Taichi is NOT for health. Taichi IS for fighting!

The fact is that taichi was developed less than 400 years ago as a martial art. It's proper name is Taichi Chuan, translated it means Ultimate Supreme Fist.

You may well be under the illusion that tai chi is nothing more than a series of slow and gentle movements, practiced by old people in parks to improve their health and to prolong life. In our modern day society life is relatively easy, we look for the easiest least painful ways to achieve our goals, including improving our health. This attitude allowed unscrupulous charlatans to claim that the slow gentle movements of tai chi were a health benefit to people.

There is much confusion that surrounds the art of tai chi, fired to a great degree by those that claim to know something about it. Common myths are that tai chi is an ancient art. Less than four hundred years is hardly ancient, especially when compared to other martial arts, some of which were actually founded thousands of years ago. Other myths surrounding tai chi are that it was introduced into china by an Indian buddhist, that sat before a wall for seven years in meditation, when he arose from his (seven years!) of meditation he preformed the first tai chi forms and taught them to others. Unlikely in the extreme I would say.

Other myths that surround tai chi are that it is in some way intrinsically linked to the taoist philosophy/religion, again this is untrue. The fact is that the taoists adopted the ying and yang symbol from tai chi and also attempted to adopt tai chi as it's own.

Around the 1960's and 70's people began to teach tai chi for health in order to make money. These so-called instructors taught for health because they either did know know, or did not understand the martial application behind the techniques that they taught their students. Some probably never even knew any tai chi but just made up their own flowing movements and taught them as tai chi.

Another popular misconception is the fact that people belive that it takes an average 10 years or more to learn tai chi as a method of self defence. There is even a saying "Tai Chi does not go out of the door for 10 years" This is just not true, an average student with a good teacher can expect to gain what would be considered black belt level in about 3 years.

Real tai chi is becoming a dying art because of the charlatans that teach it for health. Even today there are teachers that claim to teach tai chi for combat,

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