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Natural talent?
A lot of people still believe in the
notion of 'natural talent'.
According to scientific research detailed
in a number of books published in the 21st Century, there's no such thing.
Ability begets ability
People who excel, do so because they
put in more time and commit to greater
practice than other people do.
They also receive regular feedback, learn from
their mistakes and get
better (continuously).
Read Grit, Smarter Faster
Better, 5 Elements of Effective Thinking and Peak...
Find out for yourself.
From coarse to
refined
In order to learn tai chi, it is necessary to have your practice
regularly corrected.
Initially, the student can only approximate
the required movements.
With many years of practice they slowly begin to use their body in the
internal way.
Nobody starts class with good body habits.
Habit
If you slouch and the instructor told you not to slouch, most likely
you would over-compensate.
This now creates a new problem; equally as bad as slouching.
Habits are deeply ingrained.
When wrong feels right, your own nervous system
will provide unreliable information.
You gauge how your body feels in terms of what is
familiar, rather than what is correct.
Relax
How can you do right when everything you do and feel is wrong?
This is a good question.
The trick is to relax; physically,
psychologically and emotionally.
Relaxation will not remove your bad habits, but it will help your
mind and body become more receptive to
change.
Training
The training methods taught in class were designed to gently
encourage you to use your mind and body in a
different way.
Your existing habits will actually impede you.
Instead of performing an exercise comfortably, you will find the
drill
awkward... until you relax and do something
unfamiliar.
Slowly, you learn to recognise the benefit of moving in the internal way.
Obviously, this process takes time.
It also requires the student to engage physically and
mentally with the art.
Being corrected
One of the obstacles facing a student is the
experience of being corrected.
A good teacher can easily illustrate how
one methods works and how another method does not.
It is their duty to help you to recognise the difference.
Scientific
You are not required to take the
teacher's word for it.
The tuition of tai chi should be extremely scientific
and methodical; with every skill demonstrated in
detail.
Feel free to poke holes in the teaching.
Pressure test what you are learning; it will only serve to enhance your
understanding. Theory is not good enough.
Students require observable facts; evidence.
Criticism?
Corrections are not criticism.
An instructor corrects the student because they care about the student's
progress.
Suggestions, possibilities and
alternatives all serve to broaden your horizons
and open the mind to new possibilities.
A reminder encourages the student to remember the
basics, to focus upon the underlying
principles.
The student should be grateful when corrected, because the correction offers
an opportunity for change, for improvement.
Accuracy
Accuracy develops through corrections and awareness.
The instructor highlights mistakes in all aspects of your training.
Your capacity to understand and
implement those corrections is directly linked to how receptive,
observant and attentive you are.
If you are prideful, stubborn or lazy, you will not
make changes to your tai chi.
Awareness
Awareness is something that needs to be cultivated.
It involves having an eye for the art, for
perceiving what the instructor is actually doing. Not what
you think they are doing.
Pride
Some people look unhappy
when they are corrected. Others look
irritated.
It is important to consider why you are being corrected...
Tai chi is not competitive or petty. Your instructor corrects you
because they care about your wellbeing.
Uncorrected practice can lead to injury.
Accept the correction with good
grace and courtesy.
You can learn from it.
Plateau
Tai chi practice can always be improved; there is no conclusion to the
training, no place to rest.
You will never reach a 'plateau'
unless you stop the discipline.
Do not become arrogant, defensive or
emotionally-invested in your practice.
Assessment
Students are corrected in class during the course of an ordinary
lesson but this is not in-depth.
More detailed assessment is necessary.
In order to encourage
progress, we offer our students individual help throughout the year.
The instructor works one-to-one with each student; offering insights,
corrections, tips & pointers.
Being assessed in this way is tremendously beneficial.
The student has many new considerations
to work on and they can see what their owns strengths and
weaknesses are.
Progress
Movement through the grades is quite slow
in the internal martial arts.
The required quality is high.
Patience and practice
will assure steady progress.
Workshops & private lessons
Workshops are an excellent way to receive corrections. Smaller groups
mean more time spent with the instructor.
Private lessons entail extensive tuition
and thorough ongoing assessment.
It is very difficult to hide faults in your practice when training
directly with the instructor.
Getting it right?
Students occasionally ask: "When will I
get it right?" or "Is this right?"
after only a few short months of training.
This may seem like a reasonable question.
Unfortunately, the student is yet to realise
that they are missing about 99% of the syllabus.
Given that there is still so much to learn, how can even the most simple
exercise be correct?
Everything must be refined.
Again and again and again and again.
Pleasure in success
This process of correction and refinement may seem tedious to a new starter
but it actually becomes enjoyable as you progress.
Students want to be corrected.
They want to improve their training.
"I don't want to train bad habits"
The student argues that home training is
pointless because their
knowledge of the exercise is incomplete.
They claim to be worried that they will simply be
practicing bad training habits.
Be realistic - unless you are an expert, your
knowledge of tai chi is bound to be flawed.
Consider:
When a child learns how to write stories at school, do they quit because
they make spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and cannot express their
thoughts skilfully?
When a person learns a new language, do they expect to be fluent
immediately?
Do they quit because their French is not as good a natural-born French
person?
Or do they persevere and improve?
Resentment
Correction requires humility and
the earnest recognition that you have much to learn.
It can be tempting to
resent your instructor.
After all, they have the skills, they have the knowledge and they make it
all look so easy.
Sacrifice
But remember; those skills were earned by hard work, money, time and
sacrifice.
Skill cannot be given. It must be taken.
Your instructor is giving you the benefit of
their own experience.
They are offering numerous opportunities
for learning. Are you stealing their art?
Self-correction
At some stage a diligent student may
become capable of self-correction.
This is a major step forward in terms of progress.
It does not mean that correction is unnecessary.
Rather, it indicates that the student has begun to take
responsibility for the quality of
their own practice.
They are now capable of determining to some extent what is correct.
Awareness, self-evaluation and the ability to see other possibilities is
essential.
The ability to self-correct will
speed-up the learning process.
No corrections
Students who fail to receive corrections throughout the syllabus
inevitably go astray.
This cannot be avoided.
Emphasising the wrong material, misunderstanding the
significance of certain principles...
inaccuracies... slowly it all crumbles to dust.
A slight error grows over time and leads to a monstrous deterioration.
Only the instructor can see the entirety of the curriculum, and see how it
all fits together and operates.
Even in
our most basic actions, such as sitting, bending and standing, we have
developed habits which lead us into an inaccurate assessment of the effort
needed.
(Michael J Gelb)
Responsibility
An amusing insight regarding 'corrections'
is this: in real terms your teacher doesn't actually correct you...
They merely point out what you are doing incorrectly and provide an accurate
example. It is the student themselves who
does the correcting.
After all, the teacher cannot make you practice
at home between classes, can they?
Once the teacher
has highlighted a mistake, it is the student's own responsibility to
implement and practice the correction.
Page
created 17 April 1996
Last updated
16 June 2023
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