Combat Tai chi Chuan: Historic and contemporary approaches to drilling

Modern Tai Chi Chuan in most cases cannot be considered a practical martial art which can be used to develop reliably useful self defence skills. Historically things were different.

The art only became famous due to Yang Lu Chan, a tai chi chuan fighter who took on and defeated all the best martial artists of his day.

Many of the training methods used by Yang to achieve his ‘Invincible Yang’ reputation have been distorted or discontinued.

Most modern approaches to training focus almost exclusively on ‘Yin’ methods and lack the necessary‘Yang’ aspects to allow for dynamic development of martial skills.

Historically this of course was not the case, with Tai Chi’s reputation and esteem having been emergent properties of extremely talented fighters who could and would take on all comers, with and without weapons. 

There are many reasons for the decline of higher level martial skills among modern practitioners. In this article we will highlight one area, drilling, and show how it was done among the fighting generations of old and maintained in the one tai chi lineage which still holds onto the martial elements of tai chi today. This is the lineage from which our thirteen dynamics school comes from and that made famous in Hong Kong by Cheng Tin Hung. Cheng Tin Hung learned from two sources. His uncle initially, from who he learned the technical basis of the art and then from Qi Min Xuan, who taught him the fighting methodology. Qi’s lineage comes from his father and Ching Yat, both of who learned from Wang Lan Ting, a student of the legendary Yang Lu Chan.

Below: Author Neil Rosiak, using Wudang Tai Chi in fighting for the British Heavyweight Championship at the first professional MMA event in the UK ‘Night of the Samurai’ 1997


Qi Min Xian’s ‘Tai Chi Ancestor’: Wang Lan Ting (Student of Yang Lu Chan and Yang Ban Hou)

Statue of ‘invincible’ Yang Lu Chan in the Chen Village. Incidentally this statue forms the basis of our thirteen dynamics school logo.

Wang Lan Ting was a Chief officer in the Dun Prince’s imperial guard (Manchus), when he began studying Tai Chi with Yang Lu Chan, in around 1868. Yang Lu Chan was in charge of training the Manchu palace bodyguards. These guards were all Manchus and already skilled fighters and wrestlers.

Wang had previously studied martial arts with Sifu Dong, the founder of Bagua, but moved onto Tai Chi after meeting Yang.

In the Wudang system of Tai Chi (Our thirteen dynamics school teaches this) our training comes in a large part from the martial descendants of Yang Lu Chan and Wang Lang Ting.

As we can see in the lineage tree above, Cheng Tin Hung learned from two sources. From his uncle Cheng Wing Kwong he learned the core form material such as long form, sword, sabre etc. 

From his other teacher, Qi Min Xuan he learned the fighting parts of tai chi’s syllabus, which made him and his students highly effective fighters in both the ring and in the common street duels between rival martial arts groups in Hong Kong.

Cheng Tin Hung claimed that his uncles tai chi, like so many other relatively modern systems, lacked the real martial content he received from Qi Min Xuan, whose martial skills came from his own father and Ching Yat, both of whom were students of Wang Lang Ting.

In my research a key, significant difference in training between tai chi that comes from Wang Lang Ting and other lineages is their approach to systematic drilling and sparring.

Luckily we have not only Cheng Tin Hung’s writings to use as a source for these training methods but also Li Ruidong’s writings, which detail an almost identical approach. Li was a direct student of Wangs, and his writings clearly explain a very organised and systematic approach to martial drilling and sparring, shared in our lineage, but missing from the vast majority of others.

Martial practice and drilling as detailed by Li Ruidong, student of Wang Lang Ting.

Li Duidang inherited various texts and writings on tai chi from his teacher Wang Lang Ting, who in turn received them from Yang Lu Chan. They use slightly coded language to describe a systematic training process, using both solo ‘form’ training as well as partner work for learning how and when to apply the movement trained in solo work.

Li Ruidong
Li Ruidong

Li’s solo practice syllabus.

Danlian is solo practice. While practicing alone, we do not have to strive [to subdue an opponent] but only try to get familiar [with the exercise]. We can choose one or two exercises and practice them—this is called learning appearance. We can take three or five exercises and perform them without rest—this is called learning breath. We can take a few simple moves and practice them at will—this is called learning the law. Or we can practice as per our imagination—this is called learning the secret wisdom. Taken together, these are the Four Important Points of Solo Practice.…

The law creates the appearance, the appearance moves the breath, borrowing the breath gives birth to the secret wisdom, acting the secret wisdom leads to the law

Without practicing the appearance, the appearance is not firm. Without practicing the breath, the breath is not smooth. Without practicing the secret wisdom, the secret wisdom is not active. Without practicing the law, the law does not break through. There is a progression and if one does not understand the law and wastes his time practicing the appearance, the appearance is not true. Trying to practice the secret wisdom without practicing the breath, the secret wisdom is not alive. Trying to practice the law without practicing the secret wisdom, the law is not round.…

Li Ruidang’s writings as detailed in  “Lesser-Known Tai Chi Lineages: Li, Wu, Sun, Xiong” by Michael DeMarco. 

What this shows is that like other older sources (such as Song Shuming) form or solo training wasn’t necessarily done in one long sequence as is done by most tai chi systems today.

Please head over to the excellent ‘Brennan translation’ and check out Song Shuming’s description of tai chi training in his era..click here for the document.

‘Form’ movements were learned and practiced in high repetitions, combined in small sequences in any order or just spontaneously expressed in accordance with a visualised opponent at later stages. 

A priority seems to have been to simply achieve high degrees of familiarity with all the basic movements of the art and to be able to express them with perfect structure at any time (ie in fighting). 

In my own teaching I’ve often asked students who are familiar with a long form to take a movement from the form and practice it repetitively. This often completely short circuits them and they are unable to take movements out of sequence and repeat them skilfully. This is a problem from a martial perspective, as the forms are the key martial movement patterns of the art and should be completely familiar to the practitioner. Training in the way described by Li would quickly remedy this.

They also seem to have used sequences of movements strung together and practiced non stop to develop conditioning and stamina.

Other practices done for improving the strength and structure of the key movements of the forms was standing practice or pile stance holding. Simply holding the posture for extended periods of time.

In our modern Wudang lineage we no longer do the repetitious form practice or the pile stance holding as detailed by Li. However in our internal strength training system (Neigong) we do have a wide variety of static postures and repetitious training which is not only extremely effective at building martially powerful movements and strength, it is also time consuming.

So this could be why pile stance holding of form movements is no longer emphasised. It is also physically very demanding and recovery from practice is a real consideration. As practitioners energy and time are limited, so it makes sense to seek the most efficient use of training time.

So heavy internal strength training and form pile stance holding may overload the practitioner. However, in my own practice i do train the forms in not only long sequential format, but also in the method outlined by Li. Long form training offers unique benefits but solo repetition and freestyle flow also imparts many useful qualities for the practitioner.

Partner drilling and sparring in classical Tai Chi and in the Wudang lineage of Tai Chi

Shuanglian means practicing with a partner. When practicing with a partner, one should not follow a preset form, doing a preset form becomes a dead system. Those who practice this way abandon their hearts and rush with their spirit, hands and feet execute false movements. They bend, but do not reach out, just like a theater performance showing an empty form, like a story without heart—only a nice looking picture for the pleasure of those watching. Practicing like this for long does not only lead to no accomplishment, but it is also dangerous. If one wants to get benefit from partner practice, it is essential to receive constant instructions from a skilled teacher.

With a practice companion, one carries an attack and one defends in order to train the distance and investigate each other’s movement, thus understanding the principles of change. These are the two first important points. Then each partner chooses his favorite techniques and apply them full-force in order to learn the importance of applications

Li Ruidang’s writings as detailed in  “Lesser-Known Tai Chi Lineages: Li, Wu, Sun, Xiong” by Michael DeMarco

So as we can see, in the time that tai chi was famous as an elite fighting art serious martial practitioners were engaged in plenty of repetitious drilling, but also incorporated a lot of spontaneity. The also emphasised a lot of freefighting or sparring.

Many modern Tai chi lineages, particularly only practice freefighting ‘San Sau’ applications in long choreographed sequences where the next movement is already known. As explained by Li Ruidang, this is not good enough to achieve real combat skill and leads to a ‘dead system’, lifeless and devoid of the ability to change and adapt.

In modern ‘sport science’ there is the understanding that for skill development training needs to incorporate an element of ‘reading/listening’ to the game or environment for good results to be achieved. Just practicing shooting a basketball into the hoop without spontaneity drills of catching and shooting within game like scenarios won’t improve real in game performance. And so it is with combat training, where practicing pre set movements or combinations without training how and when they are most applicable is also less effective as a training modality.

The approach laid out by Cheng Tin Hung, which came from his own teacher Qi Min Xuan.

The author, Neil Rosiak in Taipei, using Wudang tai chi skills on his way to defeating the Malaysian Pushing hands champion at the world championship (Chung Hwa Cup) 1994

In the Wudang system of tai chi (which we teach as close as possible to the ‘old ways’), from Cheng Tin Hung there was an emphasis on practicing martial skills in simple drills until the movements become a completely natural reaction to the opponents attack. Tai chi’s fighting technique including an extremely wide variety of striking and grappling techniques so a systematic approach is best. Practicing one set of skills until they are proficient and then moving onto the next.

Practicing initially in a simple way at slow speed, perhaps only on one side, then adding speed and an element of ‘game listening/reading’, by having the attacker from either the left or right side. The attacker also has an opportunity to practice the quality of their attacking techniques.


It was emphasised that a lot of practice like this with each of the 48 key tai chi drills needs to be done to ingrain the movements and the timing, distancing and angle details so that we can consistently apply high quality defensive and countering techniques. 

With progress the attack should attack with lightening speed and aggression, even making maximally aggressive facial expressions and noises. This over time will desensitise the practitioners to aggression and allow us to remain relaxed and respond calmly and efficiently to real attacks.

After going through a lot of drilling in this manner, ideally on a daily basis, our skill level will be good enough that no matter what attack comes our way we can easily neutralise and counter it at lightening speed, naturally employing strikes, punches, kicks, throws or joint breaks and locks.

Additionally in the training methodology handed down to Cheng tin Hung from his teacher Qi Min Xuan there is an emphasis on conditioning the body and developing high levels of physical fitness and bodily toughness.

Internal strength exercises are the foundation method for building strength, stamina and explosive power and skillful use of force. Internal strength (Neigong) is an incredible all around training system which develops a very wide array of important qualities in a martial artist.

Hitting heavy bags with bare fists and feet is used to develop the toughness and strength of the bones and skin so that when striking they won’t be injured and will transfer force more effectively. Training on the bags must incorporate the use of whole body force with no winding up or telegraphing of techniques. Pad chasing is done (with modern equipment now) so that we can effectively strike different targets naturally and spontaneously whilst chasing down a retreating foe.

Handstands have to be practiced regularly to develop high levels of upper body strength and endurance. A specialised system of interval training using forward rolls on a mat is used to develop cardio respiratory fitness and whole body stamina.

There is the additional training in pushing hands exercises and wrestling to further augment the ‘San Sau’ freefighting skills, strengthening our sensitivity, balance, root and ability to dominate the opponent at close quarters. 

Basic combat skills can come quickly. Mastery takes time.

As we can see there is a lot of training required to become an expert in tai chi, being able to naturally express all manner of striking, grappling, wrestling and so on against a real, violent opponent. 

However, being an extremely practical approach to combat the Wudang system, if followed carefully and properly offers the student a bit of a short cut to acquiring potential combat skills and effective self defence.

By investing effort in the core conditioning exercises and practicing the foundation combat drills such as grasping the birds tail, parry and punch and double seize legs, the practitioner can become powerful, tough and hard to hit in short time. Within six months or so a student should have good reflexes, defensive instincts, stopping power and the ability to apply some effective throws. 

Experience: one of the best martial arts teachers

Experience is a hugely effective tutor and so full contact sparring and wrestling can make you far more effective and capable more quickly by letting your entire organism experience and learn from an opponent who is actively trying to do you real harm. Experiential learning teaches us things we cannot learn through observation or thinking. Some research shows that skills learned and practiced in more stressful environments are embodied more profoundly, which is something we can utilise in our training.

Hard sparring, hard wrestling and intense pushing hands are opportunities to integrate and contextualise all the other training drills and exercises. By making these environments as intense as possible (on occasion) we can potential enhance some martial learning so that in real situations what comes from us is truly effective and practical.

This part of the training process (particularly full contact sparring) isn’t overly healthy to engage in more than is absolutely necessary due to the high potential for injury and head trauma, but it is a short cut to greater fighting understanding. It was however used a lot in Cheng Tin Hung’s school and one of the many reasons for his groups achieving very high levels of success in ‘the streets’ and also in the competition arena (32 wins in 33 matches in Hong Kong full contact Lei Tei fights). In our school heavy sparring is only done by more advanced students who want to compete or just fully round out their martial abilities, because of the inherent health risks. Heavy wrestling and pushing hands can be done in most sessions without risk of serious injury and provides many martial benefits, as well as being enjoyable.

In summary we can see that tai chi practitioners of old had a very practical and systematic approach to training, which is continued in (some branches) of Wudang tai chi chuan. Even within this lineage we now often see a kind of ‘Wudang light’ approach, due to most modern practitioners not being the types to engage with the rougher elements of the practice. But to be sure, both older and more contemporary tai chi fighters all practiced in ways that would surprise most people and in many cases would be closer to how a modern combat athlete (MMA/Muay Thai etc) would train, than the current generation of tai chi practitioners.

When facing an enemy, you must go all out and not underestimate the enemy. Taijiquan masters who are cultivated should have higher martial ethics, be highly tolerant , use restraint in facing people and things,and treat others with a peaceful mind, and only use self-defense as a last resort.

Sifu Cheng Tin Hung

The complete fighting tai chi course is available here

The Tai Chi internal strength/Neigong course is available here.

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