7:00 PM - Qigong & weaponry

New starters learn the basic qigong exercises.

Graded students work on weapons drills:

1. 20 cane/stick drills
2. 13 knife drills
3. 15 broadsword drills
4. 2-person cane/stick
5. 2-person small stick

Exercise videos

Be wary of attempting to learn a sophisticated exercise system using a video.

If you are making fundamental errors, how will you know?

If you have an existing injury, there is a risk of making matters worse.

Stillness

Blogs & chatrooms

One of the problems with the internet is that it encourages all manner of unpleasantness. Blogs and chatrooms allow malignant people to insult strangers anonymously. Bad feeling and gossip are rampant.

Troubled people are free to pour out hatred and malice, with no risk of consequence.

This is not healthy.

Falter at the finish

Lao Tzu said that people typically don’t see things through. They begin with enthusiasm and good intentions, but rapidly grow restless and lack the staying power to reach anything truly worthwhile.

How many times have you read a story or seen a movie that has a great beginning but a poor ending?

A good story should tantalise at the beginning, add texture and depth in the middle and have a resounding conclusion; with insights, lessons and understanding to take away with you.

This is a model for our syllabus.

Timing & coordination

Before you can jing successfully, a fully-functioning pathway must be developed through which you can generate power.
The correct muscle groups need to be engaged.
The muscles must direct the kinetic energy in the line of your choosing.

Force is not projected by means of the curve. It is linear. Circularity only occurs when the line of force changes.
This is called 'square on the inside and round on the outside'.

You must become adept at channelling kinetic energy down a deliberate, conscious path.
This process takes time to master.
Daily training is encouraged.

Find joy

Every circumstance is an opportunity to find levity and happiness.

Even the most unpleasant-seeming situations are a chance to refine your character and respond to hardship with good spirits and humour.

It is our response to the event that counts, not the event itself.

Becoming an instructor #1

The first quality necessary when seeking to become an instructor is that you must have something to teach.

Not only must you have information and experience, you need a level of knowledge that enables you to see connections, associations and themes - linkages between apparently separate qualities/components.

To posses this degree of insight, your own research, study and training must transcend mere regurgitation. For an instructor, it is not enough to copy and then pass on the same material. You must see things from many different angles, and be capable of selecting the most appropriate route for the given student's perceptual capacity.

A vast number of hours must be spent in solo and partnered training, watching, thinking and reading. Test, dismantle, explore and start again.

Mirror, mirror

Do you like people for who they are, or only to the degree to which they reflect your own values?

Emotional weaponry

Emotion is the tool the personality uses to grant its opinions credibility and value. It’s how the personality feels worthwhile. It is also how the personality gets what it wants. It can wield emotion like a baseball bat, manipulating others to react to its needs and desires.

We learn the trick as children. A bit of theatrics, temper tantrums – howling at 120 decibels in the middle of the supermarket – worked marvelously when we wanted an ice cream. Emotion was how we got grown-ups to take notice.

(Stuart Wilde)

Memory

What have you put in your mind?

Is it facts & figures, general knowledge, gossip and opinion? How often do you use the information that you store? Could your mind do with a good clean out? Can you shed some opinions?

What have you stored in your mind - necessities for a worthwhile life, or trivial junk?

Labour-saving

Labour-saving devices make life easier.

For what purpose?
What do you do with this easier life?
Sit and watch TV?
Eat?

Perhaps manual labour serves a purpose.

No honour

We live in dishonourable times. From a war waged on questionable ground, to the smaller things that remind us every day that something important has been lost: the guy who opens a candy bar and tosses the wrapper on the street, the white collar worker who pads his expense account because everyone else is doing it, the woman in accounting who’s nice to your face but tears you down when you’re out of the room, reporters who fabricate stories and CEOs who cash out the retirement funds of their employees to buy yet another big house in the Bahamas... we are daily deluged by duplicity, convenient fabrications, self-indulgence, outright lies and the elevation of enlightened self-interest to an art form practiced by both the lofty and the low.

Because you gotta look after numero uno first. Because only losers put other people first. Screw the next guy before he has a chance to screw you. Do unto others then split.

(J M Straczynski)

Hardship

Enduring hardship is tough.

To bear that which you think you cannot bear is really to bear.

(Nitobe)

It can be very difficult to stay relaxed, calm and compassionate when things seem to go from bad to worse.

These are trials of character. We can learn a lot from them; about who we are and how we respond under pressure.

If we can endure, then the experience can change us for the better - like the forging of a sword, where the raw metal is beaten repeatedly by the blacksmith until it has strength that is needed for what lies ahead.

Be scientific about your knees

Every form of exercise has the potential to harm your body if you do not perform it correctly. Even tai chi.

If you do experience knee problems, it is worth talking with your instructor.

Usually the only people who get knee trouble are those with an existing history of hard style external martial arts, sports injuries or occupational damage. Those people need to be very slow and careful in order to rehabilitate the knees.

If you do not have a history of wear and tear, and you are experiencing discomfort, logic dictates that you are performing the exercise incorrectly.

After all, the rest of the class is alright...

Your practice is going to require some rehabilitation, so be scientific about the situation: work with your instructor and figure out what you are doing wrong - and correct it. It can be difficult to admit an error and take responsibility for your own wellbeing, but it is a necessary first step.

The past

The past is past and can’t be fixed. The only tragedy is when you carry a negative memory of it into the future. Absolve yourself. If needs be, create a solemn ceremony, light a candle, say a prayer or meditate, release yourself from previous stuff-ups.

If you’ve hurt people in some way, write them a mental letter and mail it to their heart – tell them you’re sorry. Or, better still, pop around and apologise to them personally. That’s very cathartic for them and for you.

(Stuart Wilde)

Stuck in the past

If you assess new experiences based upon old ones, are you learning anything and are you actually seeing the new at all?

In our quest for security and comfort we cling to what has been and employ comparison as a coping mechanism.

Yet, the new is not familiar and may not reflect your existing experience. The danger with comparison is that you are blind to the new because you see only the old. You value what seems important to you.

These values may appear less significant from a different perspective.

Learn for yourself

He didn't want anyone to copy him. He himself had learned very little through conscious imitation and he distrusted it as a genuine learning process. He wanted his teachers to make their own discoveries and work things out for themselves as he had done, so that each teacher would have their own unique approach and way of working with the principles.

(Glen Park)

Zen

If tao eludes you, read zen or study a zen-related discipline.

Zen is the spirit of spontaneity; the art of being in the immediate, in the now.

Many zen books are a mixture of taoism and Buddhism, and this occludes the heart of zen somewhat.
Since zen sprung from taoism, it can be an interesting way to expand your understanding.

Before the classics

The tai chi classics are not the root of tai chi.
To extend the metaphor; they are the tree trunk, with the various schools and families representing the branches and leaves.

The root of tai chi is taoism.
Taoism is not about tai chi and never mentions tai chi, but everything in the tai chi classics presupposes an understanding of taoism and its associated principles and insights.

If you are not familiar with Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu, you should expect to find the tai chi classics difficult.
Lao Tzu spoke of how his insights were nothing remarkable yet no one would implement them. His book Tao Te Ching is a clever piece of literature; it is so utterly understated and easily ignored.

The title tells you its worth: The Way Things Are And Their Inherent Power.
In other words: accord yourself with existence and you will draw strength from your relationship.
This lies at the centre of tai chi chuan.

Taoism

Taoism is not a religion in any real sense; it is more like science than religion.

Imagine watching an insect and noting the cunning ways in which it utilises its body relative to its environment - and then adopting and adapting those insights yourself - that is taoism.

You are not expected to memorise anything or quote witty insights.
You can possess tremendous taoist wisdom without ever reading a book; all the books do is help you to notice things and contemplate.

Tai chi classics

What are the tai chi classics?
What do they constitute?

The tai chi classics are the recorded wisdom of some famous tai chi teachers.
Do and don'ts concerning tai chi.
Most of the suggestions are quite clear, although others are more cryptic.

It is very important for every student of tai chi to read the classics periodically and use them as a meter against which to gauge the quality of their own practice.

If your tai chi deviates from the classics, you are probably not doing tai chi.

Yang Cheng Fu form

Our school practices the Yang Cheng Fu style of tai chi, which is quite martial in nature but very good for health.
We teach the small frame, small circle version.

This is not the simplified form taught by Cheng Man Ching or Beijing/Peking schools (24 step etc).

What is tai chi?

Tai chi is:

1. a form of healthy exercise
2. a system of self defence
3. meditation training
4. the physical embodiment of taoist and martial insights
5. a spiritual journey

The meaning of tai chi can be found in its application of taoist insights and principles in everyday life.
It is about making skilful use of what is available.
Making the best of things.

Variables

The problem with techniques is orthodoxy.
A self defence situation calls upon you to adapt and change relative to the opponents behaviour.
This requires a dynamic relationship.
There is no fixity.

You cannot make any assumptions concerning your opponent.
Every encounter is fresh, alive and changeable.

The variables are considerable, and you must move with them, flowing and fluid.

Your appropriate response is akin to building your own technique, tailored specifically for the attacker and discarded when you break contact.
It lives only as long as the attack does and is not the product of conscious thought.

A doll of wood

Bruce Lee spoke of being a doll of wood, an animated machine with no thoughts and feelings. (He took the idea from Chuang Tzu's Fighting Cock).

You must leave aside any notions or concerns.
It is important to become blank and receptive, open to the situation and responsive to what is happening.
This is what zen does to the student.

Playing the attacker

If you play a lousy attacker during self defence partner work, it will show up during san da.
You will be hesitant, dithery and anticipatory.

Learn to step forwards with confidence and skill.

Durham

Feedback

I've done some martial arts before including tai chi but sifu's syllabus is so beyond anything I've seen it's ridiculous! Practically all my previous training has not helped me at all and I'm just grateful I found sifu when I did.

(Tim)

One form

You may know two hundred different martial arts but what is the quality of your movements? It's still just movement, it doesn't matter how many forms you know.People with wisdom will use a tool properly, but a person with lower knowledge will recognise only one function of the tool. In the same manner, internal martial arts can be used for many functions because you use the same tool. This training method is only one tool, but it has many different uses. You need to use one form for practice and include everything in it - mind, structure, movement and qi. If you can easily do all of these within each motion, that is the internal martial arts.

(Luo De Xiu)

Stork spreads wings

Leaf

Question

Which qualities are associated with external training?

Why are these undesirable?

Feedback

I very much enjoy your sessions - without any false flattery, you have been one of the best teachers I have had for any martial art. Your commitment, patience and dedication to the art and your students is something that I believe many teachers should aspire to. I won't pretend that all of it made sense (after all, you often told us that it shouldn't at our stage!), but I have taken some vital lessons about martial arts, tai chi and humility away with me...To your credit Sifu Waller, you have shown me something that has I did not expect to find in tai chi... a comprehensive fighting system in itself. I wish the rest of the MA community would wake up and see what you see.

(Stuart Sadler)

Turtle-neck

Why do tai chi people tuck the chin-in?

It restricts the natural mobility of the spine and tilts the pelvis unnecessarily. There is also tension behind the neck and restriction in the throat.

The neck should be relaxed. The head free to move forwards and up. This generates a 'suspended from above' feeling.

Dictionary game

Answering a question in class can occasionally result in endless side-tracking. In order to explain one thing, you must explain another, and in order to explain that thing, something else...

It is like a dictionary.
You look up 'car' and it says 'vehicle'.
You look up 'vehicle' and it says 'transport'...

We aim to build up the vocabulary of tai chi patiently, and deflect questions that require background knowledge in order to comprehend the answer.

The answer will come, and it will make sense. But you need to know what 'transport' means first.

Feedback

I'm thoroughly enjoying the training; it is on a completely different level to anything I've done previously.

(Simon)

Question

What is the drawback of cross-training another martial art whilst studying tai chi?

Feedback

I recently read in The Little Zen Companion a quote that I liked:

"Every exit is an entry somewhere else."

Our Sifu has a syllabus that contains countless exits that always turn out to be an entry to somewhere else. Even though it is usually difficult to pass through a particular barrier we at Newcastle are fortunate in having a teacher who can teach and has the patience to help us over the obstacles we come up against.

Before I came to Sifu Waller three years ago I had spent six years at four different classes trying to learn tai chi. None of them had a syllabus of any kind. Most were offering tuition of the simplified 24 step Yang style tai chi, with no self defence and no regard for the health of knees or back. The classes were for one hour only and cost about the same as ours.

(John Bell)

Good morning

Since 1983 it has been habit to get up and train between 6:00 - 8:00 approx every morning. Sometimes the training has started sooner or lasted longer, but the habit remains. It is an excellent way to start the day.

It was yoga initially, along with judo and karate. Then later, it became tai chi - ideally performed outdoors.

Nothing is forced. You just wander through material at leisure, covering what needs to be done. Never rushing or performing by rote.

No matter how you feel in the morning, the training wakes you up. If you follow it with a cool shower and breakfast, you feel balanced and calm.

Feedback

I've been in attendance of Sifu Waller's school for over 3 years now and from day one I felt it was a good place to be, warm and welcoming but most importantly for me I found it incredibly inspiring and constantly challenging. The way in which the subject material is taught I believe is second to none, incredible attention to detail with friendliness and a patience to really help you along the way. The self defence material taught is quite simply devastating, but the most important thing for me is the manner in which you are taught to apply it, with extreme care and restraint. The refinement of character is priceless.

(Paul Booth)

Workshop wonders

The thing with workshops is to earnestly consider what £25 (or whatever) is going to buy you. Is a tai chi master honestly going to show a total stranger everything he has?

It seems somewhat unlikely.

Most teachers don't reveal anything quickly - partly out of secrecy - but mainly because the material would be meaningless without the prerequisite foundation training and understanding. There are no shortcuts.

Workshop are often beginners stuff packaged to sound advanced...

World-view

Embrace others as part of yourself. Treat every family as your family. See all communities as your community. Think of all nations as your nation. Know that your world is everyone's world. Why do I see things this way? Because this is the way things are.

(Lao Tzu)

Exercise videos

Fitness instructors offer the promise of a great body and typically use their own physique as evidence that the system works.

Read the biography carefully. Many of these people are gymnasts, ballerinas, or have a long-term background in yoga. They may be genetically predisposed towards a lean physique.

How many of them had great bodies to start with? What proof do you have that their body is the result of the offered system?

Apply these questions to exercise classes too.

Neuroplasticity

There is growing scientific evidence that the brain can be kept healthy and functioning as we grow older.

Challenging existing modes of thought, dropping long-held opinions and learning new skills causes the body to grow new brain tissue to cope with the demands of change.

Mind

All movements are motivated by mind, not external form. If there is up, there is down; when advancing, have regard for withdrawing; when striking left, pay attention to the right. If the mind wants to move upward, it must simultaneously have intent downward.

(Chang San-feng)

The tao of banking?

Banks and building societies are perhaps secret enclaves of tao.

The staff drift through the day in an almost drug-like stupor of dreamy indifference. They smile at everyone and count your money in slow motion, unbothered by the large queue.

There is no suggestion of speed as they add your notes to bundles secured with an elastic band, then jot a new total on the top-most note. It saves on re-counting at closing-time, and they are quite happy to keep you waiting as they perform this ritual repeatedly. It is a form of exhibitionism, a sign of their absolute freedom from concern.

Blithe, bland and smartly presented, it is a world of superficiality, of impersonal calm.

Hello crab

We were near the lighthouse looking in the rock pools for crabs. There were a few really tiny hermit crabs that could only be seen once you had slowed down completely and let your mind settle.

Then there was a much larger crab. It emerged from behind a huge rock and very slowly edged from alcove to alcove, remaining in the shadows. The crab appeared to be heading directly towards our position.

Minutes passed and the crab continued to approach. Any doubts as to its intentions were set aside when the crab came to a stop in front of us and lifted its face out of the water.

The entire incident was downright surreal.

Beyond choreography

Tai chi begins when you have learned the form sequence. The actual choreography is simply the skeleton for neigong. Once you have learned the ‘what’, you must discover the ‘how’.

Refining the training, adding flesh (and everything else) to the skeleton may take a whole lifetime.

If your school is only concerned with the choreography, it is remiss.

Against the grain

For the last six months a couple have been trying to discipline their puppy 'Hadrian'.
He is not allowed to play very much.
Instead he is taught to respond to a whistle, run from one person to the next and is constantly being bribed with food. He must be obedient.

When Hadrian sees you on the beach he makes his bid for freedom. He runs headlong away from his owners, eyes wide, drooling, tail wagging.

Hadrian then leaps around you, wanting to play fight, to chew, to be roughed-up.

The owners are not happy about this. The man peevishly remarked, "He loves you..."

Yet, Hadrian is a puppy. Playing is what puppies do. It is in his nature to be like this. The harder they try to change him, the more desperate Hadrian is to run off and play.

Kumar speaks

When your teacher demonstrates something for you, you are obligated to practice it, or else you may invoke the following consequences of your own free will:

1. Your teacher may not correct you because your actions have shown that you did not really want to learn the skill.

2. You will not achieve the skill.

3. If you learn the next stage of the skill, it will be weak because it has no foundation.

4. Your skill will not rise to a high level until your attitude changes.

(Bruce Frantzis)

Why don't students train at home?

This is a perplexing question.

The usual reply is 'time'. But you make time for TV. You make time to sleep-in or go out drinking.

A keen student trains at home because they want to. Not for a reward or because you asked them to. They don't need asking.

The time spent at home is more important than class work. It is a time for practice, study, repetition and reflection, an opportunity to explore and enjoy.

Tai chi is an investment. If it feels like a chore, then you are yet to 'get it'.

Virtuous or self-serving?

When performing good deeds, if you are seeking to accumulate merit or accolades, then there is no virtue at all in what you are doing.

(Lao Tzu)

Form collectors

Form collectors are always on the lookout for novelty. They seek quantity not quality. It is like an absurd quest for a shortcut. In looking so hard they miss the subtle.

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 tai chi classics, 13 postures, neigong, jing, dim-mak, chin na, applications, fa jing, 4 ounces of pressure, softness and yielding - it is probably worth learning.

Find a form that works for you and practice it thoroughly. Train it enough and your body will feel to move all by itself.

Durham

Is san da fighting?

Close, but not quite.
The purpose of a fight is to defeat an opponent, win a bout, score points etc.
San da serves a different purpose...

Your aim is to attack and defend skilfully using aspects of the art that work for you.
There are two reasons for learning this:

1. To defend yourself against another martial artist
2. To assist family/friends who are being assaulted

With the pressure of unpredictability, you find out what you can pull off.

Answers

When asking a question, it is important to consider just how receptive you are to the answer.

People consider themselves receptive but are often far from it.

If you were to ask: “How old are you?” you might expect a numerical value in response. “Older than a bird but younger than a mountain” may not be the answer you had in mind. It tells you something but lacks the familiar specificity.

So when the answer is not what you want to hear, what does that tell you? Are you asking the wrong question? Do you have an expectation in mind?

Turtle

Questions

Have you ever considered what people intend by questioning?

Is the question a request for confirmation? Some sort of agreement? Proof of knowledge? Or a desire for approval? Is it simply rhetorical?

Or is the question something else? Surely a good question is pitched without expectation?

Parody

There is a serious danger in showing advanced material to a beginner.

At best, they will not see or understand what you are doing. At worst, they will parody your body mechanics, perhaps undermining their basic training completely.

A beginner lacks the necessary physical experience to replicate more advanced material and can only reasonably relate it to what they already know. Their attempt is apt to miss the detail and further hamper progress.

The outcome is the product of the means, the process. If you try to jump to the end without the means to accomplish the result, you can only have an external copy, lacking the real substance required.

All things come in time, and seeing slightly ahead is fine – it gives people something to think about. Too far ahead, and they loose sight of the immediate.

A class near me?

This e-mail is sent by somebody or other almost every week:

"Do you have any classes near where I live? I have looked on your website and can’t see one."

How are you supposed to reply?

Winter in Durham

Brain work

Tai chi is mentally demanding, rather than physical. Concentration is the hardest part.

There is nothing in the syllabus that requires gymnastic abilities. The work is 10% body, 90% mind.

Inherent peng

Inherent peng is a passive connection underpinned by groundpath. It makes your body feel rubbery – kind of firm, yet springy too. It is an allowing, not a doing.

How do you test for inherent peng?

Gently push the limbs or body of a tai chi student. They should maintain the posture without locking the joints or fixing (tensing) the muscles. There will be give, but the overall sense will be of resilience.

If you push too hard, they will yield further and allow your push to move them. They should not crumple or resist.

Nearly every tai chi person you work with tenses-up when you touch them. The ones who don't tense-up, but softly allow you to move them are yielding, and understand.

Is it necessary to stand for long periods of time?

Some qigong teachers expect students to hold static qigong postures for lengthy periods of time; even up to an hour.
This may be a challenge but the side-effect might easily be varicose veins, massive amounts of muscular tension and a decrease in higher level mobility.

Feedback

Great website/database by the way. I love the way it opens up organically as you explore and make progress...
 
 (Robin)

Differentiation

Teacher training offered a variety of focus areas to specialise in. 'Differentiation' was the obvious choice: helping all students to access the curriculum, irrespective of ability.

Differentiation is important in a tai class too. The skilled must be challenged, the strugglers must be assisted, and everyone must make progress at their own pace, and in their own time.

No pressure, no punishment, no flattery. The potential of each person must be drawn out and realised.

No consensus

Some people consider an advanced level of practice to indicate mastery, whilst others do not.

The Tai Chi Union for Great Britain call their basic tai chi chuan instructors 'advanced' and their master grade 'senior'.
The Chinese Wushu Association, National Sport Commission and the Chinese Wushu Research Institute consider 'advanced' to indicate grandmaster.
There is no consensus.

Feedback

Watching sifu with the higher grades it struck me how he uses minimal movement and effort, it makes other martial arts seem very clumsy and disjointed, the more I see the more I am starting to appreciate the beauty behind the tai chi art.

I have on my messenger "There are no ordinary moments! especially in tai chi" and each lesson with you two does not disappoint.

(Damian)

Aiming high?

Peter Southwood maintains that tai chi students often have very high aspirations but very low commitment in terms of training.

Most people make good progress through weekly lessons, and never train at home.

But if your aims are high, you must practice daily. You need an organised routine that covers all the fundamentals. Just don't over-do it.

Our top student attends 14 classes a month and trains an hour a day at home. His practice is not perfect but his understanding is far deeper and ingrained than anybody else's.

Peter Southwood's tips #12 Armed attackers and gangs

Progress onto multiple opponents and weaponry.
You remain unarmed.

Assume nothing.
Expect everything.

"He learned it me"

This statement is a common misconception amongst students.

It is the student that does the learning. They are the ones who must endeavour to learn. Teaching is the process of offering material and then approaching it from a wide variety of perspectives in order to encourage individual understanding, exploration and responsibility.

Responsibility is the main theme here. Until a student is willing to take responsibility for their own wellbeing and progress, they do not learn.

Feedback

I think the shredding of pre-conceived ideas of what 'tai chi' is was very important (and still is) in the early/beginner stages. My health has improved - not just physically - also an increase in general wellbeing. I have a lot of respect for the school and the instructor and the helpers/senior students. It's a joy training with people who have real passion (I don't use the word lightly) for the art and teach it with respect and integrity. As a student you feel privileged to learn. The value of the art is apparent in both the teaching and the learning. There are no illusions about how long the journey of the student will be but one can be confident it will be undertaken in a safe environment.

(Rachel)

Self defence or performance art?

Some people may train pretty forms that work well in combat, but self defence has little to do with looking nice. Self defence is based on pragmatism, whereas performance art is interested in aesthetic appearance.

If you want to develop self defence skills, make self defence your primary concern. Pare away anything that is improbable, exaggerated or flamboyant - train only what you need to. Fans, swords and spears are not viable self defence tools for the 21st Century.

Lose everything that eats up your training time.

The importance of neigong

In our school, the form is just a vehicle for neigong. The postures and shapes of tai chi are a learning tool that trains alignment for application.

What fuels those applications? Neigong.

What softens the shapes into fluid movement? Neigong.

Ego in self defence

Don’t invite a fight, but face it if you have to.

Better to retreat a foot than advance an inch.

(Lao Tzu)

The first line is obvious but the second is more subtle. Lao Tzu is talking about yielding, about letting go of your ego and aggression, of backing down and losing face.

You know that you can fight, so you can walk away in the knowledge that if the assailant forces you to defend yourself, you will. But you would never instigate conflict.

'Advance an inch' refers to the getting-ready process - the telegraphing of your intention. You should be still and silent within, with your body soft and open. Do not prepare to the left or to the right, or your opponent may see it.

S A D

Is there such a thing as Seasonal Affective Disorder?

It would be easy to cultivate January depression:

1. In September, start counting the number of working weeks until Christmas
2. When it is closer to Christmas, count the number of working days
3. Remind yourself daily how close Christmas is
4. In October, start thinking about what you would like for Christmas - perhaps even write a list?
5. Consider who you will buy presents for
6. Plan what you are going to do over Christmas and who you intend to visit
7. Shop for presents
8. Give no real consideration to cost - go into debt when you run out of money
9. Allow your excitement to build and build
10. In December, trim your house and put up a tree

When all the presents are unwrapped and all the food and drink consumed, Christmas is revealed in all its glory: coloured lights, tinsel and wrapping paper. It is a hollow celebration.

January is when the bills arrive.

The chocolate manufacturers are already advertising Easter.

Alternate beauty

Last year we had a student who offered alternate health and beauty treatments for a living.

When she arrived at the class, she looked careworn and tired.
When she left, she looked younger and more vital.
This vitality is part of ‘shen’. tai chi is not a beauty treatment but it does release the muscles and improve wellbeing.

Burn the sofa

If your sofa or armchair does not allow you to sit upright – burn it.

The ‘slouch’ is bad for your spine, collapses the front of the body and creates a condition of depression. With your body crumpled in on itself, the muscles responsible for supporting the spine becomes lazy and weak.

Do not force the spine upright. Simply lengthen from the pelvis to the chin and just relax the spine.

Give your back a chance to support itself.

Sifu & Rachel in Durham

Example instructor (level 1) questions

Question: Who in class will volunteer to help you out?

- how does this tie-in with the taoist insights regarding' te'?

- how does this tie-in with the taoist insights regarding 'being genuine'?

- can you teach a non-volunteer how to be an instructor?

Magic? No. Just physics

The MEA House receptionist (Susan) was amazed to see Brian pitch Eddie clean across the hall yesterday and stood gawping as Eddie picked himself up off the ground.

She had never seen anything like it.

Nature

Excuses

When a student leaves the class, they typically need to justify it to themselves.
Rather than be honest, the individual blames the teacher, the art, the syllabus, the atmosphere.

In most cases, the teacher sees the seeds of their discontent months ahead.

If the student is keen, they are likely to seek out tuition elsewhere.
But this seldom happens.

I love the sound of rain

Movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2uV0_1C4UM

Comparison

Sometimes people have studied a similar system before and use this as a benchmark for comparison; rather than the tai chi classics.

Comparison has some potential flaws: the first is you and your ability to correctly interpret what you are seeing.
With tai chi, what you see is not usually what you get - the whole point of the system is to hide the substance.

If you base your comparison on what you were taught; was the tai chi taught correctly and did you understand what you were taught?

As a beginner you will be shown what you need to see and told what you need to hear.
This will not be the full measure of the syllabus.
You are taught in accordance with your ability to learn.

Syllabus

The student/apprentice must follow a very detailed syllabus that teaches forms, skills, drills, strength and flexibility exercises, along with many insights.

There is a layering of skills: each level furnishing the student with a degree of knowledge and ability.
Each new level assumes understanding and skill garnered from the preceding levels.
Without a strong grasp of each specific layer, the overall standard is weak, and the comprehension and application will be poor indeed.

The layers of the syllabus are interlocking, interconnected and incremental.

Modern tai chi?

The painters today mix their brushes and ink with dust and dirt,
and their colours with mud, and smear the silk in vain.

How can this be called painting?

(Zhang Yenyuan)

Walk like a cat

Have you ever really watched how a cat walks?

Watch a cat walk along a wall...

The cat is very stealthy. The whole body is coiled and ready to move in any direction. There is caution and reserve, but also forward movement.

The cat is never prey to inertia.

Reality

The tai chi system is built upon certain key precepts and these must exist if your class is teaching real tai chi.

If these qualities are missing, then you are not even learning tai chi - regardless of how much you like the class.
Tai chi is not about popularity. It is not about who taught who. It is a martial art and has very clear guidelines for practice.

Not everyone cares for the degree of work required of a martial artist.
When many people start tai chi they imagine that it is an easy option; no work required yet wonderful results.
Life is not like this.

Clean slate

The syllabus is about leaving everything behind.

White belt was like learning a new language. Now you must extend your range.
Your body and mind may resist the unknown but you slowly improve and get the hang of it.

People who reach the end of the beginners syllabus imagine that they have moved on from their bad habits and preconceptions, only to find them alive and well, and hampering their progress.

It is only possible to complete the beginners syllabus when you start to leave bad habits behind.
A person is simply incapable of performing higher level material until the past has been left behind.

For many people, it will be a tough internal trial involving a lot of unnecessary frustration.
Many people quit. In fact most people quit.

Those who make serious progress in our syllabus are not the same people who started it; they have undergone a deep internal change.
Nothing worthwhile is easy.

Consider self defence...

Very few tai chi classes offer a credible self defence syllabus.
Usually it is absolute nonsense that crumples in the face of an earnest attacker, or it is an external parody of tai chi - a ju jitsu/wing chun/karate hybrid.

A tai chi student who is confident in self defence should be able to apply the system in accordance with the nature of tai chi.
No aggression. No tension. No force.
They must be adaptive, sensitive, fluid and imaginative. Above all else, they must be effective.

To learn tai chi properly, you must set your ideas aside and embrace the system.
Until you stop listening to your opinions and your ego, you cannot understand the nature of tai chi.

Patience & faith

Martial arts classes require patience and faith.

If your teacher can perform the skills themselves and is willing to teach them to you, that is enough.
If you have doubts, look at what the more experienced students are doing.
Do they possess skill?

Not all traditional teachers are willing to share the secrets of the art.
If your teacher is sharing their knowledge, be grateful.

Not accountable

As much as you may not like this fact, your teacher is not accountable to you.
They are not answerable.
They do not have to explain their reasons, motives and deeper intentions.

And if they did reply, you may not understand the reply.
Without context, meaning cannot exist.

Modern classes often embrace coaching and mentoring methods rather than the traditional military-style tuition.
But this is not an invitation to treat the lessons casually.

Unlearning bad habits

We teach an 'internal' martial art and follows the teachings of the tai chi classics.
In order to start learning the system, a student must begin by letting-go of postural tension and the desire to use clenched muscles for strength.

For some people this is a gargantuan task because they rely on their arms for strength and do not really want to let-go.
The problem is attitude, as much as body. Being open-minded and receptive is not easy.

Tai chi is a 'soft' martial art.
It maintains a loose connection throughout the body at all times and the muscles never tense.

Question to Sifu Waller re strength

Question: How do I move with strength?

Answer: Start with standing qigong. Ensure that your alignment is accurate. If you can use stand correctly, try moving qigong. Make sure that no inaccuracy occurs. Correct any mistakes. Now, try form. Beyond form, take the structural parameters into gentle partner work and learn about sensitivity. Finally, work on combat.

Sore shoulders

If you get sore shoulders when training your tai chi, look to your elbows.
Drop them.
Let them sink.

Make sure that you are not reaching too far from the body.

Experiment with reach and range.
If you feel anything in the shoulders, you are doing the art incorrectly.

Question to Sifu Waller re designing a syllabus

Question: Your syllabus is so complex yet it all slots together like a jigsaw. How did you design it?

Answer: A martial art cannot be taught piecemeal; it needs a thorough, inter-locking curriculum that builds an increasingly integrated understanding of the art.
It is important to start with the fundamentals; what are you doing and why?
What purpose do the exercises serve?

It is essential to remember to introduce new things incrementally, not haphazardly.

Scientifically 'proving' the worth of each lesson/insight is good practice.
That way, the student has tried various options and recognises why they are being taught material in a particular way.

To design a syllabus you need the benefit of hindsight.
You can see how the apparently separate pieces are all part of a greater puzzle, and you can cultivate connections and associations in the student.
Finally, you must be willing to trim off any superfluity.
If any topic does not connect with everything else, discard it ruthlessly.
Functionality requires integrity.

Tai chi chuan instructors

A tai chi chuan instructor needs at least 10 years of experience and a serious commitment to home practice.
Martial instructors must show clear evidence of ability in all 8 areas of skill.

An expert has 20 years study and 10,000 hours of practice.

A master should have 30-40 years martial arts experience, with at least 30,000 hours of tai chi practice.
They are capable of teaching other instructors.

A grandmaster must have taught an extensive number of high-level instructors.
They would be in a position of significant responsibility within a school and have influence within the wider tai chi/martial arts community.