Application Prospects and Feasibility Analysis of Artificial

Intelligence in the Sport of Taichi

Yi Ke

School of Physical Education and Equestrian, Wuhan Business University, Wuhan, China

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Application, Sport, Taichi.

Abstract: Artificial intelligence, as an emerging discipline, integrates various disciplines such as computer, mathematics

and psychology, and has been rapidly developed and widely used in the era of digital economy, which is an

advanced and leading technology field. In recent years, with the deepening of China's economic development

and reform and opening up, China has also paid more and more attention to innovation and development in

the field of artificial intelligence, and in the context of the construction of a strong sports nation, the Chinese

government has proposed guidelines on artificial intelligence technology to empower the sports industry, with

the aim of further promoting the deep integration of artificial intelligence with the development of the sports

industry and continuously fostering new industries, new models and new experiences in the sports industry.

In the 2018 government work report, Premier Li Keqiang proposed to deepen the structural reform on the

supply side, strengthen the research and development application of a new generation of artificial intelligence,

and promote "Internet+" in multiple fields including sports. In September 2019, the General Office of the

State Council released the "Outline for the Construction of a Strong Sports Country", which clearly proposes

to accelerate the development of the sports industry through artificial intelligence Promote innovation in the

production methods, service methods and business models of the sports industry, and promote the

development of the sports industry and improve quality and efficiency. Taichi (Taijiquan) originated from the

ancient Taoist martial arts in China and is a traditional sport with strong national characteristics. Many Party

and State leaders, including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping and Xi Jinping, have strongly advocated

and supported the sport of Taijiquan. This great sport not only contains a rich philosophy of technique and

combat, but also has a strong fitness effect, and has a wide mass base, and is one of the most popular sports

in the world. However, in the context of the emergence of various new sports nowadays, Taijiquan has been

affected to some extent, with a trend of decreasing attractiveness and participation. Therefore, at a time when

the country is building a strong sports nation and proposes artificial intelligence to promote innovation in the

sports industry, it is of practical significance to think about how to use artificial intelligence technology to

promote the better and faster development of Taijiquan sport.

1 INTRODUCTION

The elaboration of sports in the 14th Five-Year Plan

and the outline of the 2035 Visionary Goals indicates

that a strong sporting nation has been elevated to a

national strategy, and in the Outline for the

Construction of a Strong Sporting Nation issued by

the State Council, five strategic tasks are proposed

(Securities Times 2019), one of which emphasizes

the promotion of the intelligent development of

national fitness and the implementation of the

national fitness strategy to help build a healthy China.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1411-7002

On November 8, 1953, Taijiquan made its debut as a

performance item at the National Ethnic Sports

Performance and Competition Conference held in

Tianjin. In October 1990, the International Wushu

Federation was established in Beijing, and Taijiquan,

as an important part of the official organization, has

been recognized by martial arts enthusiasts

worldwide. The International Martial Arts Federation

has more than 120 member countries or member

organizations, different levels of Taijiquan

associations are spread all over the world, and the

sport of Taijiquan has initially formed a sports

192

Ke, Y.

Application Prospects and Feasibility Analysis of Artiﬁcial Intelligence in the Sport of Taichi.

DOI: 10.5220/0011235200003444

In Proceedings of the 2nd Conference on Artiﬁcial Intelligence and Healthcare (CAIH 2021), pages 192-196

ISBN: 978-989-758-594-4

industry form that focuses on events, fitness, training,

equipment and cultural exchange. While

acknowledging the many advantages of Taijiquan

development, we should also see that there are still

problems in the further development of Taijiquan,

including limited attractiveness of events, insufficient

innovation in teaching mode, unsatisfactory

experience, poor organizing approach, and uneven

age distribution of fitness practitioners. The authors

believe that, based on the country's strong call to

strengthen the empowerment of artificial intelligence

in the field of sports, practitioners of sports,

especially of martial arts, should seriously

comprehend, actively commit and take the initiative

to comprehensively promote the healthy development

of Taijiquan sport with the concept and technology of

artificial intelligence, optimize and even solve the

problems in development with the targeted help of

artificial intelligence technology, so that Taijiquan, in

the changing times, always maintains high attention

and high participation, and become an important

driving force on the road to a strong sports nation.

2 ASPECTS OF THE SPORT OF

TAICHI NEEDED TO BE

OPTIMIZED FROM THE

PERSPECTIVE OF ARTIFICIAL

INTELLIGENCE

2.1 Competition Aspect

2.1.1 Inadequate Optimization of

Competition Organizing Process

There are various forms of Taijiquan events, some of

which are included in large martial arts events, some

of which are separate Taijiquan martial arts events,

which include professional competitions or fitness

competitions for all. The participant groups of martial

arts events, especially Taijiquan events, are more

complicated, divided into internal and external

groups of the events. Internal groups are those

directly connected with the events, including judges,

coaches, athletes, media, sponsors, spectators, etc.;

external groups are those indirectly connected with

the events, including caterers, retailers, tour operators

and other related groups (Zhou 2014).

The on-site qualification of athletes, the entrance

security check and ticket inspection of spectators and

event-related personnel are usually verified by

volunteers or staff organized by the event organizers.

Especially for large domestic and international

Taijiquan events, the participating groups are huge

and there are a considerable proportion of middle-

aged and elderly participating athletes. Under such

circumstances, without the support of big data and

artificial intelligence technology for hardware and

software, the labor-based verification process is often

not smooth, and is the focus of complaints against

some events.

2.1.2 Insufficient Sense of Spectator

Experience

Compared to other mainstream sports, the appeal of

Taijiquan competitions to the spectators is not strong

enough, and the reason for this is mainly the lack of

involvement and the sense of experience: Taijiquan

competitions are usually held in indoor gymnasiums

with martial arts competition carpets laid down to

form several competition fields. The spectators sit in

the audience and watch the group or individual taichi

performances. The problem is that almost all

Taijiquan tournaments do not have live streaming

video through quick editing of competition highlights

and intelligent switching of close-ups and distant

shots. Spectators sitting far away can only see a basic

outline of movements like watching a group

gymnastics performance, and it is difficult to feel the

details of the athletes' movements and the unique

beauty of Taijiquan's physical and divine

coordination. In addition, Taijiquan events generally

do not have any interactive content for the audience

to participate in, often forming a "you practice your

own, I watch mine" situation. The lack of vitality and

interactivity of the event has led to a certain degree of

declining interest and lack of experience for the

audience.

Table 1: Basic scale of participation in large Taijiquan

events.

Tournaments

Range of

teams

Number

athletes

The 17th Hong Kong

International Wushu

Festival

242 domestic

teams, 12

foreign teams

2600+

athletes

The 10th China

Jiaozuo International

Taijiquan Exchange

Competition

59 countries

and regions

4000+

athletes

The 14th China-

Handan International

Taijiquan Sports

Conference

27 countries

and 30

domestic

provinces and

cities

1288

athletes

Application Prospects and Feasibility Analysis of Artiﬁcial Intelligence in the Sport of Taichi

193

The 7th China

(Rizhao) Daqingshan

International

Taijiquan

Competition

40 countries

and regions,

160 teams

2100+

athletes

The 8th World

Traditional Wushu

Championships

48 countries

and regions

5300+

athletes

2.1.3 Competition Judging Is Prone to

Controversy

As a rating sporting event for difficult and aesthetic

movements, professional Taijiquan competitions

have very clear scoring criteria for the specification

and difficulty of movements (see table below).

Although the scoring system is constantly revised and

refined, in high-level competitions, where the

differences in player levels are slight, the recognition

and deduction of points for the completion of difficult

or innovative movements has a huge impact on the

competition results. Although referees are generally

certified and have some experience in officiating,

there is still a certain degree of subjectivity in

assessing the quality of specifications and difficulty

of movements, and some key deduction points can

easily cause controversy.

Table 2: Difficulty classification of self-selected Taijiquan

routines.

category

(code)

Flying kick

in the air

(312A)

Soaring

flying kick

inward turn

180° (322B)

Spinning kick

360° (323B)

Soaring air

swinging

lotus 360°

(

324 B

)

Spinning

kick 540°

(323C)

2.2 Training Aspect

2.2.1 Conventional and Simple Training

Mode

Before the implementation and promotion of the

classroom system, the teacher-apprentice teaching

mode was the main teaching mode in martial arts

inheritance (Li 2017). The class teaching system was

formed on the basis of the criticism and improvement

of the elite teaching mode of teacher-apprentice

system, and the teaching and training of Taijiquan is

also based on these two modes. Because of the simple

training design and monotonous training content,

practitioners tend to accept and learn passively, and

their enthusiasm and initiative may be adversely

affected in the long run.

2.2.2 Quality and Effectiveness of Training

Are Difficult to Guarantee

The quality of Taijiquan training largely depends on

the grasp of key technical essentials and the control

of body and step patterns. Professional Taijiquan

athletes often have fixed coaches for targeted

instruction, while amateurs generally find their own

masters, enroll in club training courses, or have the

community arrange for designated social sports

instructors to practice. Whether professional or

amateur, Taijiquan exercise mainly relies on the

words and physical teaching of the instructor. If the

level of coaching lacks quality, even in the case of

equal basic conditions of students, some key

movements, body shapes and technical essentials of

Taijiquan are difficult to walk on the correct technical

track, and the final training quality and results are

likely to be very different.

3 APPLICATION PROSPECTS OF

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

TECHNOLOGY IN TAICHI

3.1 Artificial Intelligence Technology

Optimizing Taichi Tournaments

3.1.1 Process Optimization of Tournaments

In the identity verification process of Taijiquan

events, especially large events, artificial intelligence

technology is introduced to combine information

intelligent management technology, face recognition

technology and self-service technology to realize

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self-service ticket checking, identity verification, gate

automation and other services. Through the artificial

intelligence system the permissions of different staff

could be set to facilitate the work of the relevant

personnel and to prevent others from maliciously

tampering with the system. Which can ensure the

clear scope of activities of the personnel in each area

of the venue, making the management of the venue

more standardized, improve the efficiency of access

to the competition venue and the satisfaction of the

participants.

3.1.2 Optimize the Viewing Experience

Taijiquan exercises are characterized by graceful and

flowing movements, which are beautiful and highly

aesthetic, in line with the laws of human movement

aesthetics. The essence, energy, and charm of the

high-level Taijiquan performers are reflected in the

details of their movements, which richly express the

cultural connotation of Taijiquan. Through artificial

intelligence technology, the details of the body and

expressions of the athletes' performance can be

collected on site in real time, and the essence of the

performance can be synthesized at the first time, and

the video clips can be automatically generated and

output to the big screen on site, so that the audience

can have a better viewing experience. At the same

time, artificial intelligence machines can be

introduced outside the competition arena, such as

entrance and exit routes, public activity spaces and

other areas. Some games and experience sessions

with Taichi elements could be implanted in advance,

so that ordinary spectators could participate in the

games. For example, participation in the AI Taichi

Challenge during the break between matches, with

automatic scoring by comparing AI with standard

movements, enriches the viewing experience and

deepens the understanding of Tai Chi movement.

3.1.3 Intervening in the Recognition of Key

Technical Movements

In the Taijiquan competition venue, artificial

intelligence cameras and intelligent motion capture

systems, etc. can be installed to intelligently analyze

the degree of difficulty coefficient movements made

by athletes through AI technology, assist in

cooperating with judges to make decisions on the

completion of such technical movements, and

provide timely feedback to on-site judges to avoid

mistakes or errors in deducting points. When other

teams or spectators have disputes, they can also

quickly provide strong technical data to dispel doubts

and questions and ensure the openness and fairness of

the competition.

3.2 Integration of Artificial Intelligence

Technology into Taichi Training

3.2.1 Improving the Quality of Taijiquan

Training with Artificial

Intelligence-assisted Training System

By developing special intelligent data analysis

software and implanting the correct movement

technical data in advance, a special artificial

intelligence assisted training system can be created by

using monitors, receivers, etc. as carriers. Through

the motion capture technology of artificial

intelligence, the 3D motion graphics containing

athletes' speed, motion accuracy and other data will

be displayed in real time, and the key technical

movements of athletes will be analyzed intelligently

to produce technical feedback. And the AI program

will accumulate dynamic data of athletes and analyze

them, providing coaches and athletes with technical

data with tracking value, helping to make timely

training content adjustment and effectively improve

training quality.

3.2.2 Reasonable and Effective Use of VR

Technology

The first is that professional Taijiquan athletes can

learn through VR smart glasses equipment to imitate

the movements of outstanding athletes in depth and

strengthen the technical maturity and stereotypes of

the movements, and also to simulate and rehearse the

competition venue in advance before the competition

by projecting the virtual environment, which is more

helpful to the athletes' psychological adjustment

during the competition. Secondly, in the public-

oriented Taijiquan training, virtual reality devices can

be used to interact with the virtual world, such as

setting scenes in iconic venues with great

characteristics of taiji elements like Wudang

Mountain Dojo, with taiji music or human voice

prompts, so that practitioners can feel like they are in

the real world and improve the attractiveness of

training contents and the enthusiasm of mass

participation.

3.2.3 Development of Artificially Intelligent

Tai Chi Training Outfit

Smart outfit belongs to a kind of garment that has

both sensing and reacting functions, which is a

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195

collection and feedback system of internal and

external information of the body. It not only senses

changes in the external environment or internal state

of the body, but also responds to such changes in real

time through a feedback mechanism, thus making the

outfit an intelligent "feeling" (Huang 2015). For

example, Wearable X's Nadi yoga pants have five

tactile sensors embedded in the hip, knee and ankle

sections of the pants, which are interfaced with the

yoga pants through the Nadi App on the cell phone

via Bluetooth and provide feedback through

vibrations. The app is able to teach yoga poses or

guide you through the movements with electric

currents that direct you to adjust your posture.

Taijiquan places extreme importance on body

posture and the pursuit of correct posture, with a

focus on form before intention. Only by following

certain specifications and maintaining correct posture

throughout the coherent and complex movements, so

that the posture of each body part forms a dynamic

stereotype in the overall movement, can we achieve

the standardization and automation of the techniques

and eventually promote the level of improvement.

Therefore, it is especially necessary to develop an

intelligent training outfit according to the technical

specification requirements of Taijiquan. The authors'

vision is that the smart training suit captures body

posture data through built-in sensors and feeds

movement information into an app in a timely

manner, which will instantly remind athletes of

obvious posture errors during an exercise

performance by means of vibrations or beeps, etc., as

a virtual technical guidance aid to improve athletic

competition.

Table3: Taijiquan artificial intelligence technologies/

devices application table (recommended).