tai chi vs judo

[Jeff]

What would you recommend I did. I would very much like to do tai chi for it's flowing style with quick sudden attacks. I have done judo for around 9 months and found it very enjoyable and effective But had to stop as the dojo closed down. I am open to starting both but how compatable would it be?

[daftyman]

I don't know how much judo would help your tai chi, but tai chi could help your judo.

It can increase your sensitivety to your opponents centre, thus hopefully making it easier for you to throw him/her.

[choconutjoe]

It all depends what you want from the art. I used to do judo and I currently do yang tai chi. With tai chi you have to bear in mind that it takes literally YEARS for the full combative power of the art to become apparent (in most styles I think it's usually quoted at about 5-10 years). With judo, as I'm sure you've found, you'll get something useful from just a few lessons. Also judo is more competitively based with gradings, belts and so forth, whereas tai chi has no form of grading or competition.
Like vampyre_rat says; tai chi will definatly help your judo and just about everything else you do in life, especially if the club also teaches chi kung. I can't imagine there would be any major incompatibility between the two, provided you can deal with it.

[Jim]

About the only thing that springs to mind is the confusion that may happen regarding language. You'll get caught between the Japanese and Chinese terms, but it's nothing that hasn't been sorted out by others. Enjoy!

[daftyman]

I think most tai chi classes tend to use english names for the movements, the only terms being song (relax) dan tian (centre..sort of) and qi. Whereas I think all the various throws get their full japanese names. As long as you don't stride into your taiji class in your judo gi you'll be fine! :D