TaiChi and You: Your Tai Chi Fighting Strategy

There's a lot of mysticism surrounding Tai Chi Chuan, and as a result of this, confusion about the nature of its practice. In order to clear this up, it is necessary to get to the heart and purpose for which Tai Chi was developed, and the best way to do this is to look at its fighting strategy. If we look carefully, we will discern two essential principles at work in Tai Chi strategy.

First of all, Tai Chi is based upon allowing the opponent to attack first. This means that one would seek to take the initiative from a position of waiting - you receive the attack of the opponent. This doesn’t mean being defensive.

The attitude here is offensively remaining responsive to the opponents attack. One awaits the opponents move, then suddenly takes the initiative. This is the first principle. To take the initiative means to ‘get the better’ of your opponent or to gain the advantage, and the way that Tai Chi goes about doing this defines its second principle.

To understand this we must go look to the history of Tai Chi Chuan, going back to its roots in the Taoist concept of yin and yang. The general idea in this is that all of nature is based upon constantly change forces between opposites.

Thus in nature we see birth and death, good and evil, light and darkness, and each of these in reaching its extreme, gives way to the other. Tai Chi takes this philosophical concept from Taoism and makes it the basis of its system. In terms of fighting strategy, this means that in receiving the opponent’s attack, one attempts to lure his energy into emptiness, that is, to redirect it into a space where the energy now stands free and on its own.

The result is that the energy of the attacker – his movement, force, balance, strength – no longer belong to your opponent, and you yourself have the opportunity of taking control of it. This is what it means here to take the advantage – to seize the energy of your opponent and use it against him. If we put together these two principles then we discover that the essence of Tai Chi, and the basis of its fighting strategy is to take the initiative from a position of waiting, using the opponent’s energy against him.

In actual combat, of course, one need not always wait for the opponent. You can strike or trip or kick if he is two indecisive or isn’t paying attention. Tai Chi as a martial art, however, is most effective when the above strategy is applied.

It was designed to be used against brute strength and opponents with obvious physical advantages, for indeed there is always someone bigger, stronger, and quicker than yourself. If one would seek to attain a high level of ability in Tai Chi, taking its fighting strategy as a guide, allow it to enlighten every aspect of your practice, to put reason into every movement, technique, and application.

In this way you will attain clarity in your practice.