Form tuition

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Copy

It is quite common in tai chi classes for students to 'learn' the pattern of forms by copying. It may be argued that the new starter can only copy. After all, they cannot hope to understand. This is true.
However, faults should be repeatedly corrected and the grosser biomechanics underlying each movement can be illustrated from the onset. The problem with copying is that the imitator has no real idea what they are copying. They are not sure what to emphasise, what to prioritise. There is no sense of meaning. This is why teaching and learning are more useful than copying.
 

Spoon feeding

There is a Zen koan about a man who falls down and asks to be helped up. The koan invites the reader to consider whether or not helping the man up is actually helping the man at all.
In Chinese schools and martial arts classes, a Confucian principle is usually followed:
 

I do not enlighten those who are not eager to learn, nor arouse those who are not quick to give an explanation themselves.
If I have presented one corner of the square and they cannot come back to me with the other three, I should not go over the points again.

(Confucius)
 

Adam Hsu conveys a similar point: Most students ask too many questions too soon. An inquisitive mind is not wrong, but too much questioning often signifies that the student failed to practice enough or didn't take time to analyse and investigate the problem on his own.

How form is traditionally taught

The correct method for teaching form is to spend 1-2 minutes with a student and either offer 1 correction or 1 new move to practice. The student must spend the remainder of their form time that evening 'drilling' that move.


What really happens...

Usually when a teacher shows a correction or new move, the student isn't really paying attention. They ask to see it again, and again. Often, unsatisfied (or listless), they ask for other moves to be shown.
When the teacher looks back upon the student, they find the individual is not actually practicing the correction or the new move. They are training something else entirely.

 (Chungliang Al Huang)

Meditation

The traditional approach is clever... It requires the student to pay absolute attention, or miss the tuition. This process encourages presence, and therefore serves as a meditation tool. Only by being here and now, and focusing will you extract the most from the opportunity. You snooze, you lose.


Learning skills

In school, how did you learn the alphabet? The multiplication table? Massive amounts of repetition. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.


Drilling

In contrast to how you learned things in school, most adults think that 5 repetitions of an unfamiliar form move is adequate. How so? Have you mastered the move? Your muscle memory requires hundreds of repetitions, not merely a handful.


How will you improve if you don't practice?

Drilling is the only way to learn form. Unless you drill the move, your body simply won't remember it. Drilling helps your memory. It facilitates learning. And if your mind grows bored or your muscles tired, good. It is working.


Wanting more?

When a student ask for more moves, it reflects impatience and over-confidence. The teacher has evaluated what the student needs to be working on. And the student has decided that they need more than this. Well, if the teacher agreed with you, they'd have shown you more...


4 tai chi forms to learn

Each form requires different skills, different body mechanics and different footwork. The forms are taught in order of difficultly:

1. Long Yang form

2. Sabre form

3. Walking stick form

4. Jian form

Further reading

• Form (whole-body movement)
• Form applications
• Form without function
• Form is movement
• Form pattern
• 8 stages of form
• Form pattern: square
• Understanding form

school database

Page created 18 April 1995
Last updated 21 May 2009


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