On Fri, 12 Dec 2003, Jot Powers wrote: > >_Moving Zen (Karate As a Way to Gentleness)_ by C.W. Nicol > >pg 49 > >[...] In that case, I countered, what about Tai chi chuan? Nakayama >sensei [then chief instructor] laughed, and with a smile he said, >"For human beings, Karate is the best way. But there are some men who >are superhuman, and perhaps a few of the Tai chi sensei are just that." > On a tangent to this, (and writing as someone who doesn't really know anything on the topic but occasionally watches with interest, or reads a historical or instructional text): There was a show on the Discovery Channel recently called "Xtreme Martial Arts", http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/xma/xma.html And watching some of the many and varied styles, both with weapons and unarmed, my impression is that the Chinese martial arts have a tendency towards being much more swirly and flashy, with a lot more motions that might be meant to distract the opponent (such as the drunken style). The Japanese styles, from what I could see, are usually more direct and choppy, in contrast. The Chinese styles are, I think, more visually interesting (which might be why there a lot more movies about Chinese fighting styles). The XMA competetion itself felt Chinese, despite the fact that Japanese weapons and styles were used as well. The very notion of combining martial arts and gymnastics seems like a more Chinese style thing to do.