Having stepped onto the mat, as it were, I should probably introduce myself in this thread. *
wushu bow*
I practice
taijiquan, which is often shortened to
taiji, and known in English as "Tai Chi", in
Chen style. I do this mainly as a physical and mental discipline (the slow forms are sometimes known as "moving meditation"), and to connect to my cultural heritage, but I study under a
shifu (master) who takes the traditional view that neglecting martial training denies the practitioner the full benefit of the art. I started "training" when I was about four years old by imitating my Grandma's moves in the yard behind the block of flats we lived in then. I will leave aside the health benefits claimed for
taiji, which are rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine, but I know that I definitely
feel better after doing my daily forms. I certainly can't blow holes in brick walls with my
qi the way they do in the movies, though!
For people who are only familiar with the slow forms you see performed in parks and other open spaces wherever there is a significant Chinese population, I should perhaps say that
taiji is a "full-service" martial-art, in the sense that it includes strikes, locks, throws, and weapon-use (I focus on
taijijian sword forms), and so can be seen as both "hard" and "soft", but the philosophy is essentially internal and soft:
"Stillness to defeat motion, softness to defeat hardness." It is not an art that is quickly or easily learned, but that is to an extent true of all traditional Chinese martial-arts, since the assumption was that the practitioner would begin training in childhood.
Is it any good for self-defence? Well, I don't carry a sword in daily life, obviously, and like BeoPuppy, I prefer to avoid situations where I might have to put my training to the test. It is far better to avoid trouble than to be forced defend yourself against it. Martial arts training certainly
can help you defend yourself,
if your training includes realistic elements to prepare you for combat, physically and psychologically, but it is only in the movies that petite women can casually flip around burly goons twice their weight. The sheer shock and speed of a big man's onset in an "honest attack" is not at all easy to handle, no matter how many years you have spent practicing to use an opponent's weight and momentum against them. Realistic training carries a definite risk of injury, and if it did not it would fail in its purpose, but if you shrink from a blitz attack by a larger opponent on the practice-mat, what do you think a real assault will be like?
Ego-driven, power-trip fantasies are the curse of martial-arts, and normally I stay far, far away from internet forums devoted to them. We have spoken in the firearms threads about crazy "Orange Shirt Guys", but there are too many people like that in martial-arts also. As I once heard a
shifu put it to some young pupils,
"You can't control the world; you can control yourself."