I don't know which taiji style you practiced, but I can tell you that I've had a lot of experience with people who are trained first in other martial arts having a hard time getting into taiji. I've studied the Chen style taiji quan for the last 3 years or so, and with it having been my first real martial arts practice *doesn't count the 3 months of foil fencing practice*, I've gotten a lot of good out of it.