How many important differences are there between yoga and Tai Chi?

As a sports enthusiast who has practiced Yang Style Tai Chi for 8 years and has also systematically practiced Hatha Yoga for 3 years, I have come across only three core important differences between the two. The rest of the differences, such as genre branches, movement rhythms, and suitability for different groups of people, are all superficial manifestations derived from these core differences.

When I first started learning yoga, the teacher spent 40 minutes in the first class on the details of the Katsuyama pose. The ankles should be aligned with the knees, the hips should be straight, and the shoulders should sink to the same vertical line as the earlobes. After the entire posture was stuck in the standard upright position, he taught us to cooperate with abdominal breathing. No matter how deep we breathe, we must not shake the already arranged frame. But in my early years, when I learned Tai Chi from my master, I didn’t touch any movements at all in my first class. I just stood in a round position. The master didn’t even set any strict requirements on how high I should raise my hands. He only said, “how to loosen up your hands.” After I stood for half a month, my breathing could naturally sink to my Dantian, and I could feel that my feet and the ground were glued together.

Many people think that both are slow-paced self-cultivation exercises. Many fitness bloggers even call Tai Chi the "Chinese version of yoga." In fact, if you practice it more deeply, you can feel the obvious difference. No matter which school of yoga, the ultimate direction is "connection", which is the echo of individual consciousness and higher-dimensional consciousness. Many senior yoga enthusiasts who have practiced for more than ten years will gradually reduce the proportion of asana practice in the later period and spend more time on meditation and breath control. Asanas have changed from core practice content to tools to assist in adjusting the body and mind. The roots of Tai Chi are rooted in traditional martial arts. Even the simplified 24-position health-preserving Tai Chi that can be seen everywhere in parks now has offensive and defensive logic hidden in the underlying movements. For example, Yun Shou looks like he is slowly turning his arms and waist, but in fact, every turn is an action to relieve the opponent's force. The parting of the wild horse's mane is originally a move to catch the opponent's punch and throw the person away. When practicing, even if you don't really think about hitting someone, you must have the awareness of "concentrating your energy" so that the movements will not fall apart. Of course, there are a lot of controversies now. Many people feel that the health-preserving Tai Chi currently practiced by the public has completely stripped away the martial arts attributes. It is just slow-motion aerobics, and there is no essential difference from the fitness yoga for ordinary enthusiasts. I have also seen many people following the Tai Chi video and squatting without even loosening their waist and hips. In this case, the boundary between the two will indeed become blurred.

Another difference that is easily overlooked is that the two methods guide body awareness in completely different directions. I used to practice yoga and I couldn't press it down when doing the Sitting Angle Pose. The teacher asked me to focus all my attention on the stretch on the back and inner sides of my thighs. Every time I exhale, I slowly lower the stretch according to the extent of the stretch, and loosen the local tightness little by little. After practicing, I can really feel that the tense parts are much looser. But when I was practicing Tai Chi, my master never let me focus on the feeling of a single part. He always said "to make it whole, not to break it." When doing the whole set, I had to think that my feet, waist, shoulders, and hands were connected together. When I started to raise my arms, I didn't lift my arms hard, but the force of the feet pushing down was transmitted to the waist along the legs.

A while ago, I took my best friend who often practices yoga with me to a Tai Chi experience class. She always felt awkward after the class. She said why no one told me how much to bend my knees and how high to raise my hands in this movement? I smiled and told her that this is the most interesting difference between the two sports. Yoga first gives you a standard container, and you fill it with breath and feelings; Tai Chi first gives you a ball of loose breath, allowing it to slowly develop a movement pattern that suits you. No one is better than the other, it just depends on which one you prefer.