Not cheap...

Martial arts lessons are not cheap. Usually you should expect to pay for some (or all) of these items:

- Monthly tuition fees

- Annual membership

- Affiliation with a third party organisation/federation

- Insurance

- Licence

- Competitions

- Grading

- Uniform

- Patches/badges

- Equipment/weaponry

Many classes expect new students to buy a uniform within a month of starting a class. The new starter is also asked to pay annual membership, insurance and commit to a monthly standing order.

Real life combat

Take a look at MMA people featured on-line. A few of these guys look like extras from a Mad Max movie; brutal, savage, criminal.
Martially, you cannot expect to neutralise them if you use force against their onslaught. 

On a level playing field they will destroy you.

Moderation

Tai chi is about using your body carefully. That way, as you get older, your wear and tear is unusually low for a person of your age. 
The training is intended to improve health and wellbeing through frequent, regular practice using low effort.

Validation

The drawback with validating opinions is that they are drawn from memories and experiences. In a tai chi class, this is a problem.

A student may feel/think that an exercise or drill should be performed a certain way... so what?

Their opinion is worthless. What matters is the means, the outcome, the actual, the truth.

Doing things your own way can be martially suicidal; for you are drawing upon zero experience and no skill rather than many years of taijiquan practice.

1950's China

Faced with a major health crisis, the People's Republic of China turned to Yang style taijiquan for a solution. Just think about what that means...Yang style taijiquan's reputation for health was so well founded that the government of China thought to employ the Art officially as a means of improving wellbeing.
The Art was introduced to schools nationwide.

Yin/yang

People commonly believe that they can have it all without having to give anything up. This is simply naive. To have one thing you must give up something else.

Truth?

School children are encouraged to voice their opinions, beliefs, assumptions and point of view from an early age.

Many refer to this as "their own truth" - which in itself is clearly a naive misconception - and nicely highlights the issue.

They are voicing a perspective, not the truth. The truth (reality) IS, and is not subject to bias, speculation or opinion.

Something for nothing?

The best things in life are free. This is what people say. Does this mean that friendship does not involve give and take? That marriage is one-sided?

Can you rear children properly without time, great effort and attention? What you get out of something is usually proportionate to what you put into it.

Most things in life involve some sort of exchange. You want a new car? You must pay. You want to learn French? You must study, set time aside, practice and persevere.

You want to eat healthily? You will need to research, buy fresh ingredients, prepare and cook the food.

Free lessons?

A lot of people seeking tai chi tuition expect to be taught the Art free of charge. This is an interesting notion. It would be curious to see how the supermarket responds to such ideas...

 Or the petrol station. Are banks offering free mortgages these days? The optician free glasses? Do masseurs treat people for free? What do personal trainers charge?
How much do colleges charge for night school courses? University tuition? Are most yoga classes free? Pilates? The gym? Piano lessons? Do they give away free driving licences too?

I very much enjoy your sessions - without any false flattery, you have been one of the best instructors I have had for any martial art. Your commitment, patience and dedication to the art and your students is something that I believe many instructors should aspire to. To your credit, Sifu Waller, you have shown me something that has I did not expect to find in taijiquan... a comprehensive fighting system in itself. I wish the rest of the MA community would wake up and see what you see.

(Stuart)

I really enjoy the training and being able to get a glimpse of the more martial side, even though still at a basic level, is eye opening and good fun. I can definitely understand the need to have a good level of health and fitness before even attempting the intermediate syllabus!

  It’s a more traditional approach to training. I would think any insights you make are more meaningful this way, rather than being spoon fed the detail. But if you are not fully awake, you would make no progress either. The importance of not only training but also reading and learning around the subject are even more important.

  Obviously I only have two years training, and have only done a tiny fraction of the syllabus but it’s starting to become clearer how thoughtfully put together the training is by Sifu. Getting our mindset right from the beginning, trying to get us to be proactive in our study rather than the “attender” level most people are at.

 It reminds me of the university approach: give the outline but expect the student to fill in the gaps and make the connections. Rather than the classic school approach of spoon feeding the pupil whether they take it in or not.

 (Chris)

Convenient tai chi

If you are just looking for the cheapest class or the one that is closest to your home or is held on a particular night, then these concerns will hold sway. This criteria is solely based on personal convenience.

A sophisticated art

If you are seeking a more sophisticated martial art, then taijiquan and baguazhang are worth considering. But be warned; you need to read the small print:

• The internal martial arts were designed to be practiced daily
• They are very hard to learn
• You must take responsibility for your own progress and development
• Not every instructor possesses a meaningful syllabus

Our values?

Applying our own value system to unfamiliar situations has serious pitfalls. In the case of tai chi, the Art already has criteria. Seeing the Art through our own agenda merely serves to impede learning.

We see only what we want to see.

Instead of understanding tai chi in its own right, we filter our exposure to the Art through our own opinions and ideas of what tai chi is about. This prevents us from learning.

Validating our own viewpoint has taken precedence.

Comparison assumes that you are judging like with like. Yet this is seldom the case.

Judging

We are educated to discriminate: this/that, mine/yours, here/there, good/bad, right/wrong, more/less, hot/cold... This capacity to pass judgement is cultivated from a very early age. Few people think to question its validity.

In Taoism the pretence of certainty is highlighted. We are invited to ask:

1. By what criteria do we make the judgement?
2. In what way are we fit to judge others?
3. Are we without fault ourselves?
4. How do we know that we are correct?

I really enjoyed Sifu’s class last night. I felt I learned so much in a couple of hours that I had to make a couple of pages of notes as soon as I got home to avoid forgetting anything. So much to learn...

(Malcolm)