I practiced Tai Chi for years and am certified to teach, so I do speak from some experience.
First, there are several different styles of Tai Chi and they focus on different things. Chen is very grappling and joint lock oriented, Yang is more kick-punch, Sun style (almost impossible to find) is mixed heavily with Ba Gua and Hsing I and so has elements of both of those, Wu I don't really know much about but you're unlikely to run across a Wu guy, there are few in the US AFAIK. Chances are that anyone in the states is teaching either Chen or Yang style.
Within those styles there's a huge divergence in combat effectiveness. Probably 95% if not higher % of the Tai Chi instructors out there are teaching it as a form of moving meditation and haven't done much in the way of combat training, and even if they have, they probably haven't sparred much. Most will not be able to teach you anything about fighting, unfortunately. Those that claim to have some fighting knowledge, see how often they spar with striking. If it's basically never, their claims can't be trusted.
I was lucky enough to grow up in a town with a bunch of William Chen students, and we spent a lot of time working on combat applications and sparring. Most of my boxing is based on Tai Chi, and in fact applied Tai Chi as I learned it looks a lot like boxing, though will less sophisticated footwork and an emphasis on power shots and evasive head movement (we looked like a bunch of wannabe Joe Fraziers). We also worked quite a bit on upper body clinching and throws, though the throws were more like Thai style dumps than Judo throws. It was pretty good training. I gave up Tai Chi after I moved away from there because I never found another group of guys who took it seriously as a martial art and actually liked to mix it up.
So long story short, yes Tai Chi can be perfectly good for combat, but you're highly unlikely to find anyone who teaches it that way. If you happen to have a William CC Chen affiliate near you that would be a good place to start, though even then you're more likely to find a bunch of old people in it for health (perfectly fine reason for doing it, btw) than a group of young guys sparring. And be very skeptical of any claims, Chinese internal martial arts guys love to BS you and may show you a few neat biomechanical tricks in lieu of actually sparring. Unless they spar regularly, they probably don't know much about fighting.
). So good to see informed contributions - as expected from the Standup Technique subforum - about little known disciplines. Little to add to whats been already said... Since the late 30,40
