The art I am most interested in is taijiquan. Although I am not actively training in taijiquan, at the moment, I spent a number of years learning the art from Dan Docherty. Dan has a heap of articles and information at his site.
The appealling features of taijiquan, for me, are the structure of the syllabus, and the art's long term view. Taijiquan is designed to be useful even after youthful strength and speed have passed. Awareness of what the opponent is doing, is emphasized as a primary skill, and practiced through the partner drills, such as pushing hands drills.
The whole syllabus is very well put together. It is composed of five distinct areas:
- Solo hand form
- Combat techniques
- Partner drills
- Conditioning
- Weapons training
The hand form leads into the combat techniques, which lead into partner drills. The conditioning training and weapons training build on the other three and add new dimensions. Unlike most conditioning training, nei gong increases sensitivity and flexibility, in addition to building strength and resilience. When I practice, these days, it is normally to do nei gong exercises.