Tai Chi Training

There is a defined course in Tai Chi Chuan training that is followed by most traditional schools.
The first step is training for force and skill.
This is the place everyone in any martial art needs to begin. Here we work on health and fitness. In Tai Chi we learn Qigong as a basic training method. Usually a moving qigong is taught first, then a static one called Zhan Zhuang or standing post is taught next. Then we move onto skills such as learning to unify the body to manifest what in Taijiquan we call Chan Si Jing, or silk reeling strength. This is a way of learning to move from the feet, through the legs, to the arms. We take the time to relax and unify the body as one whole unit. After this we begin practicing exercises for flexibility. We begin breathing and stretching rhythmically. Perhaps my favorite example of this ind of training comes as a story from the Tai Chi Master Kuo Lien Ying who spoke of how in the old days his teachers before him would insist you practice stretching until you could put your teeth to your toe. After these skills are trained then the students begins to learn individual movements from a Tai Chi form.
There is a saying that I have heard over and over again throughout my years of learning Tai Chi: Until you have practiced a movement 5000 times, you do not own it.
This is very true. This repetitive practice of the same movements over and over may seem boring but with a good teacher you will learn how to breathe, how to move mind and energy, how to manifest power from this portion of the training.
After you have reached a standard that the teacher is pleased with (note that in Asia it is unthinkable to ever tell your Sifu that you "know something already" if he or she is a good teacher then trust that this is not a stalling tactic but a time to refine movements and sensations.) your teacher will then begin to teach you the form. The form is an extended qigong exercise, a concise encapsulation of highly effective combat techniques, and a moving meditation. However, for it to be these things, you must have followed the training schedule and have already developed force and skill. Without force and skill your form is an empty dance or as the Chinese saying goes "Brocade legs and flowery fists." You would probably get more benefit from going to a swing dance class if you only practice form.
After the form is learned we move onto Tui Shou or Pushing Hands exercises. This work is done with a partner to help teach you distance, timing, and the application of force in a safe, controlled environment. Eventually the push hands becomes a freestyle affair, but you need the proper foundation learned in the basics to make it to that point.
After Push Hands you will move on to learn a weapon form or two to teach you how to project your energy past your physical body. Then you will spend much time learning applications in prearranged sparring patterns until finally we reach the stage of San Shou or free hands wherein you can fight freely and creatively with the techniques, principles, and movements you have learned.
So there you have it. The proper way to learn Tai Chi. Anything else is as TT Liang once said: A blind alley.

What are Yin and Yang?

Yin and Yang... if you study Tai Chi or any other Chinese martial art you are going to encounter the concepts of Yin and Yang. A lot has been said or written about these concepts some of it good, some of it complete hokum. At the most basic level Yin and Yang are simply variables for expressing complementary and opposite relationships. Most people are familiar with what in the West is called the Yin-Yang symbol but is more properly known as the Tai Chi Tu or Supreme Ultimate symbol. Yes this Tai Chi is the same one as the martial art name. Meaning that Tai Chi Chuan is based upon the concepts of Yin and Yang.

Yin is a variable representing one half of a relationship. Yang is the other half. Some people say that the black half of the diagram or yin represents the bad or negative aspects and the white half or Yang side represents the good or positive aspects. Well that is one point of view and a viable one depending upon what you are talking about. However to assume you know what Yin and Yang are by saying Yang is good and Yin is bad makes about as much sense as walking into an Algebra class and saying X is good and Y is bad.

Traditionally Heaven is Yang and Earth is Yin. The sky, sun, moon, and stars are both considered Yang when compared with the Earth which is Yin. This time we are measuring light. The more light an object gives off, the more Yang it is. The less light it gives off the more Yin it is.

Now if we decide to say that movement is what we are measuring then stable things become Yang and mutable things become Yin. In this case Earth would be Yang and Heaven would be Yin.

Yin and Yang balance and complete one another. In other words once you recognize one, then you automatically recognize its opposite. All well and good, but what does this have to do with Tai Chi.

Quite a lot actually. In Tai Chi we start with Chi Kung exercises that help us to become strong and fit for applying Tai Chi. Chi Kung deals with breathing, energy, and the internal organs and systems of the body. It could be considered Yin. Without the Yin training the Yang cannot be effective. The structure of the Tai Chi diagram indicates movement. Meaning that when Yin reaches its extreme then Yang is born and vice versa. Our task in Tai Chi is to become cognizant of this constant ebb and flow and to take advantage of its movement.

In daily life when someone becomes angry at you, you have two options. One is to stand up and defend yourself in righteous indignation. This is considered double heaviness in Tai Chi terms. We have opposed the angry person's force with our own force. The second option is to listen to what the person has to say and be receptive to the argument. Accept that they have a grievance without judging it and then respond logically without resorting to meeting the attack head on. In other words you have applied Yin to overcome the angry person's Yang.

In martial arts terms this means that if you attack me I will accept the attack flow around it with the utmost softness, using only the minimum force to circle around you and find the places where you are Yin. If you are not mindful I will apply an attack to those unguarded places.

So you see, Yin and Yang mean a good deal more than just good or bad, desirable or undesirable. They are philosophical concepts that underpin a profound and useful understanding of the world. This understanding makes a major component of modern life possible. Computers actually work with Yin and Yang all the time. Binary computer code uses 0's and 1's or on and off to make all the marvelous things from the internet to I phones possible.

Knowing this, then perhaps an understanding of Yin and Yang is more useful than we can imagine.

What is Tai Chi?

Welcome to my blog. It's dedicated to helping you know a bit more about me and a little bit more about Tai Chi and other internal martial arts.
Tai Chi means "Supreme Ultimate" or "Grand Terminus" depending on which English words you like to use to translate the Chinese characters. Its full and proper title is Tai Chi Chuan or using the pinyin Romanization: Taijiquan. The name is pronounced "Tie- Jee- Chuen" regardless of how it's rendered in English.
Tai Chi Chuan is a Chinese martial art which means it is one of the different schools of quanshu or fist arts. Most people in the west use the words Kung Fu to denote Chinese martial arts and maybe in a later blog we will get into what Kung Fu means but for now we will restrict ourselves to Tai Chi and the internal martial arts.
Now then this segues nicely into the question: "What does that mean? An Internal Martial Art?"
Well specifically we can look at martial arts as being divided into roughly two categories:
External and Internal.
An External Martial Artist runs for stamina, does push ups or weightlifting for strength, and hits bags to build forceful strikes.
An internal martial artist relies on building up chi (qi in pinyin pronounced "chee") to create glowing health and tremendous physical power. Chi is cultivated through breathing and specific exercises that create effects on a par with the External methods at the basic levels. When an internal martial artist progresses further he or she will find that their strength grows with age. That they become more formidable the older they get.
The External martial artist will start to see a decline in their performance and their tough training will have to slacken as their bodies age. Where an internal martial artist of advanced years will have glowing health and be far more powerful than his or her external appearance will show.
Inevitably, people have opinions about chi and internal training. They will pontificate for hours how it is not this or it is not that. That is rather sad. The best thing to do is find a real teacher who can show you how to use and harness chi and then practice for a while and see what results you find.

Until next time remember to breathe from your belly.