Restless & impatient

Until one system is mastered, looking around for new material serves no purpose.

A student of one system usually has more than enough work to occupy their time. Until you have significant skill in one art, style or system, you have no reason to look around for more.

Looking around suggests a lack of commitment. Restlessness, impatience and boredom will not help you to learn anything well. Focus your mind on one thing and get good at it.

Not many people are capable of mastering one system. They lack the time, the natural ability or the inclination.

Beyond tuition?

If a student completes the syllabus for one system and needs no more formal tuition, they have still a lot of work ahead of them.

The tai chi will still grow and change as their practice deepens. There is no real end to the training, and no stage at which you can claim to 'have it', to have finished.

When you have completed the syllabus, you have reached a stage where you are now on your own. This is not the end. It is the start of your own study.

Learning

Learning is not a passive process. It requires an intelligent mind that is aware and interested. Tai chi cannot be learned by the dull or the inattentive. This has nothing to do with academic prowess or the contemporary perception of IQ.

Being 'intelligent' could be defined as alert, attentive, exploratory, curious...

 Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer who lost a horse; it ran away.

 All his neighbours came around that evening and said, "That's too bad."

 And he said, "Maybe."

 The next day the horse came back and brought seven wild horses with it,

 and all the neighbours came around and said, "Isn't that great?"

 And he replied, "Maybe."

 The next day his son was attempting to tame one of the horses and was thrown from it and broke his leg, and all the neighbours came around and said, "Well, that's just too bad isn't it?"

 And the farmer said, "Maybe."

 The next day the conscription officers came around looking for people for the army,

 and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg.

 All the neighbours came around in the evening and said, "Isn't that wonderful?"

 And he said, "Maybe."

  (Alan Watts)

Learning

If you think about it, there are few things in life that are easy to learn. Should you decide to become a very good cook, you will need to put in a lot of time and effort. How about learning to play a musical instrument? Drive a car? Speak a foreign language?

Many people have unrealistic expectations. About themselves.  About the subject they are hoping to learn. Usually, students underestimate the amount of effort involved. The time it will take. The financial cost.

Ambitions are easy. Fulfilling them is far harder.

Media

The media depict martial arts in an unrealistic way; either as entertainment in movies and TV shows, or as sport. Now and again tai chi is lauded as being wonderful for the health.

Somewhere along the way, people become convinced that it is easy to learn a martial art. Nothing could be further from the truth.

It does not matter whether you plan to learn taijiquan, baguazhang, wing chun, ju jitsu or the countless other styles and systems available to you.

Martial arts are not easy to learn.

The beginner’s enthusiasm is such that he cannot imagine what blocks could lie ahead to halt his progress. If some decisive challenge to his continuing on does occur at this early stage, he will likely abandon his practice altogether.

(Dave Lowry) 

Alert

Our tai chi classes make people feel more alert. Students are required to be open to new ideas and explore the material for themselves. There is the joy of discovery, of finding out for yourself what works.

Self defence training increases your physical and mental awareness; you become more receptive and you notice more. Your body suddenly seems to be telling you things. This is not new. What's new is that you are listening.

Vibrant

The training gives you a serious buzz.

Once you commit to weekly lessons and start practicing at home, you really notice a difference.

Instead of feeling lethargic and bored, you feel energised and vibrant.

Your mind is quite calm and your emotions composed, but you feel alive.

A system or a form?

It is common for people to learn several different tai chi forms. But a form is not the whole system. Are you just learning a form or are you learning an entire system? The two are not the same thing.

A form exists in the context of a system.

Learning a form independent of everything surrounding it - qigong, drills, training methods, applications - is pointless. It is a partial approach. Fragmented. Incomplete. Although it is possible to learn multiple forms, can you hope to know them all well?

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

(Anais Nin)

Workshops can be useful

It can be quite useful to attend workshops offered by renowned masters. Yet, it is important to consider your motive in going. If you are wanting some potential tips and pointers, new ideas to play with - this is most likely what you will get from the experience.

If you are wanting the secret of tai chi, you may be looking in the wrong place. There is no quick fix, ready answer or moment of enlightenment. Careful daily practice with awareness will yield the best results.

You can learn more from hours of solitary practice than at a workshop if you are prepared to be patient and really pay attention.

Public workshops can be pointless

What can you learn from one workshop or a weekend seminar? Is a visiting Master really going to bare their secrets to a room of total strangers? Will a fragment/taster of an unfamiliar form/sequence really improve your overall tai chi skill?

Be honest about this.

Training with a renowned Master in no way translates to mean that you have been given that person's skill. The only proof of skill lies with the individual. What can you do?

Your teacher may be brilliant at tai chi but you might be lousy. Similarly, your instructor may be mediocre yet your skills are excellent.

Forms

A good form is not necessarily style-specific.

Yang, Chen, Wu, Sun, Hao and Cheng Man Ching are all different approaches to the same basic principles.

Providing your form is good for your body and contains the tai chi principles - it may beworth learning.

Find one tai chi style that works for you and practice it thoroughly.

Fa jing

A form is a choreographed sequence of movements. Every movement is a biomechanical device for producing 'jing' or energy emission.

By shifting your weight, turning, flexing and moving - you can release energy in a particular manner in a given direction.

Biomechanics

If you earnestly explore a movement you can determine how the body needs to move in order to generate power. You can find the appropriate balance, the necessary degree of weight transfer and all the subtle neigong qualities that enhance the effect of the movement.

Then you can work with a partner to see how to optimise the biomechanics.

Your aim is to produce the greatest effect using the least physical effort. This must also feel physically comfortable, safe and follow the principles of The Tai Chi Classics.

Go deeper

Once the form choreography is accurate and familiar, the real work begins. The choreography is the beginning of your tai chi, not the end of it.

Instead of learning a new, novel form, study the one you have. Explore the body mechanics, how power is being generated, what lessons it is teaching you, and what you can do with it. Feel it become smooth and subtle as your body grows into the sequence.

Challenge

Some forms are admittedly more sophisticated than others, and require greater skill. Whilst there may be merit in challenging your body with new material, can you honestly claim to have mastered your existing material?

Most tai chi practitioners are not experts. The more forms you collect, the more diluted your practice and the less time you have to train (and understand) each form.

Principles

There is no real advantage in training more than one style of tai chi form. Any (and every) form should teach the same underlying principles.  

Form choreography is akin to learning the alphabet. You do not need to learn two alphabets. One will suffice.

Form is not kata

It is important not to think of tai chi form in terms of external kata.

External martial arts students learn kata in order to train specific insights and skills. Learning the kata is a way of gaining a thorough, well-rounded sense of the art. Each kata is different and necessary - it imparts a new lesson - and adds another piece to the whole.

However, kata and form are ultimately not the same thing. Form teaches 'a way of moving'. A style of using your body. A habit.

A kata is considered 'correct' if it looks accurate and crisp. This is not the case with a tai chi form. A form must be performed in a relaxed manner, with attention to how the power is being generated. Every movement must contain peng, and would be completely useless without it. A comprehensive understanding of how to apply every nuance of form is necessary for true understanding.

You do not need to learn several forms. All of the lessons and skills are contained in the one sequence.