I have heard so many coments about "Real Tai Chi" and was just wondering if anyone could give me a definition of real tai chi.

It seems everyone thinks that they have the real deal. What is it? Just doing the form? Push hands exercises? Free style push hands? Do you ever teach punching and kicking drills up to speed like Mainstream kung fu styles?

If you never drill the techniqes up to speed how will you apply them in a real self defense situation?

Most of what I teach is the form and some basic push hands drills. Many of the people who do it are older and do not care about the fighting anyway. To be honest, they have a hard time just with the form.

I had one young man who wanted to learn to fight with the tai chi. So I broke it down just as I do my kung fu style into drills using punches, kicks, two person drills, push hands drills and throws. After about a year I threw him into the san shou class to fight. He did very well against the kung fu students. Was it Tai Chi or just san shou? Not sure. His movement was a little different than the others but at least he did fight.

Has anyone ever been abe to see CC Chen's daughter or other students fight san shou? Did it look like just another san shou fight or did they display thier style by the techniques they used? Just wondering. They are the only school I know of the does that type of fighting.