tai ji

Tai Ji

"Tai Ji Quan" (Supreme ultimate Fist) is probably the most popular Chinese martial arts style and is practiced by men and women all over the world. Taiji is a actually a "wushu" style, just like nanquan, monkey style or broadsword, only that taiji is a soft, internal style. Nanquan on the other hand is an external and hard style. Taiji is so popular because it even attracts people who are generally not interested in martial arts. For most people its health aspect is more important than its combat aspect, but there are also taiji competition with acrobatics jumps etc. Taiji is definitely fun, improves fitness and coordination and can be practiced anywhere. There are many different taiji styles; Chen (which was the first one), Wu, Yang etc. In modern Taiji competitions, Chen, Wu and Yang and acrobatics are often mixed together.