Most people, including martial arts and self-defense teachers really don’t know where to begin when it comes to mastering the ability to protect yourself against a real-world violent attacker. This article takes a look at the two-fold approach that I recommend to anyone who’s serious about surviving a real-world attack.
To explore the conventional world of martial arts and self-defense instruction, the 
conventional approach seems to be to just learn a bunch of tricks and techniques, earn some rank or maybe a certification of some sort, and you’re all set. Right?
The DVD is divided into six main chapters: Intro, General Knowledge, Techniques, Solo Practice, Matching Practice, and the Conclusion. These six main chapters are divided into more than 60 chapters to help you skip to the section you want to review and study. The entire program is a little over three and a half hours long, so you will want to take notes and skip back to the sections as you progress. There are subtitles that go along with Dr. Yang’s instruction. I don’t think they are necessary, but having them there does not hurt. They do not match the exact words of Dr. Yang, but convey the general concepts he discusses.
So, what is needed to survive a real self-defense situation?
My take on the whole self-defense approach, and what I teach my students, is two-fold.
1) First, be trained in as many options as possible so that you can act in different situations/against different attackers, and…
2) In the moment, when an attack is taking place, the defender must be able to respond to and deal with the violence itself – regardless of where it comes from or what’s behind it.
One of the first things you learn in is known as Sung which translates as relaxation both inside and out. Any tension in the body will impede or stop the flow of energy through the body. This can be structural tension (bad or improper positioning), physical tension (like holding tension in your shoulders or neck simply because you do not allow them to relax) or mental or emotional tension that is manifested in the body such as jaws clenched and a tight face when someone is having a bad day.
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So you first need Sung relaxation and proper posture. Once you have these you can really perform the art.
The next step in solo practice is all Qi Gong. You begin to work different aspects of energy within your study both for fighting and for self defense purposes. There are approximately 36 different primary expressions of energy in Tai Chi. You use your mind to direct the internal movement and chi into an expression. That expression is known as Jing. Jing is an expression of Chi or energy hence it is energy work. A few jing expressions are well known and some are quite obscure
