The movements of tai chi are continuous, spiraling, and “soft” compared with those of “hard” styles of self-defense such as karate, where the movements are in straight lines, fast, and with definite beginning and ending points. The goal of tai chi as a martial art is not to become stronger and faster than your opponent but to use your own body awareness, flexibility, and kinesthetic sense to find where your opponents are tense—and then “help” the opponents use their own force against themselves.
