I would be very careful if i were you to check the lineage of your teacher as in tai chi you are depending totally on your instructor to show you the correct form etc or it wont work, otherwise you could have someone lie to you and any minute feelings you may notice maywell just be in your head visit
http://www.taijiworld.com/index.html this will show you alot of free info in particular look at the free video clip on fa-jing on that link fa-jing uses chi to punch,elbow,finger jab etc and also pauchuie (cannon fist) is another method where chi is used to punch but as mentioned by someone else in this thread using chi in punching is advanced, but well worth working up to.