Becoming internal

A common misconception is that any martial art offers the opportunity to reach an 'internal' level of practice i.e. a karate man can become internal. This is not true.

Internal forms are quite different to external ones. They were designed to be a vehicle for the exploration of a very unique way of moving and using the body.

Movement is initiated by the centre (not by the hips) and entails moving every part of the body as one fluid unit. The joints do very little work.

The combat skills and sensibilities of the internal martial arts require a perceptual shift: blending, yielding, listening, stickiness. There is no blocking, struggling or forcing involved.

Fighting style

Some tai chi people claim to be fighting in a 'tai chi way' but it looks suspiciously like kickboxing or MMA... If you watch wing chun applied in combat, it looks distinctly like wing chun.

The same could be said of judo, aikido, ju jitsu, pencat silat etc. By the same reasoning, the martial art of tai chi must look like tai chi.

What does tai chi look like in combat? Tai chi looks like tai chi. The form, pushing hands, you know... tai chi.

If the martial expression of tai chi does not look like tai chi, it is probably not tai chi.

Yielding

(i) Resistance

Most beginners studying tai chi resist the idea of yielding and choose not to do it. Consequently, they do not understand yielding and strictly speaking are not training tai chi anymore.
The resistance is psychological and comes from a poor understanding of the physics involved. Without yielding, there is no tai chi. A common deceit is to yield a little and tense a little.
This is a well-know ploy and will only work against other beginners.


(ii) External attitudes

Yielding does not appeal to the hard-style external martial artist. It sounds ineffectual and soft. Weak.
When somebody is used to seeing martial arts as a contest of speed and strength, yielding sounds perplexing and unclear.


(iii) Practical yielding

There are a number of facets to yielding: 4 ounces of pressure, following the line of force, creating space, stepping, responding to space, offering no purchase and gravity.
If your instructor cannot demonstrate, apply and teach these to you, find someone who can.