Which martial art is the most well rounded, tai chi or aikido?

Question

i forgot to mention that i'm taking a form of shaolin kung fu at the moment. this is judt to help me plan on what to take next

Answer 1

if we are talking useful I'd go for aikido.

tai chi is a beautiful art that has a practical side to it but you really need to be good at it to use it

Answer 2

tai chi is for elderly people and aikido is total bologna so I will say neither.

Answer 3

neither. both dont practice live sparring. without a resisting partner, you wont be able to create an awareness of yourself or your techniques.

all arts are good for many reasons, but many are no use for self defense.

well rounded would be stand up, grappling in one etc. the ones that have the a full range of ranges and situations. or go to Muay Thai for a while and include some BJJ.

keep changing every few years. dont rely on one art to take you to the stars. like everything in life, you need to constantly upgrade your knowledge.

I would sooner be a practitioner of many, that a grand master of only one.

Answer 4

If by well rounded you mean actually work in a fight. I would say Aikido, but it is very limited. If what you want is to learn to fight, you need to learn some stand up (punching and kicking) and ground fighting (grappling). Your best bet is to learn something that is based on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu because many fights end up on the ground, and possibly  some boxing lessons or maybe Muay Thai so you can hold your own on your feet. Some Judo skills could also help you to use your opponent's momentum against them. There is another fighting system called Krav-Maga which was developed for the Israeli Army and the Mossad. It teaches you how to defend yourself in some life threatening situations (and these guys have sixty years of practicing on a daily basis) So BJJ, Boxing, Judo and maybe Krav Maga. Also I don't know where you live, but if you are in the NYC or Long Island area here is a link to a guy who can give you some top notch training. http://www.masterpos.com/success_stories...

Oh if you are looking for stress relief Tai Chi is great.

Answer 5

Bolo Yeung practices Tai Chi.

Answer 6

They both can be very workable Martial Arts.  If you are doing Shaolin Kung Fu, then Tai Chi would fit in perfectly with your Kung Fu.   Many of the Chin Na's that you may be learning (or will learn) in Kung Fu can be found in Aikido.  My style (Mantis) is very similar to Aikido in that regard.  What Aikido lacks is punches and kicks.  It is supposed to be a completely defensive art, in which you never strike your opponent.  And if done properly, it works very very well.  

As for which is "most well rounded" I would have to say Tai Chi because it does have strikes, throws, Chin Na's, Kicks.  Aikido is more limited to just Chin Na's and throws.

Answer 7

Wow...maybe your Sifu will teach you Tai Chi as well.

I teach Krav Maga, and yet I study Wu style Tai Chi and Combat SAMBO.  I find that pieces of the three fit together well, but this is me.  I find that the skills I get in push hands help me with my SAMBO, I have made some very good weapon defenses using sealing and Ji.  Some of my escapes are directly from the form.  

Combat SAMBO is not so different from Aikido, we use joint locks and the opponents momentum against them.  Tai Chi push hands teaches Chin Na, which is also joint locking from various positions and situations.

I find that if I read the T'ai Chi Boxing Chronicles, they describe punching techniques that I use in Krav Maga.  I personally enjoy all the arts I teach and study, but if I had to pick between Combat SAMBO and Tai Chi, i would go with Tai Chi.

Unlike many who totally misunderstand  tai chi chuan, you don't and I feel as if there is a wealth of knowledge to be had, but it takes patience to learn.  Fortunately I don't have to give up either Combat SAMBO or Tai Chi.

As a Krav Maga teacher and former IDF Sayaret (Special Forces) soldier, I learned Krav well and when I was young, it is a part of me, but tai chi chuan has improved my Krav Maga game as I now think of double weighting and shifting weight more than I did when I first learned Krav Maga many years ago.

Answer 8

Aikido has been created as a defensive art only, so it does lack the other aspect of fighting.

Taichi, especially Chen Style taichi has been proven on a fighting platform in China, where a grandmaster took on over 200 people over a period of 18-20 days. At times he fought 3 to 4 people at a time. It has been recorded.  So Taichi would be more rounded.

Unfortunately, it is virtually impossible to find a Taichi master who has been studying the art for pure fighting. Most are just for exercise and good health. Internal arts take years and years to learn before you can use it in a fight. Extremely dangerous if you meet a real serious master/sifu