice, eventually testing them against a completely non-compliant agressor, all the while still maintaining the Taiji principles.