[asood123]

One of my favorite books of all times: The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin. He was the chess prodigy written about in Searching for Bobby Fisher. He quit chess shortly after and became a world champion in Tai Chi. The book is about learning two very different skills and how they are the same.

Thesis that learning one thing deeply helps learn other (unrelated) things makes total sense to me.

[majos]

If anyone reacts as I did and wonders how it's possible to compete in Tai Chi, the competitive sport [1] is not the slow-movements-in-the-park activity I had in mind.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushing_hands

[dillonmckay]

Yes, it is a martial art, and there are some interesting moves.

Also, if you enjoy that sort of thing and action movies, I recommend:

Tai Chi Master

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0108281

Man of Tai Chi

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2016940/

There are also random youtube videos of various ‘push hands’ techniques.

[rasz]

Its TMA, as effective as ballroom dancing. Do not try to delude yourself into thinking it has any defense qualities.

[rasz]

its pure bullshido https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-KX99T5r3A

[reddickulous]

I agree and it's interesting that he also went on to become a black belt in jiu jitsu which is mostly not bullshido.

[kyuudou]

Very true - even blue belts in BJJ are savage killers compared to similarly-ranked adherents in other arts, TMA or not, much less the average drunk bully in a bar.

Yet a lot of the same life lessons are passed on through the right, uh, professor.

[gowld]

So? It's a sport. Are basketball, boxing, and wrestling and bullshido because they'd lose in an MMA fight?

[magicsmoke]

TMA aren't just sports, they call themselves martial arts. Emphasis on martial, relating to war. You would expect something calling itself a martial art be useful in a fight, but MMA is much more effective in self defense than TMA because they focus on actual combat in the ring instead of showy but unproven katas.

TBF, MMA has rules that don't apply to bar fights, and knowing how to use a firearm fits closer a martial art that would let you survive on a modern battlefield. Or practicing squad tactics on an airsoft field. Perhaps TMA weapons training would qualify as a martial art in the days before firearms when armies fought with sword and spear, but it shouldn't continue calling itself anything to do with martial in this day and age. Historical dance or reenactment maybe, along the lines of renaissance fair and civil war battle reenactors.