by Angel Castillo, Stillness in Movement Blog
Tai Chi is Not Just for the Senior Center
Next March, Windsong Dojo will host a two-day workshop on Chen-style Taijiquan (tai chi), led by Ryan Craig, head instructor and founder of Philly Chen Taiji in Philadelphia, PA. While this will be a great opportunity for existing tai chi enthusiasts to deepen their practice, we would also like to encourage students of Aikido, Judo, and other arts to participate and see for themselves how Taijiquan can enhance their existing martial arts practice, bolstering existing skills while filling in gaps you might not have been aware of.
A Complete Fighting Art
There is a misconception among the broader martial arts community that Taijiquan is simply a form of exercise and meditation like Yoga. This comes from the fact that most “Tai Chi” classes taught in the U.S. tend to focus purely on the health benefits, emphasizing the slow, soft movements in the forms. While this does have the admirable benefit of making the art accessible to practitioners of different ages and fitness levels, it has led many to dismiss Taijiquan as just a hobby for old people with no use for competition or self defense.
The truth is, Taijiquan, when taught correctly, is a complete and deadly fighting art. It was created in the Ming Dynasty by actual military generals, based on their battlefield experience. The complete art comprises strikes, throws, trips, joint locks, and how to integrate all of those disciplines into a coherent offense and defense.
The name “Taiijiquan” comes from the taijitu, the symbol of yin and yang. A truly complete taijiquan practice will include both the yin and the yang aspects of the art: the soft and the hard; the slow and the fast; the internal and external, the martial and the meditative.
At this workshop, you will be exposed to techniques and theory from the lineage of Chen Fake, a martial artist who popularized the art in Beijing in the 1920s specifically by beating multiple challengers in public combat. You will learn skills that will help you control and dominate opponents as well as gain internal calm.
External Sensitivity
Taijiquan is built for close-range fighting. Two core principles are “sticking and following” and “neither fighting nor disengaging” from an opponent’s force. This means always maintaining constant contact with an opponent once you’re in range, feeling where they are directing their energy, and using that feeling to follow and redirect the force instead of trying to muscle out of it. These principles are most clearly reinforced through the practice of push-hands, a trademark Taijiquan game that now even exists as its own sport.
Ultimately, push-hands is a practice that bridges the disciplines of striking and grappling, teaching how to deal with the transitional stage between long and close range. It can help you learn to develop efficient entries and set-ups for throws, trips, and locks, as well as how to strategically occupy space to create opportunities for strikes while limiting your opponent’s available avenues to counter.
It’s a game that has low risk for injury and requires no special equipment, so it’s easy to set up a practice group anywhere you can find willing partners, whether it’s in a dojo, on a basketball court, or in a public park.
Internal Sensitivity
While partner drills are good for learning how to react to an opponent, solo form practice in Taijiquan is the key to developing one’s proprioception: an awareness of all the different mechanical connections in the body that can chain together to deliver power. While people scoff at the slow movements in taijiquan, nobody bats an eye when other martial artists regularly employ the phrase, “slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.”
In an effective Taijiquan practice, where you are moving slowly with the correct posture and alignment, every posture becomes an isometric exercise, training not only large muscle groups, but the smaller synergist muscles that keep the joints stable. This means that in practical application, the amount of power delivered in a technique and the stability of the body’s structure during delivery can be constant, making it harder to counter or neutralize.
Taijiquan theory stresses the “six harmonies:” three “internal” and three “external.” The external harmonies are coordination of the hands and feet, the knees and elbows, and the hips and shoulders. The internal harmonies are awareness with intention, intention with structure, and structure with force. Concentrated practice and development of these harmonies can make the difference between staying locked up in stalemate positions with opponents and knowing what slight adjustments, either in your bodily alignment or mental focus, can break stalemates, create advantageous positions, and win fights.
Register now!
If you are in Oklahoma City and want to try a new approach to martial arts training that will make you feel more embodied, mindful, grounded, and powerful, click this link to register for the March 2026 workshop with Ryan Craig before spots run out!
