# how to know if my tai chi teacher is the real deal



## timmyy (Aug 14, 2012)

I'm looking to learn traditional tai chi. I don't really know much about it, the only thing I know is I need it for self defense/subduing suspects (I'm a cop). I found one teacher in my area who is not teaching only relaxation tai chi. So how should I know if I'm gonna learn something useful from him?


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## oaktree (Aug 14, 2012)

timmyy said:


> I'm looking to learn traditional tai chi. I don't really know much about it, the only thing I know is I need it for self defense/subduing suspects (I'm a cop). I found one teacher in my area who is not teaching only relaxation tai chi. So how should I know if I'm gonna learn something useful from him?



Ask him. Ask him what style you are learning. Ask him who was his teacher. Ask him if he teaches the applications with it. 
 Watch him and his students. Are their joints stiff and locked? Do they have bad posture? Do they root or are they unbalanced. Do they look tense or relaxed?

Why did you pick Taijiquan as the art to learn to deal with suspects as a cop? Taijiquan is very effective in Qin na but I would think learning Police combatives or something like Eagle claw/Japanese Jujutsu would be more focused on teaching you joint locks. 

Do not think you are going to learn Qin na right away, you want traditional Taijiquan well learning application should be the last thing on your mind if you really want to learn Taijiquan. To put it bluntly your teacher has to break you apart and put you together again. You need leg strength from standing post forms, You need to learn how to relax tension, You need to know how to do the form correctly, sinking and rooting. You need to go through Tuishou to understand the principles and theory needed to do the application. Don't expect to learn applications and Qinna till much later. With that said if you are in no hurry then the reward for your patience in Taijiquan will be great.

But for someone who needs to learn martial application and quick Taijiquan is not the way to go, you should look into Judo, Krav Maga, Jujutsu, Hapkido, Aikido, External kungfu styles. 

As far as only teaching relaxation Taijiquan, well alot of people teach that because most people come to Taijiquan looking for that. 
 Maybe he knows application just noone asks him about it, maybe he only teaches it to students who have been with him a while.

Again why did you pick Taijiquan to learn application for apprehending suspects?


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## timmyy (Aug 14, 2012)

I chose it because I thought that if ever comes down to life and death situation the tai chi would simply be the best option no matter what skills the assailant would have. Maybe I'm wrong though. I already trained kenpo karate but I simply quit because of that reason. I would really appreciate any suggestions you guys have what should be the best martial art in my situation. I was also looking for wing chun but I'm not sure how good it would be on the street against non wing chun practitioner. Again I'm aware that ju jitsu is good for controlling suspects but it's not really effective in self defense scenario.


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## oaktree (Aug 14, 2012)

timmyy said:


> I chose it because I thought that if ever comes down to life and death situation the tai chi would simply be the best option no matter what skills the assailant would have. Maybe I'm wrong though. I already trained kenpo karate but I simply quit because of that reason. I would really appreciate any suggestions you guys have what should be the best martial art in my situation. I was also looking for wing chun but I'm not sure how good it would be on the street against non wing chun practitioner. Again I'm aware that ju jitsu is good for controlling suspects but it's not really effective in self defense scenario.



Are you aware of the time it takes to become proficient at being able to use Taijiquan application in a life or death encounter? Most Taijiquan teachers are not teaching Taijiquan as an art for you to be street deadly or be able to deal with handling suspects.
 You are not going to be learning application at the speed you learned it in say Kenpo or Wing Chun. You are learning what is termed an Internal art.
Meaning certain principles, theories and conditioning must be met prior to you being able to learn application. Let's say on your first day you learn an application for the opening sequence Taiji Qi Shi in Chen Taijiquan Laojia the one were you rise your hands up and down. Without understanding the principles of Taijiquan as in listening, sticking, yielding you will be learning a shadow of what Taijiquan is.

You have to understand it is not the art that makes someone good at self defense it is how that person is able to use the principles in that art to be good at self defense.
 How odd you say that Jujutsu is good at controlling suspects but not good at self defense. In Japanese jujutsu you are taught strikes, chokes, joint locks and plenty of good principles that are very effective in self defense. In fact Jujutsu well now Taihojutsu is used by police departments. 

If you want to study Taijiquan as a martial art you need to look for a good teacher who teaches the applications and you need to have patience. If you are looking
for an art that will teach you applications in a hurry than Taijiquan is not the answer for you. You need something like Jujutsu, Krav Maga, Hapkido, JKD, Combatives.


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## mograph (Aug 14, 2012)

I would have thought Krav Maga would be the way to go. 
At any rate, you should check one of the other Martialtalk forums and see what other police officers use.


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## clfsean (Aug 14, 2012)

timmyy said:


> I'm looking to learn traditional tai chi. I don't really know much about it, the only thing I know is I need it for self defense/subduing suspects (I'm a cop). I found one teacher in my area who is not teaching only relaxation tai chi. So how should I know if I'm gonna learn something useful from him?



Where are you at?


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## timmyy (Aug 14, 2012)

I'm from Europe...Well I've been looking around and I found one (and only) JKD club in my area that seems interesting to me. Since I don't know much about JKD can somebody watch their promotion video on youtube and give me opinion if it's worth my time? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkPmGO2tUkI&feature=player_embedded
Thanks guys.


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## Xue Sheng (Aug 14, 2012)

Where did Master Hari learn JKD?


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## rickster (Aug 14, 2012)

I would think that the police force-academy would have provided with all of the training needed.

I have yet to see a police force-academy outside of Asia using Tai Ji as defense


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