Are there any martial arts "ratings boards"

For sure, but if you always spar with follow ups, the majority of time is spent in the follow up phase, so a round or two isolating the entry whilst being sensible on follow ups is a good start.

 

I know I'm a little late to the party, but it's quite an interesting thread

Tai Chi is as more or less "kung fu" as Wing Chun, Lau Gar, Hung Gar, Tang Lang and so on. And, as with any style, be it Chinese martial art, Japanese, Thai, Korean, USA, European etc - it is the training method adhered to by the school/practitioners that will determine combat utility, rather than "style X" or "style Y".
There has to be progressive training with increasing resistance.
In order to develop Tai Chi fighting skill, this resistant training starts with push-hands. When I teach, we start with basic "fixed feet sensing hands", which is the first step of crossing hands training. The idea here being to learn to listen to the opponents movement through the touch of wrists. Many schools will seek to develop a continuous rythmic circling, however, I teach that each person should "test" their partner's listening skill (ting-jin) by stopping their own movement, and seeing if the opponent stops as well, or carries on because they are on autopilot.
From here, we begin to incorperate stepping, first single forward and backward steps, gradually moving on to free stepping.
Once a good grounding has been developed in this basic method, we begin to work on "fixed feet uprooting", which is a slightly more rough-and-tumble method - initially looking to push, pull or otherwise unbalance the opponent from their feet, using integrated whole body movement, rather than shoving and tugging. This later progresses to free moving uprooting, in which both partners are able to step, change stance etc at will, but the ultimate goal is again to unbalance and uproot the partner. At this stage, striking/kicking and locking/holding techniques may start to be used as well.
Next, from here, we break the initial connection that we have through push hands and move on to free sparring, where ranges and timing are further refined.

You know, I'm starting to form an opinion that there are only two styles of Tai Chi;

Tai Chi principle
&
Tai Chi stylist

As a principle, the martial art of Tai Chi can provide a great influence to someone already proficient in another martial art. The principles trained in push-hands, along with various jibengong can help develop skill by providing a new angle to view existing skill from. Historically, many of the famous masters of Tai Chi Chuan were actually already skilled in other boxing methods before learning Tai Chi Chuan; Yang Luchan, Wu Jianquan, Sun Lutang to name a few from antiquity. Here, the fusion of Tai Chi Chuan with existing skill helps develop the skills that already exist (historically, leading to the new styles being created; Yang Luchan creating Yang style after mixing Chen with his own training, Wu Jianquan creating Wu style after mixing Yang and Chen with his training etc etc)

Tai Chi as a fighting style of its own - I think, if practiced correctly, is a pretty average martial art. The reason here is because the stylist ends up trying to mimic his teachers personal style of fighting, rather than taking the core principles of the art and developing them for himself. To much focus on preserving the art of the past, making sure forms are correct, passing on of prescribed applications that aren't particularly realistic.

I think that Tai Chi Chuan works much better as a method of applying existing fighting skill, rather than developing fighting skill from the ground up. Maybe that's just because I've come at Tai Chi from a background in Karate, TKD and Japanese Jujutsu??
Who knows; in a few years (or even weeks) I may have changed my mind

 

I tend to agree and its what i call a "graduate system" - sometjing it shares in my view with Aikido and to a lesser degree Wing Chun

That said its hard to know because I've had my butt pasted off a "pure" taiji guy (albeit at taiji rules) and can see his ability to fight present without even looking for it

 

What format was this under? And what did you see as their primary abilities?

I see TCC - from my limited exposure - as being likely most applicable in the clinch and close range or attached striking contexts... I was wondering if your experience upheld that suspicion.

 

Psst, we have a whole thread on this subject going on on the Tai Chi forum

 

I'll have a look... Last time I checked it, that thread was moving slower than a tracksuited octogenarian doing form in the park

 

It was "push hands" but with a Master teacher rather than just a student. I push hands reasonably well for a non taiji player, but that is because I am pretty "energy sensitive" from ju jutsu, wrestling, JKD etc..

However, against Sifu Tayam it was like trying to hold smoke - not only did he out "push" me but I could feel his touch to heart, throat and perceive his eye hits too...really remarkable and if you don;t know what you are looking for you won't see it