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So my best friend in the world visited me in Denver today. Both of us have been into martial arts for the last decade or so, and we love to spar whenever we drink together, though unfortunately that becomes less and less often as the years go by.
Both of us started in more or less the same place; we both grew up watching kung fu movies, and were really into eastern philosophy, and that brought us to things like tai chi and qi gong. Though, while he mostly stuck with those arts, I got into the more modern and what I considered practical arts like BJJ and Muay Thai.
Fast forward to now; it's been a year or two since we've sparred, and in that time, I feel like my standup game has advanced tremendously. I certainly wouldn't be anything special in the world of Judo or wrestling, but I can recognize and unterstand the mechanics of the major takedowns (single-leg, double-leg, knee-tap, high-crotch, ankle pick, fireman's carry, osoto gari, kosoto gari, uchi mata, o goshi, harai goshi, kouichi gari, ouichi gari, seo nage) I also understand the basic clinch positions, and how closely they relate to the same movements in the butterfly guard that I love(collar-tie, collar-grip(gi), tricept, bicept, under-wrist, over-wrist, underhook, overhook, 2-on-1, arm-drag.)
Anyway, I still can't take him down. In fact, a few years ago, when I knew shit about takedowns, and his tai-chi was still rudimentary, my takedown percentage against him was higher than it is now. Now it's almost impossible to establish any kind of position on him. His maintenance of his center of balance is excellent, and in the hand-fighting, he's with me every step of the way, from a purely defensive standpoint. And if I get even remotely close enough to him to to try to establish underhooks, he drops his weight puts both hands on my waist, and just pushes me away. Maybe I'm missing something about standup grappling, but if I can't establish my grips and press my hips into someone, I don't know how to take them down.
That waist-push seems to be the 'A' move in tai chi, from what I know and it's actually really effective at shutting down my grappling offense. And while we were purely grappling, I think, with as good at controlling distance with that as he is, it would also be really difficult to ever land power punches against him.
It's definitely not an offensive martial art, and he likes to remind me that in a real fight he thinks I would take it easily. But nonetheless, if I was the aggressor, and my sole goal was to kick his ass, and his sole goal was to stop me; a grappler of over five years from doing so, I'm not sure I would succeed.
In over half-an-hour, I was able to take him down exactly one time and it was using a Jon Jones/Rashad Evans strategy of advancing on hands and knees. Of course with that takedown, I was able to achieve high mount within 1-1.5 seconds, at which point he verbally tapped. But that advance is not exactly a viable strategy in any kind of real fight, and still, after hitting it once, I wasn't able to repeat it. Honestly, in a real fight, I could see it coming down to cardio.
tldr: Tai chi techniques would likely never fair well in a competition of martial artists against martial artists like mma, because it lacks offense. But for pure self-defense, where your opponent likely knows nothing about fighting and has shit cardio, I'm pretty sold on it's legitimacy.
I lack reading comprehension: I'm not saying Tai Chi is better than grappling. I think grappling is better. But I'm also now convinced that Tai Chi is way more legit than a lot of modern martial artists give it credit for, and probably contains principles that many of us could benefit from. That is my point.
Both of us started in more or less the same place; we both grew up watching kung fu movies, and were really into eastern philosophy, and that brought us to things like tai chi and qi gong. Though, while he mostly stuck with those arts, I got into the more modern and what I considered practical arts like BJJ and Muay Thai.
Fast forward to now; it's been a year or two since we've sparred, and in that time, I feel like my standup game has advanced tremendously. I certainly wouldn't be anything special in the world of Judo or wrestling, but I can recognize and unterstand the mechanics of the major takedowns (single-leg, double-leg, knee-tap, high-crotch, ankle pick, fireman's carry, osoto gari, kosoto gari, uchi mata, o goshi, harai goshi, kouichi gari, ouichi gari, seo nage) I also understand the basic clinch positions, and how closely they relate to the same movements in the butterfly guard that I love(collar-tie, collar-grip(gi), tricept, bicept, under-wrist, over-wrist, underhook, overhook, 2-on-1, arm-drag.)
Anyway, I still can't take him down. In fact, a few years ago, when I knew shit about takedowns, and his tai-chi was still rudimentary, my takedown percentage against him was higher than it is now. Now it's almost impossible to establish any kind of position on him. His maintenance of his center of balance is excellent, and in the hand-fighting, he's with me every step of the way, from a purely defensive standpoint. And if I get even remotely close enough to him to to try to establish underhooks, he drops his weight puts both hands on my waist, and just pushes me away. Maybe I'm missing something about standup grappling, but if I can't establish my grips and press my hips into someone, I don't know how to take them down.
That waist-push seems to be the 'A' move in tai chi, from what I know and it's actually really effective at shutting down my grappling offense. And while we were purely grappling, I think, with as good at controlling distance with that as he is, it would also be really difficult to ever land power punches against him.
It's definitely not an offensive martial art, and he likes to remind me that in a real fight he thinks I would take it easily. But nonetheless, if I was the aggressor, and my sole goal was to kick his ass, and his sole goal was to stop me; a grappler of over five years from doing so, I'm not sure I would succeed.
In over half-an-hour, I was able to take him down exactly one time and it was using a Jon Jones/Rashad Evans strategy of advancing on hands and knees. Of course with that takedown, I was able to achieve high mount within 1-1.5 seconds, at which point he verbally tapped. But that advance is not exactly a viable strategy in any kind of real fight, and still, after hitting it once, I wasn't able to repeat it. Honestly, in a real fight, I could see it coming down to cardio.
tldr: Tai chi techniques would likely never fair well in a competition of martial artists against martial artists like mma, because it lacks offense. But for pure self-defense, where your opponent likely knows nothing about fighting and has shit cardio, I'm pretty sold on it's legitimacy.
I lack reading comprehension: I'm not saying Tai Chi is better than grappling. I think grappling is better. But I'm also now convinced that Tai Chi is way more legit than a lot of modern martial artists give it credit for, and probably contains principles that many of us could benefit from. That is my point.
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