Just watch out to not get into Falun Gong or something similar.

Read some books on taoism

This reminds me of my struggle with yoga.

Stretching: good. Magic energy: sigh...

I like them. Make sure to put all of your XP into CHI.

I know absolutely nothing about any martial arts, but my two cents is that if it beings you benefit and it's not hurting anybody then it go for it.

I've trained Wu style for a while and there wasn't any mysticism in the school I was in. We also did a lot of application and sparring, including sparring with other martial arts schools. I think the core principles of the principles of the art are sound, and it can work as an effective fighting style.

That said, I find it really depends on how it is taught. A lot of schools just focus on doing the forms, and they don't bother with application. It's fine if you're doing it to develop body awareness, balance, and so on. However, I don't think it's possible to learn to apply a fighting style without actually doing sparring.

Stories about masters single handedly pushing 10 people using the power of chi are just tall tales in my experience. You can get a lot of power by learning to get the most out of body mechanics, but at the end of the day there's no magic and it's just physics.

Eh, I find it easy to ignore the woowoo bullshit. Always have.

That being said, the benefits are there. It's a form of meditation, and exercise, all rolled into one. That's always a good thing.

Now, I enjoy the Taoist and Buddhist stuff. On paper, that's the religions I give when a quick and simple answer is needed. The Buddhist side of things actually is as close to religion as I get nowadays, and the Taoist side of things is an interesting way of looking at the universe. But neither approaches what you'd call Belief. It's more that they fit well enough as an approximation of the way I think and feel about existence.

Tbh, it helps in breaking loose of assumptions built up from living in the western world, the same as western ways of thinking would help break free of assumptions built up from eastern ways of thinking. And that's what matters to me, keeping my assumptions from keeping me from thinking and learning.

I agree with you about the "weird stuff". I teach Tai Chi and I'm very careful about the words I use, especially when it comes to describing mechanical forces. I'll often mention that I don't mean some notion of "life force" but rather the physical Newtonian force that your body is subject to while performing the movements.

I find Tai Chi to be deceptively complicated with deep physical and psychological components. I have a hard time articulating what it is to others since it's not really a martial art, and it's not really meditation, and it's not just a bunch of movements or calisthenics. But it does have very real effects and I love it!

It sounds like your experience is quite similar to mine and I'm happy you found a good teacher and are enjoying the practice! 😀

I tried Aikido for a while and did some Qui Gong as well. I see your point about the BS floating around, but the physical and also mental benefits are undeniable. It may vary from person to person, the same way some people can't meditate, some won't get anything from these types of activities.

I practice "internal" and "external" kung fu and first things first... All real kung fu is both. If your Shifu is teaching both the internal and external aspects of the art then you are getting the full experience. Any martial art was developed for fighting, however there can be a very fulfilling experience when you connect the mind and body during training and execution. It sounds like your teacher has you on a good path.

As with almost any type of repetitive training the key gain is to reduce / eliminate thinking time to maximise reaction time. Whether that be fire training, first aid or a body motion the principal is the same. The difference between trying to remember versus simply knowing.

While I'm not familiar with the practices of Tai Chi and its history, I am familiar with the stories and mysticism of "inner" martial arts and chi due to my cultural background. I've always been fascinated with martial arts and kung fu, and have recently taken up karate and its cultural histories. I also have a degree in kinesiology and will agree that the human body is such a complex and fascinating subject. The word "chi" or "ki" literally means air or in the context of martial arts, breath, and I will associate it as such. In every martial arts that I've seen, breathing is always a subject in the forefront. But as far as listening to tall tale stories and feats that chi can achieve, I always smile and nod but take it with a grain of salt

I've done some karate, wu shu(gong/Kung fu), and Tai chi. Thankfully, my instructors never got into the BS of chi or Feng shui.

I do think doing the physical work without accompanying mental work is missing out on some stuff though. Your physical status goes along with mental status and vice versa. Whether you choose to perceive that as chi, chakras, or just plain mental control(what I choose) is up to you.

To me it's just a passion some ppl have. I used to be more into it (never did it), but as with every passion, you can get blinded by the flashiness of the people who wanna sell you a specific technique or way to do something.

I think you are right, one can get trapped very easily in the pitfalls of the superhuman, but the actual benefits are rooted in the basic.

Other examples: there's a lot of benefits to general fitness exercises, but the fitness bros will sell you their one and only way to get extremely muscular (which most people don't even start out striving for). Or games, where people push you to be the very best, although the actual benefit is in having fun and keeping your brain sharp. Or creative hobbies, where a lot of people strive for the spotlight, but the actual benefit is when you do it for yourself and do what you want, regardless of what other people think.

It's a hard balance but I guess that's just life.

I do a little Qi Gong routine in the morning. It’s very pleasant and I don’t need a yoga mat.

What are your thoughts on inner martial arts?

I'll let my fists do the thinking on this.

All of the fake martial arts (from no-touch knockouts and kayfabe wrestling) have given me a bad impression of martial arts in general. If you're not mystifying your arts or trying to pass them off as something they're not to impressionable and vulnerable people, hey you're good. But I'm still internally lumping them all together as scams in my head.

Not sure entirely where this fits into this conversation, but one thing I've found really interesting that's discussed in this Convo w Dr. K (I don't have a timestamp sorry). Tai Chi has much more significant affect on all health perspectives than typical Western running/jogging/yoga etc.

And research papers can note this, but as soon as researchers start attempting to dig into the actual mechanical process behind why it has such a significant affect, their papers will be rejected because it dips too far into Woo/Spiritual territory despite not describing what the woo is, just acknowledging that "something" is there happening.

I think it's interesting we can measure results and attempt to explain what we're seeing but western research tends to be so tied to physical mechanisms it has almost started hindering our advancement.

I trained tai chi and a little ba gua. I sparred a little with some karate and take kwon do people. I cleaned up. I did some light sparring with a ba gua guy and he was literally throwing me around effortlessly.

I was taught well. I would imagine that my teacher was 1/1000. When looking for him, I found at least 5 different schools that had no idea what they were doing and teaching tai chi anyways.

IDK, but I tried Muay Thai and can attest that it has the mystical power of hitting and kicking people really fucking hard. I could throw a large man, but it was by shoving him with my foot (called a teep, they're great). I tried a little Tai Chi when I was younger and it does seem like it would be awesome for balance and maybe some core strength type stuff but I have to imagine its efficacy in an actual fight is not on par with something more practical like Muay Thai, Jui JItsu, Boxing, etc.

I think knowing it could still help if you get attacked, but the real danger that will probably get most of us is being too inactive and Tai Chi seems pretty great in defending against that.

My brother in whatever the fuck this is, I've gotten more out of tarot card reading than any therapist I've had in the past few years.