Martial Tai Chi™

Our Agenda

Agenda or Purpose?
Spelling It Out CLEARLY In Black And White

An e-mail I received recently really bothered me on several fronts. The e-mail accused me (I say accused because from the nature of the language it was only too apparent that it was an accusation) of having an agenda. Well, talk about stating the obvious - I wouldn't have thought anyone visiting this website could be in doubt for long that I have a very definite agenda. Personally, I don't think that is in any way a bad thing because I think it is important to have a sense of PURPOSE in everything we say and do. I really shouldn't have thought anyone could get the impression that my agenda was in any way hidden - I think I spell things out pretty clearly, but just so no one can be in any doubt, here it is in plain black and white.

Tai Chi has been hijacked by hippies and businessmen. The late Malcolm McLaren (Sex Pistols manager) pointed out the dangers of trusting hippies. It has been further remarked upon that they do tend to make ruthlessly efficient businessmen.

Continuing with the Pistols theme, I think top honours on the quote front must go to Sid Vicious:

"What do I care for the dismal opinions of idiots?"

Smash It Up

So yes, I absolutely do want to smash up the mainstream Tai Chi juggernaut, just as Punk smashed up an overblown and self indulgent music industry. I do want to expose it for the lucrative lie it is. I do not think anyone should be allowed to call a movement discipline Tai Chi unless it succeeds in producing fighters. Authentic Tai Chi is a fighting art and any physical activity that calls itself Tai Chi, Tai Chi Chuan or Taijiquan should contain effective combat training or be considered unworthy of the name. I say again, a Tai Chi regimen should succeed in producing warriors in order to be considered worthy of its military ancestral connection and the name Tai Chi.

No amount of vitriol on my part, anger at it or wishful thinking on anyone else's can alter the historical facts. Tai Chi's recent history has involved a steady dilution away from its martial roots and that's a fact.

I should just point out here that I certainly don't have any kind of financial agenda. I used to be with the Tai Chi Union For Great Britain and after 5 years was even elected on to their executive committee, though my stay was brief. I'm not making any point about them specifically, but can report with great certainty that the mainstream Tai Chi money making machine is considerably richer than I am. I have only a handful of students who mostly just train at my house these days. I still run public classes and seminars but they are very small - not many Tai Chi, Bagua and Xingyi folk enjoy full contact training in body armour and that is what we do. Sure, we do a bit of form work too, plus some developmental exercises, warm ups and stretch downs, but for the most part we hit each other and throw each other around like most contact-orientated martial artists.

Secondarily, I have another purpose: I wish to sever Tai Chi from the mythology surrounding it. I want to liberate it from the cloudy-headed, pseudo-daoist, folk-superstitious haze that plagues it. I wish to do this for two main reasons:

1) Because that quagmire of erroneous beliefs only ever succeeds in divorcing the art from its primary function of combat.

2) Because its exponents are positively evangelical in their insistence that Tai Chi students SHOULD allow themselves to be influenced by outmoded and irrational Chinese cultural ideas. They are generally also very critical of western thinking and values, so I think my agenda here should be understood to be a responsive one. I would not need to take the stand I do were it not for the fact that I've seen so much irrelevant, inconsistent and, at times, immoral and even sleazy cultural baggage imposed upon Tai Chi students by Chinese and non-Chinese teachers alike. I'm sorry to have to be so plain, but I'm quite sure if I was Chinese myself, my comments would not cause such a stir. As it is, there is anxiety about racism and cultural imperialism and all that stuff, well, I'm just speaking my mind and I think maybe it is best if these things can be discussed openly instead of brushing them under a carpet of social anxiety.

There is no reason on earth why I cannot practice Tai Chi as a fighting art but use a western anatomical understanding of how my body works. A Chinese practitioner of Western Boxing with a Traditional Chinese Medical perspective of the human body would not be expected to westernise - to convert to a western anatomical perspective, unless he chose to do so. I would argue that both he and I could practice our respective martial styles to no detriment whatsoever by the omission of any specific cultural background, providing we knew how to move within the disciplines of those styles.

Consequently, we in the Martial Tai Chi Association and the broader Martial Training Association (an independent governing body for any style) state outright that we do not believe in Qi (or Chi / Ch'i / Ki / Prana / etc.) and thoroughly wish to distance ourselves from the folk magic and superstition that often accompanies traditional styles. We welcome anyone who wishes to learn how to fight using the Kung Fu styles we offer - Martial Tai Chi, Martial Bagua, Martial Xingyi and the Universal Martial Training system we use as our secular, developmental, athletic, conceptual and strategic foundation.

Have things really got so bad - so relativistic - that having a PURPOSE is seen as a bad thing now? Please feel free to stick around and browse our site for more information about us and our crazy, transparent agenda.