*bump*
Taijiquan in this day and age finds its greatest utility A.) as an exercise for overall health, B.) as an exercise to develop a greater awareness of and sensitivity to one's own body, leading on to greater freedom and quality of movement. Once upon a time, perhaps, when Taijiquan was basically just another member of the long fist family of styles with some pretty neat ideas, and its exponents made their living as caravan guards and the like, it was indeed a combat-ready martial art with a syllabus to match. These days, however, I doubt there is a teacher alive, even amongst the luminaries of the taijiquan world, who could explicitly impart effective fighting ability to the average student within a reasonable amount of time.
Strictly from my own experience, if you want to get anything out of taijiquan, put the idea of combat out of your head entirely, take it for what it is and use the time spent to get in touch with your own body. Learning how to fight benefits you in only one way, and obssessing over it chokes off your horizons. Learning how to breathe, move, relax and keep good posture benefits you in countless more. Conflict and competition run directly opposite to the state of mind needed to derive such benefits.
As for learning how to fight, it's simple - give a friend a stick and tell them to chase you around with it trying to belt you good while you do everything in your power to evade and, eventually, counter the attacks. And no, the Russians do not have a monopoly on this kind of training, though it was from them that I learned it
