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Allowing time
Tai chi has an exciting, complex
syllabus that cannot be
summed-up in a few
words or a 90 minute class.
If you start a new class, open your mind and accept that you have only
experienced a fragment of the art.
To truly understand tai chi for yourself takes time.
Few things in life yield their treasures quickly or easily; you need
commitment,
sincerity and patience when studying tai chi.
Substantial
Our tai chi has not been simplified or
watered-down to accommodate Western students.
It remains sophisticated and intricate.
Most of the detail is too subtle for a
new starter to grasp.
You must learn to notice small things in others and in
yourself.
Arrogance
It is quite common for people to attend a tai chi class and never return.
This is alright; tai chi is not for everyone.
New starters also imagine that they can
gauge the instructor's ability
and understand the syllabus after just one lesson.
This is absurdly naive and somewhat arrogant.
In truth, the student sees no further than
their own preconceptions.
Pre-judging
Imagine watching a movie for the first time... If you switched it off during the title sequence, could you honestly claim to have
the remotest grasp of the film?
You need to see it through to the very end to do that.
Understanding
Having watched an entire movie, you may understand the plot but can you say how it was
made, why it worked and be capable of making a movie yourself?
Watch the end credits and see just how many people were involved in making that
film.
There is clearly much more to a film than the final product that you see
onscreen.
Tai chi is the same.
A syllabus is a complex journey of physical practice and psychological change,
and only the most dedicated student will ever reach a stage where it makes sense
to them.
Comparison
Sometimes people have studied a similar system before and use this as a
benchmark for comparison; rather than The Tai Chi Classics.
Comparison has some potential flaws: the first is you and your ability to
correctly interpret what you are seeing.
With tai chi, what you see is not usually what you get - the whole point of
the system is to hide the substance.
If you base your comparison on what you were taught;
was the tai chi taught
correctly and did you understand what you were taught?
Context
As a beginner you will be shown what you need to see and told what you need to
hear.
This will not be the full measure of the syllabus.
You are taught in accordance with your ability to learn.
Experiential
Karate, wing chun, tai chi and every other system has its own inherent feel;
and this unique sense of the art takes time to unfold.
Questions will not give you meaningful answers because
the art can only be
understood in terms of itself.
Learning a martial art involves a certain process that is not exclusive to
tai chi:
Unlearning bad habits
Conditioning the body
Learning new habits/responses
It takes months of
weekly lessons to make headway with these three concerns.
Progress is steady, notable and ongoing.
Unlearning bad habits
We teach an 'internal' martial art and follow the teachings of
The Tai Chi Classics.
In order to start learning the system, a student must begin by letting-go of
postural tension and the desire to use clenched muscles for
strength.
For some people this is a gargantuan task because they rely on their
arms for
strength and do not really want to let-go.
The problem is attitude, as much as body.
Being open-minded and receptive is not
easy.
This style of tai chi is a 'soft' martial art.
It maintains a loose connection throughout the body at all times and the muscles
never tense.
Conditioning the body
We can address balance and connection once the muscles soften, the joints relax
and the body opens.
The spine needs to lengthen naturally; this will aid in strengthening the
body without tension, as well as providing stability.
Qigong and neigong serve to
internally work and support the body as you perform
tai chi.
From this foundation, you learn how to move in a tai chi way.
Form and
partnered training exercises explore this unique way of moving.
Each new exercise offers an opportunity for you to increase your physical
awareness.
It is an inward journey of subtlety and relationship.
The conditioning and awareness training encourages your mind to soften and your
body to grow in new ways.
Learning new habits/responses
Once your body has begun to lose the old habits, it is ready for something new.
Neigong is concerned with instilling physical patterns that
strengthen the body
from the inside out.
Partner work examines the relationship between your body and someone else's.
The challenge is to maintain good body use and composure whilst performing
complex activities.
This encourages your body to take the skills into your
daily life.
Partial artists
As an instructor, it is disappointing when students start a martial art and
never get past the preliminaries. There is not a
lot of basic material to learn.
Virtually anyone can pass the grade if they commit
the time and effort to the
task.
Barry was
telling us a story about the woman who always cut the end of the ham and
somebody asked her why she did it. She said, "Well I don't know, my mother
always did it that way." And they asked her mother and she said, "I don't know,
my mother always did it." And they asked grandma, and she said, "Well, I did it
because otherwise it wouldn't fit into my biggest pot."
(Chungliang Al Huang)
Page created
18 March 1997
Last updated
30 November 2023
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