Refinement | ||
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A shaky start
When a new starter begins class they bring with them all manner of
baggage:
Physical tension
Bad habits of body use
Emotional issues
Poor balance
Poor coordination
Usually the student is
completely unaware of these impediments.
They engage in practice without
allowing for these problems.
This situation is anticipated by the instructor and the student is taught
relative to their capacity to learn.
In most cases this means that the tuition is extremely basic, with only a
gross outline being offered.
Capacity
A new starter tends to have very
tense muscles and
limited flexibility in the hip and groin.
Elbows and shoulders are lifted, and the knees bent deeply instead of the
hips.
The back is commonly stiff and rigid.
With this mind, the student cannot hope to be ambitious.
And yet they frequently are.
It is common for a student stumble through a form without the slightest
grasp of alignment or relaxation, and then ask to learn something more
challenging.
A polite response is necessary.
Getting it right?
Beginners 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.
One is taught in accordance
to one’s fitness to learn.
(The Silent Flute)
Bodily awareness
The cultivation of bodily awareness is paramount.
For the average student it can take a couple of years before the individual
begins to recognise good and bad body use.
This is just the beginning.
Removing the old habits and acquiring new ways of standing and moving is the
real challenge facing the student.
It is an on-going concern.
Exaggerated
Beginners always begin large.
The arms are extended quite far from the body and the weight shifts and
waist turns are large.
Sweepings arcs are necessary.
This gross stage of learning is unfortunately necessary.
Subtlety, grace and intricate nuances would be utterly wasted on the
student.
Even if they could see the detail, their body has yet to possess the
biomechanics required to perform the task correctly.
The pattern
Beginners start by learning the 'pattern'.
This is a crude rendition of the exercise or form and serves to familiarise
the student with the approximate shape of the movement.
The student is expected to practice the pattern until the movement becomes
easier.
When the pattern has been remembered adequately, refinement can begin.
Refinement
The pattern of a qigong, form, martial set or an application is not the
final product.
It is the initial introduction to the material.
Many practitioners never progress beyond the pattern and remain
perpetual
beginners, regardless of how many years they practice.
It is vital that a student does not remain at the lower echelon of skill.
In order for the tai chi to improve, the pattern must be revised,
corrected, improved-upon - not once - but as an on-going process.
There is no final product, no graduation.
Even an expert practitioner continues to explore and tinker with their
practice.
Qigong
Every qigong exercise is studied crudely at first, in order to gain
simplistic coordination.
This enables the student to move the body in a gross way.
Tendons and ligaments are stretched and basic connection principles are
introduced.
Significant attention is placed upon alignment, positioning, structure,
balance, mobility and good body use.
Optimal usage is encouraged.
Every action should be natural, comfortable and not exaggerated.
Keep record
Beginners are given a qigong ticksheet when they join the
school
and this is used throughout their training.
The onus is upon learning the crude pattern.
Gain the outline of the exercise, with no real refinement.
This is what the student is capable of performing when they begin lessons.
Qigong progress
Advanced practice requires accurate, controlled performance and learning to incorporate
neigong qualities.
Alignment and joint relaxation are paramount concerns.
The main emphasis is peng.
Eventually the student accomplishes a deeper internal stretch without taxing the joints.
Form
There are 8 stages to studying any form:
Natural-feeling body use
With the advent of tai chi
sport forms emanating from modern
China, many modern practitioners never
proceed past stage 1.
Indeed, few people even realise that there is more to form than the
outward
show.
The sad part about this is that the pattern is essentially incorrect unless
augmented by the other 7 stages.
Refining the pattern
Once the pattern has been crudely memorised, the student cannot consider it
'completed' or 'learned'.
This is simply too naive.
Working through the 5 stages will drastically change the pattern.
The sequence of movements will not change, but the
way in
which they are performed will continue to change for as long as you train
tai chi.
Do not stagnate.
If you videotaped your form during your early weeks of practice, and then
filmed it again periodically you should see significant
changes occurring
over time.
Over the course of many years the form will evolve.
If this does not happen... you are not making any progress at all.
Meaning
A student only learns one form to begin with: the
Long Yang
form.
It takes many years of practice to achieve a reasonable reproduction of the
form.
But it is still riddled with faults.
New forms
The advanced level teaches new forms, along with a wide range of
additional material.
These new forms draw principles and
movements from the initial form and
enrich the practice.
Long Yang
In terms of the Long Yang
form, the focus is primarily upon
understanding the meaning of the movements.
The student must apply every pattern of movement martially.
Martial sets
Every martial set and partnered drill is taught in the same 5 stage way as
form: the student moves from coarse to refined as their practice and
skill
develops.
The key to progress lies in awareness.
A beginner may feel that a set is comfortable and familiar.
This is fine initially.
But, as the student becomes more adept, they will realise that the pattern
is not entirely correct.
Necessary adjustments must be made, and without these alterations, the
martial set will not work in practice.
4 ways
Martial sets are taught in 4 stages initially:
Sequence
Peng
Jing
Combat concerns
The 'sequence' is
just the pattern of movements: the framework.
It must be performed quite well.
The final learning stage is concerned with how to use the set in
actual
combat.
Subtle changes and corrections enhance the set, making it much more
versatile and functional in combat.
Principles
Martial sets and form application represent the first steps toward a
refinement of the more abstract-seeming Taoist and
tai chi principles.
They offer a degree of specificity without narrowing the scope.
The syllabus eventually dismantles every martial set and form application,
increasing the potential once again.
We must continually take the abstract and consider specific applications,
and then return again to the abstract.
Technical skill
Technical skill can refer to the accuracy of your form, the refinement of
your combat drills and the study (and incorporation) of neigong
qualities.
However, there is more...
'Technical skill' also refers to specific combat insights/tactical
fighting skills
that require considerable training and practice to understand.
These are not taught in the beginner's class.
A beginner focuses only on the basic pattern/outline.
Refinement of character
In traditional Chinese culture, tai chi was seen as a means for refining
character.
It enabled the individual to balance all aspects of their
being.
The challenge of
learning tai chi removes conflict,
macho urges and
aggression.
A student learns how to move in a graceful, balanced, harmonious way and
maintain composure at all times.
Constant correction, revision and progress
Refinement is on-going.
There are no plateaus or stopping points.
Students are challenged every lesson to hone their existing material and
learn new skills.
Regular challenges aid the student in recognising the worth of what they
have learned.
Page created
18 April 1995
Last updated
16 June 2023
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