The First Thing..........

... ....for a beginner to do is to shut up and listen to the energy of the Teacher.

Without this there can be no true communication.

Same Difference

Below are the commencing postures of the classical Sun style taught to me by David Martin and the short form I learned from John Kells.

Both start in the Wuji posture, which is a standing meditation. In both styles the arms rise up to meet an incoming attack, seperate the attacker's arms and repel them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Between..............

It's the moment between postures where we must avoid drifting off and losing our connection to the present moment.

Juice

I had the pleasure of meeting Scott Meredith today.

Scott is the Author of Juice - Radical Taiji Energetics which is an important book in understanding and working on the internal concepts of Tai Chi.

As usual, I was reminded that I am not as relaxed as I thought I was ( no, I didn't really think I was that relaxed ) so am inspired for further exploration and practise.

Scott's website is http://www.zmq37.com/main.html

Without Arms

One of the hardest things to do is to not use your arms independently of the body.

Thinks about how you would do your tai chi forms without any arms.

I like this clip which is small frame Chen style because if you look closely you can observe how the arms follow the body/waist/legs.

Getting it Wrong

It is important to get things wrong.

To make mistakes.

Because this is how we learn.

When I first started Tai Chi, people would not practise because they couldn't remember the postures and were afraid to get it wrong. Invariably their progress stalled and they soon dropped out.

Instead we should practise and not be afraid to get it wrong. When we then go over the postures or receive a correction/advice/suggestion from a teacher/instructor it is more meaningful and allows us to progress.

Get it wrong to get it right.

Single Posture

When learning a form, we are usually taught one or two postures on a weekly basis which we then piece together with what we have previously learned.

The danger lies in practising the form without understanding the postures, because we are focusing on the wrong approach.

We must "get" the form, right?

No.

Study each posture individually. Understand the movement and the application. Each posture contains opening, connecting, joining and closing.

Then, when linking postures together, understand the point at which one posture ends and connects to the next without fudging that moment.