EGAD! The fools want to put me on cadre - NOW WHAT?!

[ChiDragon]

Charles.
Here is a trivial point for you. There are few moves in Tai Chi require one to stand on one leg for few seconds. As a novice, some maybe very difficult to keep in balance. For those who do, they should fight to keep in balance for a little bit longer; and find the point of balance. After a few try, the point of balance should be very easily located without fighting anymore. For example, in the move of touching the horse's nose. It took me few years to get it right. I had realized that my left hand was too close to the center of my body. Since I had moved my left hand little more to the left, I had found myself balanced every time without any struggle like I used to.


Happy practice on your own. Please don't forget the breathing coordination with the movements and vice versa!
CD

[Charles]

Hi ChiDragon,

Thank you for what you described as a ‘trivial point’… which I don’t believe is so trivial. I will keep this in mind during my warm-ups and form practice.

I am still working my way through the articles you recommended on breathing coordination. There is a lot to take in and to contemplate.

Thanks again and keep well.

Cheers,
Charles

[Audi]

Greetings all,

This is an extremely large subject. I will try to answer according to my own thinking and experience with respect to the Association’s Tai Chi.

First, Tai Chi has the advantage of having low barriers to entry and being generally easy to practice. It has the disadvantage of being hard to master. As you negotiate this continuum, it is important to be patient, but persistent.

I have not reviewed the Student Handbook for a long time, so it is possible that that gives much better information than I will below.

I think the best classes run between one hour and three hours. Classes over 1 and ½ hours probably need a short break in them. I think classes should have at least three sections: a preparatory phase, a training phase, and a phase to consolidate or celebrate the achievement.

The preparatory phase can consist of talk, stretching, warm-ups, preparatory exercises, Qi Gong, or all of the above. The only thing I am aware of that has any kind of official encouragement is “talk” and these exercises. I can go more into this if someone would like.

The training phase should cover the main thing you want to get to in a class and be broken down sufficiently that students can actually learn something during the class have something to practice outside of it, if possible.

The “celebration” phase should allow students to feel positive about an accomplish during class or to do something “fun.” Don’t close the class with students feeling frustrated about the difficulty of something.

You can view the Association’s curriculum as consisting of tools and the instructions on how to use them. The tools are the various forms and drills; and the main instructions are the philosophy, the Ten Essentials, and the Five Directives (?) (五法?) .

The default form to start with should be the Traditional Form in 103 postures, but one of the other 5 or so forms can also make sense in specific situations. The first goal should be to learn/teach the postures to make them “standard,” meaning that the basic leg, torso, arm, and hand positions are correct. Don’t worry too much at first about the actually expression of energy or spirit. I think this probably takes at least about a year of diligent work in the average class of students of average ability.

While you learn to make the form as standard as possible, you have to start introducing the philosophy, the Ten Essentials, and some other parts of the Five Directives.

The first thing to understand is what Yin and Yang are and their three main relationships. Then you need to understand that the Five Steps require physical balance. More can be said about the philosophy, but I think that is enough to start.

You should understand the Ten Essentials enough to be able to give a quick explanation of each within ten seconds for each. One or two words is better. You should be able to pair your explanation to a physical example. At a more advanced level, you should be able to have a 15-minute discussion with physical examples. If you cannot describe each simply, I think something important is missing in the basic understanding. If you have been practicing for a while and cannot fill 15 minutes with a discussion and physical examples, I think something important is missing in the depth of understanding. Again, I can go into more detail if necessary about all or any one of them.

In teaching/learning a posture, you should have the Five Directives (?) in mind. They are: hands, eyes, torso, methods, and footwork (手眼身法步). In order of priority, they are probably: footwork, torso, methods, hands, and eyes; but all are necessary for each posture.

I am not completely sure how to separate all that I have learned into these five categories, but starting with some of the ones you might classify under footwork, there are: the specific stance requirements, the location and use of the bubbling well(spring), rounding the hips, the positioning of the knees, the orientation of the tailbone, and the orientation of the hips. During the transitions, you need to know about going from heel to ball to toe and then bending knee (Walking like a cat?). You also should understand the thrusting (蹬) and supporting （撑）relationship between the legs. I can go into detail about any of these.

To take one as an example, unlike in Chinese medicine, we want to consider the Bubbling Wellspring as an area, rather than as a point on the sole of the foot. Your weight should be on this point during parts of any posture that call for stability. To identify this area, stand in a horse stance with your feet more than shoulder width apart. If you can lift the balls of your feet off the ground, your weight is too far back. Alternatively, if you can lift your heels, your weight is too far forward. If you can do neither, your weight is probably correct. You can this take this into any of the final stances.

This is all I have time for at the moment. Does anyone find this helpful? Does anyone want more detail about something? Any other advice about class structure or the specifics of the Associations Tai Chi or similar approaches?

If this is helpful, I can continue. If not, let me know what might be more helpful.

Take care,
Audi

[Charles]

Hi Audi,

Thank you for your post it was most helpful and has focused my thoughts.

I particularly found your ‘Bubbling Wellspring’ example helpful. Whilst the literature can provide details of “What” to teach, examples like this make it much easier to establish a program of “How” to teach. I would welcome any other examples of “How” to communicate these slightly more abstract Tai Chi ideas that you may wish to share.

If you have a moment I do have some questions about sequencing lessons. You indicted that:

The default form to start with should be the Traditional Form in 103 postures…

If I have understood the table in the ‘Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan Essentials’ book (v2.1 - pg 120) in ‘The Learning Sequence’ chapter, it is suggesting that the progression of study for ‘Approximate Practice – Rank 1’ students should include the 103-Hand Form, the 13-Hand Form and the 16-Hand Form. I was wondering if you could share how you sequence the learning of the 3 forms, sequentially or concurrently?

And do you teach the entire 103-Form at the ‘Approximate Practice – Rank 1’ level before moving to the ‘Approximate Practice – Rank 2’ level of skill. Or do you teach as one might interpret from the ‘Judges and Ranking Handbook (2012 - pg 4) assessment protocol:

There are three Primary Ranks that may be awarded: One, Two, and Three.
• Each section of the Traditional 103-form is tested separately.
• Primary One or Jie One is awarded for Section One, Primary Two or Jie Two is awarded for Section Two, and Primary Three or Jie Three is awarded for Section Three”.

Thus only teaching section 1 of the 103-Form for Rank 1 (the first year of study), then adding section 2 of the 103-Form for Rank 2 (second year of study), etc.

Love to hear your thoughts on this.

Once again, thanks for sharing your ideas and understanding it is most helpful.

Cheers,
Charles

[Audi]

Greetings all,

If I have understood the table in the ‘Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan Essentials’ book (v2.1 - pg 120) in ‘The Learning Sequence’ chapter, it is suggesting that the progression of study for ‘Approximate Practice – Rank 1’ students should include the 103-Hand Form, the 13-Hand Form and the 16-Hand Form. I was wondering if you could share how you sequence the learning of the 3 forms, sequentially or concurrently?

I don't’ have access to that book at the moment, but I would be quite surprised if it is really advocating learning all three forms for “Rank 1 students.”

The Association teaches six forms at the moment to the best of my knowledge, but only the Traditional Hand Form is “required.” For a time, the ranking tests for levels 4-6 required performance of the 49- Move Competition Form, but that has been eliminated as essentially redundant. In the U.S., at least, there are teaching certifications being offered for some of these other forms through the TTM program, but this is not directly relevant to ranking.

You should consider the forms other than the Traditional Form as bonus material or material for special uses. Once the Traditional Form is learned well, the others can generally be learned in a few hours.

And do you teach the entire 103-Form at the ‘Approximate Practice – Rank 1’ level before moving to the ‘Approximate Practice – Rank 2’ level of skill.

Yes. To pass Rank 1, you must know the entire Traditional Form and don't need to know any of the other forms.

Or do you teach as one might interpret from the ‘Judges and Ranking Handbook (2012 - pg 4) assessment protocol:
There are three Primary Ranks that may be awarded: One, Two, and Three.
• Each section of the Traditional 103-form is tested separately.
• Primary One or Jie One is awarded for Section One, Primary Two or Jie Two is awarded for Section Two, and Primary Three or Jie Three is awarded for Section Three”.
Thus only teaching section 1 of the 103-Form for Rank 1 (the first year of study), then adding section 2 of the 103-Form for Rank 2 (second year of study), etc.

These Primary Ranks are preliminary ranks below the “Classic Ranks.”

Primary Ranks • Students have the option to enter the Ranking System in preliminary stages or “Primary Ranks.” Compared to the Classic Ranks, these units are simpler and shorter, and the examination is conducted by a single Reviewer rather than a committee and is less formal, so that testing conditions minimize student anxiety and make the Ranking System less intimidating. The purpose of this tier is to encourage new or current students to enter the Ranking System. • Students are not required to go through the Primary Ranks and may elect to test directly for Classic Rank One at any time after one year of study. • Students who do enter the Jie Ranks must complete them before progressing to the Classic Ranks.

Most people don’t bother with the Primary Ranks and just start with Rank 1 of the Classic Ranks. The Primary Ranks are provided just to give an easier, less stressful way to enter the ranking system.

I particularly found your ‘Bubbling Wellspring’ example helpful. Whilst the literature can provide details of “What” to teach, examples like this make it much easier to establish a program of “How” to teach. I would welcome any other examples of “How” to communicate these slightly more abstract Tai Chi ideas that you may wish to share.

There are many more “exercises” I can describe, maybe almost as many as the concepts I listed. It would help to know what you might be most interested in exploring. Actually, everything concrete has an abstract side and everything abstract has a concrete side.

It would also be helpful to know more about your background and goals. Not all topics are as relevant for all levels and all goals.

In terms of how to teach the form, I think a good default is to use exercises to cover issues that repeat from postures to posture and to teach each posture with an eye to the Five Directives that apply to it. Everything cannot be done in every class. Some things have priority over others, but there is not necessarily a detailed sequence as to how things should be taught.

You should take a posture and learn/teach where the legs and feet go first, then how the torso is oriented in the two relevant planes, then where the arms go and how the hands should be shaped, and then lastly the proper direction of the gaze. In addition, you have to review all the relevant methods that apply.

On a second pass, you can, for example, hone in on the appropriate “waist” technique.

The “waist” is an extremely important issue for our style that would take pages to begin to cover. In short, the “waist” is a misleading translation for “lower back.” It dictates how the energy from the feet is expressed in the hands. It has two types of coordination with our stepping technique. For the arms and hands, there are many more.

The waist can drive the hands in two basic ways: directly, like one gear moving another, and indirectly, like the handle of a whip moving the whip. The waist has 3-4 basic motions: a horizontal twist, a vertical circle in the coronal (“wall-clock”) plane, a vertical circle in the sagittal plane (“Ferris Wheel”), and a mixed figure-eight circle that combines horizontal and vertical. You should learn which waist movement applies to which portion of each posture.

There are exercises for most of the waist combinations: two with the legs and eight for the waist alone. You can also combine 3-4 basic hand motions with each waist motion. If this is something you want to explore, let me know. It is quite important.

Another area that can help with self correction and that has a relationship with the bubbling well is breathing. One of our methods is 气沉丹田 (qi chen dantian). This means something like “Let the Qi sink to the Dantian. Unless you are quite familiar with traditional Chinese culture, it is easy to misunderstand this phrase, so we equate it with “Use abdominal breathing.”

By “abdominal breathing,” we mean the same breathing that everyone uses when comfortably resting or asleep in bed. We do not intend some special procedure. The problem is that when we move about, we usually do not use this type of breathing. When breathing correctly, you should be able to put your hands on you abdomen and feel it rise and fall. Your chest should not move much at all.

Master Yang talks about five things that affect breathing: mind, body shape, weight over the bubbling well, body orientation, and energy.

Mind: When emotionally excited positively or negatively, we stop using abdominal breathing or Qi rises. This is why we want to be calm when practicing and have a neutral expression. A slight smile is okay.

Body shape: The first four of the Ten Essentials affect breathing. If your head is not lifted, it compresses your torso and reduces the scope for breathing. Try it and see. Try lifting the shoulders and rotating the elbows up and see the effect on your breathing. Puff out your chest and see if you can maintain abdominal breathing. Lift up your butt and push in the small of your back and again see if your breathing is restricted. Trying doing the opposition of all the above in accordance with the first four of the Ten Essentials and see if it allows you to breathe abdominally.

Bubbling well: When your weight is not over the bubbling well, your breathing is impeded. Try standing in a horse stance with the feet somewhat wider than shoulder width. Bend the knees some, lean forward a few degrees at the him, and engage all of the movement required by the first four of the Ten Essentials. Then put your weight into your heels and see the effect on your breathing. It will be subtle, but distinct. Then try putting your weight toward your toes. You should again feel a change. These procedures show the effect on the breathing of not having your weight over the bubbling well.

Body orientation: Again, try standing in a horse stance with the feet somewhat wider than shoulder width. Bend the knees some, lean forward a few degrees at the him, and engage all of the movement required by the first four of the Ten Essentials. You should be able to breathe abdominally without strain. Try leaning forward six inches or so. You should know feel a subtle, but distinct change in your breathing as it begins to be restricted by the change in your core muscles. Now try leaning back six inches from the neutral position. Again, you should feel a restriction in your breathing. This is the connection between breathing and body orientation.

Energy: Once again, try standing in a horse stance with the feet somewhat wider than shoulder width. Bend the knees some, lean forward a few degrees at the hip, and engage all of the movement required by the first four of the Ten Essentials. You should be able to breathe abdominally without strain. Now put energy into your limbs by squeezing your hands, arms, or legs. You should again feel the bad effect on your breathing.

If you were successful with these exercises, you can now use breathing as a guide to the correctness of your postures. If you sense a problem, look first to the “waist” and legs, since the problem is usually there.

This is all I have time for now. I have not had a chance to mention much about the methods, hands, or gaze, but don't want to overwhelm. One thing that I should say, however, is what practice of the form is for. Master Yang says we practice the form to become soft and pliant. We learn to become soft and pliant in order to learn to become hard (somewhat reserved for Fajin training). Then we learn to use soft and hard together (probably reserved for push hands training).

Again, let me know what I have not explained well or what you might want to explore further. By the way, an alternative way to proceed, and potentially equally or more rewarding, would be discuss individual postures, stances, or techniques and likely mistakes.

Take care,
Audi

[fchai]

Hi Audi,

I am impressed. You articulate very well and clearly. If I was half as articulate, my students would probably have progressed further than they have to date. Sometimes I wonder why many still turn up after all these years and only show marginal improvement. I suspect that they enjoy the "community" and the exercise. The majority show little expression of 'qi' or 'spirit' and some even have difficulty in remembering the forms and sequence. I know also that the majority do not practice outside of the class, and nothing I say makes any difference. Perhaps, the fact that my classes are free to everyone who is a member of the organisation I volunteer in, makes it of "less value". Afterall they do not have to pay for the privilege. It is a conundrum that I cannot change and will have to persevere with. However, all is not doom and gloom as there are a handful perhaps a tad more, who show some potential and could be developed further in advancing their skills and knowledge in the future. Anyway, I personally gain benefit from the teaching as it encourages me to continue to improve my practice and my knowledge of Taiji.

Take care,
Frank

[Charles]

Hi Audi,

Once again thank you for your detailed and helpful post.

I have attached a copy of pg 120 from the YFTC Essentials Book.

2013-YFTC Essentials-v2.1_pg120.jpg (196.58 KiB) Viewed 86957 times

As I read the table it suggests (to me) that the learning of the 103, 16 and the 13-Hand Forms all start from Approximate Practice Rank-1. If as you suggest this is not likely and that you

…would be quite surprised if it is really advocating learning all three forms for Rank 1 students”

I would welcome any suggestions on how to interpret this table more correctly.

You indicated that:

It would also be helpful to know more about your background and goals”.

So here goes, my formal studies and work background are varied. When I left school I studied and worked in Mechanical Engineering, then Systems Analysis. As I progressed through the organization into more management roles I found myself inspired to further my studies in the field of education. I undertook a ‘Graduate Diploma in Adult Education and Training’ then a ‘Master of Education (ITEC)’ and then a ‘Doctor of Philosophy’. From 2009-2016 I also worked as a sessional lecturer in the Faculty of Education at a local University.

As you can see from my formal studies I am a believer in the concept of ‘life long learning’ so my interest in Taiji goes beyond merely learning foot-steps and waving my hands around. My interest is in developing an understanding of the forms and the cultural and theoretical background that under pins the art.

However, My Taiji background is at this stage limited. I started on this journey about 12-months ago and as I described in a previous post (25 September) my experiences with the local schools was disappointing.

Several months ago a small group of local Taiji enthusiast discussed our situations and

…resigned ourselves to continuing our practice together (without a formal instructor) until an alternative becomes available”.

Since then we have worked through the 16-Hand Form and the first section of the 103 Form at what I would suggest is at a very, very, very (yes three very’) ‘Approximate Level’. I continue to refine our study plan and find ourselves at a crossroad. Do we continue to learn the 103-Form (section 2 and 3) to the end or do we refine our practice as outlined in the ‘Approximate Practice Ranks 1-3’ and as you have suggested before proceeding with learning more of the form.

You should take a posture and learn/teach where the legs and feet go first, then how the torso is oriented in the two relevant planes, then where the arms go and how the hands should be shaped, and then lastly the proper direction of the gaze. In addition, you have to review all the relevant methods that apply”.

I would welcome any thoughts or comments on how to balance the learning more of the sequence with refining the practice of the sequence that one has already learnt.

Once again thank you for your comments and generosity of information. You have provided me with a lot to think about, digest and contemplate. And when you find yourself (and any others) with time to share more thoughts on ‘self-directed learning of Taiji’ your comments and suggestions will be gratefully received.

Cheers,
Charles

[Audi]

Greetings All,

Fast-forward to a few months ago when it was my great good fortune to be put in touch with an instructor who is no less than a disciple of Yang Jun himself. I've since spent about five hours training with him and I've learned more in those five hours than I had in the previous year!

I remember walking out of the studio after our first session together thinking to myself, "And here all along I thought I knew how to do tai chi." My colleague said the exact same thing out loud when he came for the second session, and he's been under our retired instructor for the last ten years!

But guess what? We do know how to do tai chi. We did before we met him, only now we do it better. What we had was our best tai chi for the time being, but it improved. we're still doing our best tai chi for the time being, but we both have lots of room to improve.

And then THAT will be our best tai chi.

All this to say that, as long as you're giving it your best effort, it's okay to make mistakes and inculcate habits you're going to have to get rid of. If you're doing your best tai chi for the time being, you're doing tai chi!

GVI, it’s great that you have found an instructor. You really seem to have a great attitude and already a good base of knowledge. Either the US Army accepts good people or turns good people out. Or maybe a little bit of both.

It seems like you have hooked up with someone great, but if there is any advice I can help with, do not hesitate to ask.

I am impressed. You articulate very well and clearly. If I was half as articulate, my students would probably have progressed further than they have to date.

Frank, I would love to take credit for what I articulate, but I am mostly regurgitating things I have hear from Master Yang. One of the things that hooked me on his version of the form and his practice with the very clear and straightforward way he would articulate things and the amount of detail he and his grandfather have given. It gives great clarity on what to work on and why.

Sometimes I wonder why many still turn up after all these years and only show marginal improvement. I suspect that they enjoy the "community" and the exercise. The majority show little expression of 'qi' or 'spirit' and some even have difficulty in remembering the forms and sequence. I know also that the majority do not practice outside of the class, and nothing I say makes any difference. Perhaps, the fact that my classes are free to everyone who is a member of the organisation I volunteer in, makes it of "less value". Afterall they do not have to pay for the privilege.

I would like to strongly commend you on both your ethics and realism. It is not easy to be clear about both.

It is a conundrum that I cannot change and will have to persevere with. However, all is not doom and gloom as there are a handful perhaps a tad more, who show some potential and could be developed further in advancing their skills and knowledge in the future. Anyway, I personally gain benefit from the teaching as it encourages me to continue to improve my practice and my knowledge of Taiji.

I once faced a not too dissimilar situation, but with somewhat less obligation. I decided there were three choices: persevere in silence, try subtly to shift the direction of practice in the direction I preferred, or to leave the situation. I ended up trying to do the second, but other commitments ended up forcing me to choose the last one.

If the second choice is your most likely option, consider being very specific and focused on what you practice on in class. Some students can become more motivated when they discover more depths to the study and find that improvement makes the postures feel better. Of course, some people just don’t care about working in class and want to destress or socialize.

This weekend I was called upon to teach Tai Chi for one hour at a church retreat focusing on “using spiritual power.” Almost no one had any experience with Tai Chi, and my hour ended up being reduced to 30-40 minutes because of scheduling delays. I thought I did a barely adequate job, but got favorable feedback from a number of participants.

What I taught was a few warm ups, the first four of the Ten Essentials, some standing mediation, weight shifting, heel-to-ball-to-toe-bend knee, and Cloud Hands stepping to both sides. What seemed to motivate people to perhaps pursue further study was that they felt they could do it, they had something tangible to work on, and it made sense to make them feel better.

Just a thought.

As I read the table it suggests (to me) that the learning of the 103, 16 and the 13-Hand Forms all start from Approximate Practice Rank-1. If as you suggest this is not likely and that you
…would be quite surprised if it is really advocating learning all three forms for Rank 1 students”

I would welcome any suggestions on how to interpret this table more correctly.

Now that I see the chart, I can say that what it shows is when it is appropriate to start various parts of the curriculum and how many years it would approximately take to reach the level required as specified by our ranking system. It is appropriate to start learning Tai Chi with the Traditional Form, the 13-Posture Form, or the 16-Posture Form, but only one is “required.” Of these three, we definitly recommend the Traditional Form unless time and memory concerns do not allow it.

Charles,

The chart definitely does not show what is required or even what is recommended. For instance, we have two additional forms--the Essential Form and the Tai Chi Kong--that do not appear in the chart at all. We also have the Quivering Staff (抖干) exercises that some have learned. These are things that are appropriate for some people in some situations, but are definitely not required to someone starting out with the Traditional Form.

In other words, a beginner can start with any of 5 different forms and practice them all life long. in reality, the Traditional Form has the most complete content and should be the default; but if you start with any of the others, there is no problem. What you should not do, however, is learn all five together or focus on learning the four shorter ones before learning the Traditional Form.

Since then we have worked through the 16-Hand Form and the first section of the 103 Form at what I would suggest is at a very, very, very (yes three very’) ‘Approximate Level’. I continue to refine our study plan and find ourselves at a crossroad. Do we continue to learn the 103-Form (section 2 and 3) to the end or do we refine our practice as outlined in the ‘Approximate Practice Ranks 1-3’ and as you have suggested before proceeding with learning more of the form.

Thank you for this and the description of your background. That makes it easier to give concrete recommendations.

If you have time and the interest, you should continue to practice the 16-Posture form; however, you should make learning the entire 103 Traditional Form your priority. It is a much better general tool.

There is a natural tension between correcting and improving the postures you already know and learning new ones. I can say more about this if anyone is interested, but I would place more emphasis on getting through the entire form than in trying to make every posture perfect.

To give a concrete recommendation, learn an average of one posture per week. I have heard that the traditional form has 37 distinct postures that, with repetitions, make up the 103 postures. If you learn one posture a week, using Master Yang Jun's video as a guide, I think you can get through the form in a year. You have to fit repeated postures in somewhere, however.

Next, the training must follow a pattern. It need not be rigid at all, but the class and the trainer must all know what's expected either before they arrive or shortly thereafter. In our class, we have the following:
o a bowing-in,
o some qigong,
o work on the solo form, broken down between beginners and intermediate students,
o a section of weapons, push-hands or "self-defense,"
o a group meditation period, and
o bowing-out

This is a sound plan that GVI laid out and that I cannot find fault with, but let me give another by way of further example. Sometimes it easier to work from a specific example to understand what might be revised into something serviceable than to talk in generalities.

For example, you could have a two-hour class divided into 8 components averaging 15 minutes each, but in fact varying between 5 minutes and 30 minutes in length. Here are the eight components:

1. Warm up and/or preliminary exercises

2. Review and performance of the 16-Posture From

3. Discussion of one of the Ten Essentials or other methods (such as walking technique, breathing, or relaxing), and practice of parts of the 16-Posture Form that show specific examples of where the Essentials or other methods apply or are easy to forget

4. Clarification and practice of postures already learned from either form

5. Introduction of a new posture to learn from the Traditional Form

6. Rest break

7. Review of the last group of postures recently learned with emphasis on the next-to-last posture learned and “instant” review of the posture learned in this practice section.

8. Go through the entire form learned so far.

This is probably too much to do regularly, but gives an idea of what you can cover.

I would welcome any thoughts or comments on how to balance the learning more of the sequence with refining the practice of the sequence that one has already learnt.

There is no right answer to this, and I think the method of teaching has changed from what it may have been traditionally. I think it is important to learn the sequence fairly well. It is the tool that is the key to most further learning. In learning and practicing the sequence, it is inevitable that you will make mistakes, including “serious” internal ones. You will be in a race against time to learn the external parts of the form before you cement in too many bad habits. But without good familiarity with the tool that is the sequence, you will find it virtually impossible to focus on more “internal” things.

Off the top of my head, the few things that I think are important at Rank 1, besides the sequence, are:

1. anything to do with the legs, including the stance requirements and walking technique, and especially anything to do with knee placement. This is one of the few areas where safety can easily be compromised by bad technique.

2. How the torso should twist left and right. There is more to it than this, but one has to begin somewhere

Things on which to increase focus in preparation for Rank 2 are:

1. Proper relaxation (an easily misunderstood technique)
2. Abdominal breathing
3. Waist coordination with the arms and legs

One good aspect of the Association’s form is that there are now thousands of people doing it around the world and trying to do it virtually identically. Because of that, you can asking incredibly detailed questions about the form and get solid and specific answers about how things should be done and why.

Take care,
Audi

[Charles]

Hi Audi,

Thank you for your detailed and helpful post.

Your suggestion to:

…make learning the entire 103 Traditional Form your priority. It is a much better general tool.”

and what is important at Rank 1 and 2 level are most helpful and have helped focus our studies.

Again, thank you for your post and generosity.

Cheers,
Charles

[ChiDragon]

I have ended up acting as the information guide for our group and the area that concerns me most is my lack of experience with Tai Chi. As you put it in your post “the trainer must not train above his or her level of competence” and without the guidance of a skilled and experienced Yang Family Tai Chi instructor I have no idea where this boundary lies. I think I have understood (at a basic level) the material I have resourced but have no access to experienced trainers or schools to validate my belief. I guess what I am asking here is how have you (or anyone else out there) developed and evaluated your practical skills without a skilled instructor to provide guidance as you progress along your Tai Chi journey to ensure what you are sharing is correct?

Also, at a more basic level I would welcome any suggestions on how to create (as you put it) “a pattern” for our session. How long ideally should a session be? How should the session time be best broken up i.e. how long for warm-ups, qigong, working on the solo form (we are only doing the solo form at this stage), etc. Do you (or anyone else out there) know of any Yang Family guidelines for this?

Hi, Charles again!

I know you are very curious about TJQ as a beginner. However, you should not ask too many questions but just to be concentrate on the basic fundamental principles. You will get lots of inputs and might be flooded with fallacies. Therefore, how do you know who to believe? What I could suggest is to have you begin with the simplest steps and concepts. Since you have learnt the 24 form, what you can do now is just practice and practice even you didn't do the form exactly. At least, you should be concentrate on the Tai Chi walk and the bow stance(left and right). Learn the correct way to keep your body in balance after each move. It is very important for you to be balanced in getting ready for the next move. This is a very trivial point in TJQ. Somehow, most students were not aware of is because they weren't told by their instructors.

Breathing is the most important goal in Tai Chi. As a matter of fact, it is important in life and all sports. Breathing oxygen is the necessity of our lives. The better we breathe, the longer we live. One of the goals in Tai Chi practice is to improve the respiratory system to provide ample of oxygen for the body cells to produce energy. To make the story short, if you learn the Tai Chi walk and coordinate the moves with your breathing. Even your moves weren't done correctly, you will still have the health benefits acquired from the diligent practice. It is because the health benefit did not come from the correctness of the movements; but rather it was from the amount of practice.

If you follow this advice, you will notice that your body will be changed drastically in the next few years. Indeed, you will be much healthier and more energetic than before the practice.

Best regard
CD

[yslim]

I would welcome any thoughts or comments on how to balance the learning more of the sequence with refining the practice of the sequence that one has already learnt.

Once again thank you for your comments and generosity of information. You have provided me with a lot to think about, digest and contemplate. And when you find yourself (and any others) with time to share more thoughts on ‘self-directed learning of Taiji’ your comments and suggestions will be gratefully received.

Cheers,
Charles
[/quote]

Good Morning Charles,

Thank you for your introduction with your back ground and express a desire for a higher education and willingness to learn the Taiji Quan, with no teacher to give you any good feed back. For this reason I would like to share with you some of our learning experience . To see if the shoes fits.

It would be a good thing to introduce a few Taiji principles into your form practice, rather than focus on the form sequence you already know.

For this reason, I would like to present to you one of my personal experiences, in hopes it may help you to understand what I mean.

This happened in a workshop we attended in Hawaii. We showed up an hour early before the class started, so we can “Hang Loose” with the locals. Suddenly a local Tai Chi Guy appeared( I hereby call him TCG) with a booming voice and a friendly challenge to the host of this ILiq Chuan (pronounce Yi/mind-Li/strength Chuan) Workshop by GM Sam F.S. Chin. For us, GM Chin is the best teacher to explain and demo the Taiji Principle process so clearly, openly, and withholding no secret. He loves to teach! We love to learn the Taiji principles.

TCG: “In Taijiquan we have ‘Use Yi Don’t Use Li’. Do you in ILiq Chuan have this?” He was addressing this to the host. [the host is a soft spoken professor who teaches in the University Of Hawaii, so we didn’t actually hear all that he said. We were at the far end of the room]

TCG: “In Tai Chi we have ‘Use Yi Don’t Use Li’, do you guys have this?” again and again [each time getting louder].

Martha, [my lovey]: “Can you go over there and do something about it? Pretty Please? With sugar in it?”[she said to me]

Lim: “Your pleasure is my command.”

TCG: “In Tai Chi we have ‘Use Yi Don’t Use Li’, do you guys have this?” [he fired it off cross my bow as I came close].

Lim: “Of course we have, it says so in GM. Sam F.S. Chin’s book ‘ILiqChUAN-Martial Art Of Awareness’, and it is for sale.”

TCG: “Can you demonstrate it?”

Lim: “You are a guest here, Please you go first [with a smile]”.

TCG… [His body English indicated he might be confused, as to not knowing where I was going with this]

Lim: “Do you know your form?”

TCG: “Yes I do, but I only do the Yang Form.”

Lim: “That’s ok, it doesn’t matter. I do Chen’s Laoji yilu, Yang Ban Hou long form, and ILiq Chuan 21 form, all 3 forms as a set practice.To me they all have the similar commencement form. If you can do the commencement form with taiji Principle correctly, then the Taiji principle in the rest of the form will be corrected. So give me your best shot and take your time…

TCG… performed the commencement form and I watched with my Virgo’s eye.

Lim: Your form is pretty good. but shows no sign of your yi ?

TCG… ???

Lim: Please do it again. This time with feet standing together with heels touching each other, first move would be taking a side step to the left to open to a shoulder width stance. So I’ll stand at your left side, and just rest my hands on your left hip with no pushing intended but just freeze in motion to prevent you to making that sidestep. If you can use your yi to move me off my balance, there is no way I could stop you. But if you have no yi, there is no way you can pass through my ‘up-down force’. This is a “Game Of Yi” not Li, You got that….

TCG… begins his sidestep but has no yi within his movement that I could feel on him…..

Lim: No, no, no, You cannot move any step with out your yi and simultaneously maintain your center as you move. “Use yi , don’t use li”, remember? You are wobbling, where is your yi?… Ok, now let me try to show you what you did…You did this with no yi. it is obvious that you have no way to move into my space to up root me, because you have no yi. Your li has no Taiji complimentary force. You have no ‘neutral’ for a yin yang change, thus your stiff li got stuck. Now may I show you how I was taught?

1, I use my imagination that a ’skyhook’ is in the sky above my head. [My imagination had awakened my yi]

2, I imagine there is a silk thread tied to my crown point that hooked into the skyhook to suspend my head like a plumb line.

3, I sink chi to dan tien, continue to project and give it to the ground through my leg’s yang muscle. and simulteniously the ground gives it’s chi to me in return. Then I suck it up through my leg’s yin muscle by wiping my feet with a spiral fashion to the crown point. This will create my “up-down force” to support any of my potential movement. It will maintain within me where ever I go, thus I “move with center”. Now can you feel it is solid instead of wobbling? [He nods his head, and what a release it was for me].

Lim: Now to side step my left foot out to a shoulder width that could up root you through your hand’s contact point on my hip. With my ‘up-down-force’ in place I do a “sit” [sit is not squat] into the ‘neutral’ and “song” the kua, this gives me a sensation that my left kua is being sucked in to step out open toward the left side and landed softly shoulder width without creating any resistance from you. In this juncture I was able to shift my “whole-body-weight” toward my neutral for a “sit-in’ and that causes you to being up rooted. This is a ‘yin-neutral-yang’ Taiji point defense-offense good stuff. Now you can feel this process of yin yang changing to create an effortless bounced off your balance? Taiji is an Art Of Change. [he nods his head again! he could actually feel it! I was impressed I actually did it, I only do Taiji for health.]

Lim: Now you do the form and let me feel your hands raise from the side of your thighs to a forward and upward until your hands to a arm-length reach at shoulder high. Allow me to rest my hands on your wrists but not apply any ‘go for broke’ effort to hold you down. If you “use yi and not li” to do your commencement form, then I can’t stop you from doing so. Because if you have your yi on the Taiji complimentary force, it is hard for me to stop it. It came as a stealth force and by the time I think I can redirect your force, it is already too late. It has a “kind of helpless feeling” to it. Now you may begin and pretend you are doing it solo, I am not here touching you….

TCG… while trying to do his commencement form, I detected he used only stiff li and nothing else…and he starts his movement from a ‘dead-stop’position. So I gave him a head-up…

Lim: That won’t work. [so he increased more li from his shoulder]…
Lim: That won’t work either! [he looked confused…as to how do I know that? ].

TCG…he finally gave up because his yi went AWOL, [Absent With Out Leave] and his hands just couldn’t raise passed my ‘up-down force’.

Lim: OK, now you hold down my wrist and I do what you did…. “Can you feel it”? [I was doing very slowly made sure he still noded his head. He did.]

Lim: Now let me DO IT WITH Yi, BUT BEFORE I MOVE MY PHYSICAL BOBY, I USE YI TO BLANKET OVER my center to engage to your center; I use my yi in my center with ‘up-down force’ to engage your ‘center with cross’. I’m going to repeat it a couple of times slowly so you can feel the difference… Now I’m engaging, but there is no pushing . Now this is without engaging. [a feeling of weakness or emptiness ] Do you feel the difference ? [he nods his head with mouth open. looks like he was thinking about it, and that was a good sign]

Lim: Now at this juncture I raise my hands forward but not from the “dead-stop”position like you did. Taiji Principle: before one goes forward, one must goes backward first. Same goes for upward must go downward first…etc. etc..With this process I create a “loop”. This is done by the ‘yi body’ more so then the ‘physical body’ [to conceal my yi intend to prevent others to listen into it.] This ‘loop’ is to lead you into the emptiness before I up root your balance and kick your butt. I will repeat this process slowly so you can feel the difference. [he drops his jaw again. I think he like this kind of stuff!]

Lim: At this juncture you are using Yang force to hold me down, so I need to change my chi to Yin as the primary force with the yang as support force to raise my hands forward and upward to elbow level hight first. As you can see now your balance is completely off. This level line is called the “horizontal line”; below this line is called the “yin/close/ absorb ”, anything above this line is called the “yang/open/project”. When my forearm reaches and rests on this line, it also called the “neutral line” because it holds both the yin on one side and the yang on the other side. One can only change with yin yang change in the ‘neutral’. This means I need to change my hands rising force from yin up to this point, to the yang in oder to project and finish you with an airborne send off. If at this juncture I take a big step forward with a “8 gates” [up-down, front-back, right-left. internal corresponds with external] and with my imagination my whole body force wants to reach all the way across the street, and you are now just standing in my way!? You will fly!!. But here and now I just use the “8 gates” without taking any kind of step and forget any imagination to lead my yi to do a silly thing like that in order for you to feel the effect of ILIq Chuan’s “Use Yi Don’t use Li”. [well, his jaw really dropped!]

TCG: How long have you studied ILiq Chuan with GM Chin? [we both were surprised …I can actually knock him completely off his balance effortlessly! Because I only practice taiji solo form as a tool for its principle for our health.]

Lim: This is my 5th workshop, I have with GM Chin. We flew in from California just for his workshop in Hawaii. If you don’t sign up while he is here trust me, you will remember this day the rest of your Taiji life, that you let the biggest fish get away! Hawaii’s ‘hang loose’ is ok, but not that loose.

TCG: Too bad my English is very bad! Does he speak Chinese?

Lim: He speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Malaysian, and English. The host here speaks Chinese and he lives and teaches on this Island. If you think what little demo I did could make your jaw drop, can you imagine what the host can teach you!? [the host still standing within an arm length talking to someone] Just looked at his black sash with 4 silver stripes on it! it is means he is “Student Level 4” and has the Right Stuff to teach. GM Chin grants his student authorization to teach when they passed the Student Level 3 Test.So look at me….not even a sash. just a shoe string to hold up my ILiq Chuan pants to conceal my embarresment

Lim: GM. Chin had just walked in….

TCG: Wow he is a big one!! [He walks like a bear, he jumps like a bear, he can ‘freeze’ your movement like a bear, he runs as fast like a hear. He laughs like a bear. Most importantly he hugs us like a family-size teddybear! Martha and I just disappeared into the thin air… Martha is 4’ 11’ under 90 lbs and I am 5’1” 127 lbs.

I let this TCG have the last words….as long as they are not these words: “Taijiquan has “Use Yi Don’t Use Li”, does your ILiq Chuan has it”.

Charles, I posted this as it happened…un-cut as I could recall, much longer than it should. Hope it will give you some help for your study group with more detail to ponder, to see if the shoe fits….

Just for your information. GM Sam F.S. Chin will be teaching a workshop on the other side of Australia, Perth on Jan. 12-13, 2019. Check his website Zhong Xin Dao ,ILiq Chuan. GM Sam F.S. Chin.

Ciao,
Lim, waiting for coffee….

[Charles]

Hi ChiDragon and Yslim,

Thank you both for sharing your experiences and suggestions. Your comments are greatly appreciated and most helpful and certainly provide a more personal insight into taijiquan than online resources or books provide.

Our groups form practice is focused at the moment on the 24 Simplified Chinese Form and on the first section of the long form (expecting to start on the second section in the new year). As you have suggested ChiDragon we are concentrating on our footwork and stances and practicing our tai Chi walking. We are also developing our awareness of breath during practice. However, I have struggled to find any clear instruction on, as you have suggested to

“…coordinate the moves with your breathing”.

Any online resources or literature on the ‘practical’ application of this would be helpful (e.g. when to breath in and when to breath out for each form?).

Our group is also working on the developing of the 10-Principles to our practice as you have suggested Yslim. We are focusing more strongly on the first 5 at this stage. But again, there is a lot of theoretical literature about the 10 principles but I have struggled to locate good teaching resources explaining how to ‘practically’ develop these skills and self assess on progress. Yslim (or any others) if you can point me in the direction of ‘good’ resources for teaching and self-assessing the ’10 Principles’ it would be greatly appreciated.

Once again, thank you both and to all the others that have sent me private messages. Your support and comments are greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Charles

[ChiDragon]

Hi ChiDragon and Yslim,

Our groups form practice is focused at the moment on the 24 Simplified Chinese Form and on the first section of the long form (expecting to start on the second section in the new year). As you have suggested ChiDragon we are concentrating on our footwork and stances and practicing our tai Chi walking. We are also developing our awareness of breath during practice. However, I have struggled to find any clear instruction on, as you have suggested to

“…coordinate the moves with your breathing”.

Any online resources or literature on the ‘practical’ application of this would be helpful (e.g. when to breath in and when to breath out for each form?).

Hi, Charles
You are quite welcome! I am glad that your group are well organized and having a good start. Since I got your attention, let me elaborate on the Tai Chi walk and the bow stance. The Tai Chi walk is really a walking bow stance in motion. If you have noticed after each walk, you will be ended up in a bow stance. Now, let me killed three birds with one stone by describing what a bow stance is.

There are two bow stances, one is with the right leg with the knee bent in the front. It is called a right bow stance. Another is with the left leg, with the knee bent, in front which is called the left bow stance. The foot of the foreleg should be pointing straight ahead toward the front; and the hind foot should be 45 degrees pointing outward. This applied to both the right and left stances. There is one important point one should be most concerned. There should be a gap between both the heels of both legs to stay in balance.

The move of the Tai Chi walk, one start with a left bow stance. To begin is by turning the left foot 45 degrees outward with all the body weight shifted on the hind leg with the knee bent. Then lifting oneself up by standing on the left leg with the knee bent. Now lift the right leg and make semicircle toward the center then landed on the floor to the right; followed by turning the left foot straight forward from the 45 degree position. Again, be sure there is a small distance between both heels.

Things to be concerned is not to have the legs to far apart. Nor the gap between the heels. It is very important to have a proper gap between the heels to keep the body in balance. If you slight the foreleg back and hit your the foot behind, then your body is out of balance. For example, if someone push you from the front or behind, you will be falling down due to no leverage.

In regard to the coordination with breathing and movement. So far, there is no good written source on the internet. However, I had learnt from some well known Chinese masters describing how it was done by watching the videos on the internet. Unfortunately, you will NOT find anything similar to what I am going to describe here.

Here is how the breathing was done. Let say you are doing the Tai Chi walk from a bow stand position with the left leg in front. As soon you are making the initial move, such as turning your front foot 45 degrees, that is where the breathing begin to inhale. The breathing should be slow, long and deep until you are standing up on the left leg. Then, begin to exhale slowly as soon you are lifting your hind leg; and continue to exhale slowly until the right leg is landed on the floor.

Let's make it a little more simpler. Start to inhale when the left foot was turning at 45 degrees. Start to exhale, slowly, after the body is standing on one leg until the right leg is landed on the floor. Start to inhale, again, when the right foot is turning at 45 degrees. The breathing cycle repeats itself from one move to another.


PS...The above only applicable to practitioners have no breathing problems. However, the breathing problem can be corrected by this method by not breathing as deep as described. The breathing should be as deep as one can to begin with. Eventually, one can breathe deeper and deeper along with the diligent practice.

Edited: To make corrections.

[ChiDragon]

More on deep breathing......
The deep breathing should be done with the nose not the mouth. It is because that the nose is the beginning channel of the respiratory system. The nose has a dust filter such as the nostril hair which collects the dust or dirt before the air goes into the lungs. Beside, the cold air needs to be warmed up before entering the lungs by going through the trachea. Cold air might cause damage to the lungs if it is too cold.

What does "deep breathing" mean?
1. In modern term, it means "diaphragm breathing" or "abdominal breathing."
2. In esoteric Chinese Taoist term: Sink chi to the dantian(氣沈丹田).
3. In CD's term:viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4162

[Audi]

Any online resources or literature on the ‘practical’ application of this would be helpful (e.g. when to breath in and when to breath out for each form?).

Different teachers seem to have a different understanding of this issue and so give different instruction. You must decide whom to follow based on whatever criteria are important for you.

What Master Yang teaches is that you should generally not attempt to coordinate the breath with the form movements. We want the breath to be natural; and if you try to conform it to some predetermined pattern, it cannot be natural. Intentionally coordinating your breathing would require different adjustments, depending on your level of fitness at the moment and the speed you use to do the form. These are things we do not want to make a primary focus of form work. There is slightly different instruction that can be given for a few postures in the form with special considerations and for fajin training, where the focus shifts elsewhere.

I think some people who try to follow Master Yang’s general teaching resist this particular recommendation against a predetermined breathing pattern, because they feel that matching the breath to the movements is somehow more internal, more advanced, or more challenging. In my opinion, none of that is actually true for our method if properly understood.

Walking around with a cup of hot coffee or hot tea is not particularly challenging. If you fill the cup to the top, however, your body movement and mind focus have to be completely different to avoid getting burned with each step. Our breathing method is similar. If you do not try to use abdominal breathing to your natural capacity, there is no difficulty. If, however, you try to give full scope to your natural breathing, it will transform your movement and mental focus.

I have already described our general breathing considerations, but repeat them below since I don’t know how to link back:

Another area that can help with self correction and that has a relationship with the bubbling well is breathing. One of our methods is 气沉丹田 (qi chen dantian). This means something like “Let the Qi sink to the Dantian. Unless you are quite familiar with traditional Chinese culture, it is easy to misunderstand this phrase, so we equate it with “Use abdominal breathing.”

By “abdominal breathing,” we mean the same breathing that everyone uses when comfortably resting or asleep in bed. We do not intend some special procedure. The problem is that when we move about, we usually do not use this type of breathing. When breathing correctly, you should be able to put your hands on you abdomen and feel it rise and fall. Your chest should not move much at all.

Master Yang talks about five things that affect breathing: mind, body shape, weight over the bubbling well, body orientation, and energy.

Mind: When emotionally excited positively or negatively, we stop using abdominal breathing or Qi rises. This is why we want to be calm when practicing and have a neutral expression. A slight smile is okay.

Body shape: The first four of the Ten Essentials affect breathing. If your head is not lifted, it compresses your torso and reduces the scope for breathing. Try it and see. Try lifting the shoulders and rotating the elbows up and see the effect on your breathing. Puff out your chest and see if you can maintain abdominal breathing. Lift up your butt and push in the small of your back and again see if your breathing is restricted. Trying doing the opposition of all the above in accordance with the first four of the Ten Essentials and see if it allows you to breathe abdominally.

Bubbling well: When your weight is not over the bubbling well, your breathing is impeded. Try standing in a horse stance with the feet somewhat wider than shoulder width. Bend the knees some, lean forward a few degrees at the him, and engage all of the movement required by the first four of the Ten Essentials. Then put your weight into your heels and see the effect on your breathing. It will be subtle, but distinct. Then try putting your weight toward your toes. You should again feel a change. These procedures show the effect on the breathing of not having your weight over the bubbling well.

Body orientation: Again, try standing in a horse stance with the feet somewhat wider than shoulder width. Bend the knees some, lean forward a few degrees at the him, and engage all of the movement required by the first four of the Ten Essentials. You should be able to breathe abdominally without strain. Try leaning forward six inches or so. You should know feel a subtle, but distinct change in your breathing as it begins to be restricted by the change in your core muscles. Now try leaning back six inches from the neutral position. Again, you should feel a restriction in your breathing. This is the connection between breathing and body orientation.

Energy: Once again, try standing in a horse stance with the feet somewhat wider than shoulder width. Bend the knees some, lean forward a few degrees at the hip, and engage all of the movement required by the first four of the Ten Essentials. You should be able to breathe abdominally without strain. Now put energy into your limbs by squeezing your hands, arms, or legs. You should again feel the bad effect on your breathing.

If you were successful with these exercises, you can now use breathing as a guide to the correctness of your postures. If you sense a problem, look first to the “waist” and legs, since the problem is usually there.

To take a concrete case, perform Ward Off Left up to the point you begin to step forward with the left foot.

According to our theory, internal and external tend to support each other, regardless of style or intent. At this point in the form, if your external balance is off, you will have to supplement it from your internal. You may tighten your breathing, hold your breath, freeze your upper body or other things to maintain your balance. We want you to avoid these things.

As you lift your left leg and stretch it forward, the weight of your leg and the change in center of gravity will put even more strain on your structure and encourage you to deplete your internal to support the step in all the ways I have just mentioned. To avoid the feeling of strain, you may even offset the weight improperly by leaning the torso to the right. None of these are things we want you to do.

We want your breathing to remain more or less unchanged by focusing on the five things I quoted above. Don’t spill the Qi from your cup!

Master Yang has analogized our treatment of Qi and the breathing to the water in a reservoir or in a main canal. (FYI, the Grand Canal in China was an amazing architectural feet more or less on the level of the Great Wall.) If the water in the main canal is sufficient, there will be sufficient water in all the smaller canals that branch off from the main one. There is no need to think about how to move the water or which direction it flows. You just need to make sure the main canal is properly shaped and dredged and that nothing obstructs the water. Similarly, we want a body shape that allows abundant breathing/qi capacity and don’t want to introduce things that might obstruct it or siphon it off. We don’t want you to focus on the direction of the breath or artificially change the rhythm. We want to keep an unimpeded unaltered process.

After you reach a certain level, you may rightly start to feel that there is no way actually to match your internal feeling to the step in Ward Off Left. The secret lies in the lower back. You have to rotate your lower back clockwise to send your left foot stretching forward. This will be part of “Upper and lower coordinate together/follow each other.” Another important part for beginners is to have the upper and lower body finish together. (For more experience practitioners, the recommendation is more refined.) You also want to “distinguish full and empty” with respect to your weight and have total control over your momentum. You can work on the smoothness of the stepping and walking like a cat to follow “Continuous without break.” You can start to work on “Seek stillness/quiescence in movement” by feeling that although your movement is smoothly progressing towards a new dynamic, you maintain a view of the big picture and can move or stop at any point necessary. There is nowhere you feel you have to move, even if you decide to keep moving. To “use intention and not force,” put your mind into the extension and opening of the joints rather than into manipulating muscular tension and so unify the energy in the tendons and other soft tissues of the body.

Something I forgot to mention that you should learn quite early on is the meaning or application of each of the postures, since this will help you work on your intent and sharpen your external movements. Do not think of the moves as a rehearsal of an application the way hard stylists might, and so do not alter what you have learned in an attempt to make it more “realistic” or “effective.” You won’t know how to do this yet without using the wrong means needed to follow the Tai Chi path. The main purpose of the form is not to rehearse techniques, but to learn to be soft and to work on your own energy. Since energy is formless, you just need a form within which to practice and refine it.

In working on the postures of the Association’s Traditional form, you should start with the footwork. After this, one strategy can be to pay special attention to checking the torso angle, arm placement, and hand shape of the final posture. This is a good place to work on the first four of the Ten Essentials, dealing with body shape. Once you do the best you can here, focus on the previous part of the posture when the legs have the opposite weight distribution and where you should have stored energy for the final position. The arms should be in a position somewhat opposite the final position. Notice the relationship between the two positions. To get to the storing position there is often some kind of arm rotation and a foot pivot. Once you make progress with this, notice the circles and arcs used to change positions. This is also how you can work on “Be continuous without break.”

Our groups form practice is focused at the moment on the 24 Simplified Chinese Form and on the first section of the long form (expecting to start on the second section in the new year). As you have suggested ChiDragon we are concentrating on our footwork and stances and practicing our tai Chi walking. We are also developing our awareness of breath during practice.

This is a perfectly reasonable plan, but be aware that there is a difference between the form and movement logic in the Beijing 24 and the Association’s forms. For instance, although both contain Brush Knee and Twist Step, the arm movements are performed somewhat differently. In the medium and long term, it can be helpful to know different variations of a posture or different styles, but in the short term it can also be confusing.

Have fun with your Tai Chi and take advantage of whatever teaching you can and do whatever forms have an appeal. Just be aware that all methods are not easily compatible and that knowledge that is wide may not be very deep. On the other hand, knowledge that is very deep, but very narrow leaves you feeling like a person at the bottom of a well looking at the sky and trying to understand the weather.

Take care,
Audi