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MMA & Combat Sports in general have a mixed reputation in what I will refer to as the “Traditional Martial Arts” (TMA) communities, and the relationship between tai chi & MMA is no different.
I have heard all the rhetoric: MMA isn’t a “real” martial art, our techniques are too deadly for the ring, sport fighters are barbaric, fighting for sport is against the tao, MMA is too external, it is consumerism at its worst, it is corrupting our children, etc… I’m not going to agree … This debate will probably never end … and the question will probably never be fully answered: What exactly is the difference between the internal and external martial arts? While I certainly can provide no definitive answer, I thought it might be helpful to share a bit of what I’ve learned in my experience with the Chinese internal martial arts, and particularly the distinction between jìn (勁) and lì (力). First of all, an important linguistic note from native Chinese speaker & master taijiquan practitioner, Zhang Yun’s article on Li & Types of Jin in Taijiquan. “In everyday usage, both of these words mean physical force, and can be used interchangeably. Very often, people use jin to denote a very large force. In martial art, these are technical terms with more precise definitions. Li is simple muscular force, what we call “untrained force”, … |
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