Tai Chi For Beginners, The Rights and Wrongs of Training

Every once in a while most tai chi beginners will experience a scenario that goes something like this: an instructor “corrects” an “error’ in what you are doing, you think to yourself: “But I’ve always done it this way, does that mean I have been practising the move incorrectly all this time? Why hasn’t someone picked this up before? They keep changing the moves, we learn one way then they change, it’s hard to change. Why all these changes?”

One reason why we can experience this sort of dilemma is because we like to think what we are doing is right. Sure it needs improvement, but modifications are necessary and they are added on to what we consider the right way of doing a move.

We generally resist change but the Taoist philosophy tells us that change is inevitable and necessary. In our Western culture we like having rules and procedures that are predictable and constant. This works well for things that are straight forward however we engage in an art form and therefore can’t be set in concrete. This is mainly because students' experiences and abilities evolve with time and practice.

Adherence to the principles of TC is the best guide to keeping true to the art. When you observe another student or especially a student from another school, the differences can be many and varied, even when doing a basic form like the Beijing 24.

It is then that you realise the importance of the principles of tai chi as being the glue that holds us all together. At the Golden Lion a great deal of effort is made by SiGung Charles Tsui-Po and his instructors to be consistent in the details of the forms we teach.

Every once in a while a slight change will be made to a move you are doing. When this happens the Sigung will have considered the authentic principles of tai chi as well as consideration of the student’s ability to execute and adapt to the change. This change really is the next level of achievement and understanding for the tai chi beginner.

The main reason for these dilemmas is that our personal knowledge and understanding of tai chi is growing all the time.

As the beginner tai chi students progress, they are ready and able to take on more and more subtilises of the movements. If you had been taught, for instance, the pelvic tilt and tuck in your first few lessons on the tai chi walk, you would have probably felt overwhelmed with detail, felt confused and discouraged. Patience and persistent practice are the keys to progress in tai chi. We learn from practice. Instructors, videos and books can only teach your mind but you have to teach your body.

The role of your instructor is to teach you at a level that you can handle and enjoy. As you progress, your movements will be modified, sometimes these changes will be easy to incorporate but at other times how you have been doing a move will change fundamentally. By welcoming these changes, you are given greater incentive to practice and renew your focus. It is at these times that you make leaps forward in your understanding of this ever deepening and complex art.

So is it true that before the change in the movement, we were doing the move wrongly? In one word, NO!

In an article titled “A Commentary on T’ai Chi Terms and Principles” by Mark Wasson in TC magazine volume 26 No. 4, he likens our progress to climbing a spiral staircase that winds upward around a centre pole.

The pole represents whatever it is we are trying to understand,for instance the movement of chi energy. The view or description of chi energy of a person on the third step would be very different from a person on the 7th or 9th steps.

As Mark Wasson says, “The important thing is that everyone on the staircase is “right”. And that each is correct according totheir own perspective and experience. And when you realise that someone is “right”, then there can be no reason for argument. It is just a matter of realising that person’s level of understanding of what they are seeing.”

He goes on to caution us not to let our ego push us into trying to convince someone that what they are doing is wrong and that we are right and therefore superior. In reality we are all right, just on different steps of a never ending spiral staircase.

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