
Taiji is not a magic pill that makes you suddenly able to fight, what you train is what you become and if you never train to pick up your hands against an opponent, not a compliant partner, you are not going to be able to use your art effectively. There are certainly many benefits to Taiji training without any fighting aspect involved, the health and longevity, sensitivity, and chance for self-work are all amazing parts of the art but realistically these things do not make a fighter. Nothing wrong with that, but deluding students and ourselves into thinking that it does make a fighter is a terrible crime. It breeds false confidence and unrealistic expectations and skews people’s visions of reality. Then, when challenged these dreamers find themselves being taken apart by beginners in arts that actually train fighting.