EXERCISES FOR ALL SEASONS: Tai Chi
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CMC 37 Posture Tai Chi Form, front view - 10/24/11 (Autumn)
Yes, Tai Chi Chuan is a great system of self-defense! But self-defense against what?
True, tai chi can be used against a hostile stranger who is attacking me. But this is a very unlikely possibility. In civilized societies, the probability that I am going to be physically attacked by another person during my lifetime is very slight (assuming I'm not deliberately going out to bars and provoking fights with drunken strangers). I suspect that the probability of being physically attacked by a hostile human being, while living in a modern civilized society, is as remote as being hit by a falling meteorite!
A person living in the modern world could probably live his or her entire life and never have occasion to physically fight another human being.
If one spends a large portion of one's life preparing for physical attacks by a stranger that most likely will never occ...