What martial art is the most dangerous?

Notice I did not say the worlds' deadliest, the most deadly, the most dangerous and when we put those modifiers in most would think of how they can really hurt someone else.  But what if you hurt yourself when doing your martial art?  As Master Stephen Hwa once said paraphrased: "...all the opponent has to do is wait till you hurt yourself, then they can step in and do the job..."

So, in keeping the discussion going on what transpires in the latest Classical Tai Chi video course at "Teachable" as we wrote in our last post:

What martial art is the most dangerous?

We hear from a 1988 article in which a sports medicine physician breaks down common injuries by style.  No surprise but Tai Chi is much healthier than other martial arts. Of course, you also have to do Tai Chi correctly to not hurt yourself.  Classical Tai Chi is the most admirable in this regard since it relies on moving from the core, "internal discipline" which does not involve the use of shoulders and other joints in detrimental movements.

Martial art shoulder injury at age 74 doing Tai Chi?

I cringe as I write this as one reads of a 74-year-old Tai Chi practitioner who has shoulder arthritis.  He also does Wing Chun and punches concrete walls in his practice.  Well, what more need be said about learning "internal discipline" in Tai Chi, Tai Chi has to be good for health as well as martial arts, and it does not involve punching concrete walls.

Pitfalls of external movement

I include some injury statistics here from NIH: The new online course "Martial Origins of Tai Chi" (Classical Tai Chi at Teachable.com)

discusses how virulent "pitfalls of external" the injuries in external martial arts are. Participants Ike Schultz and yours truly both studied Karate, Tae Kwon Do to Black Belt level and saw first hand how external movement in Kata, sparring exercises, etc. would cause injury because of "snapping" movements and "stopping" or it is called "pulling" the punch or kick whereas Classical Tai Chi moves slowly but teaches to punch or kick "all the way through" with no gaps, stops or snaps in the energy. The NIH reports on how many injuries in martial arts like Karate as well as their most likely commonality:
"The hand/wrist was the most common area injured (53%), followed by the shoulder/upper arm (27%) and the forearm/elbow (19%). Joint sprains/muscle strains were the most frequent injuries reported overall (47%), followed by abrasions/bruises (26%). ... Injuries may result in chronic upper extremity symptoms."

New Online Video Courses to complement "Face to Face" teaching

We will be continuing our discussions at the Blog but in the meantime, enjoy our older posts and:  

Come to our face to face classes once or twice a week at rock bottom prices. The Spring sale means our 1st month of studio-class (face to face) is packaged along with Master Hwa's 1st online video instruction course in Internal Discipline. Both are included in one initial payment for the first month when you enroll online. The first online video course payment is set at $27 and subsequent online courses at that same amount. Along with that, the face to face classes are only $25 per month. One might well think they are getting both for the low price of $52 per month. You will have videos from which to learn and reference with the added bonus of an experienced teacher to monitor and/or critique your progress in person.

Please go to http://www.classicaltaichiofbuffalo.com/live_classes to enroll in Master Hwa's class and register for ours.