Corrections

Form is not easy

Tai chi chuan form is often portrayed as being easy to learn. This is a common misconception.

It is important not to think of tai chi chuan form in terms of external kata.
Kata and form are ultimately not the same thing.
Form teaches 'a way of moving'. A style of using your body. A habit.

A kata is considered 'correct' if it looks accurate and crisp.
This is not the case with a tai chi chuan form.
A form must be performed in a relaxed manner, with attention to how the power is being generated.
Every movement must contain peng, and would be completely useless without it.
A comprehensive understanding of how to apply every nuance of form is necessary for true understanding.

Practice & patience

Two things hamper students:

1. Failure to practice
2. Lack of patience

How much you practice is your concern.
Everyone is different.
Just be aware that class attendance, home training and taking advantage of all training opportunities will affect progress.

Patience is an underrated virtue in modern society.
However, you cannot suddenly become skilled at anything complex without long-term study and commitment.

The steady, patient student makes strong progress and feels the rewards of their practice.

Internal strength

An unfortunate by-product of 'internal strength' is that Sifu has only a vague idea of whether he's hurting someone or not. He always applies things cautiously and gently - seeking to avoid inflicting unnecessary discomfort.

 

Sensitivity aside, people are different. What is ok for one person is painful for another. Add to this the fact that students quite often pretend to be ok when in reality they're hurting... So Sifu thinks it isn't working and does it harder...

Techniques

The danger with learning specific chin na applications is that you may come to see them as techniques.
This is not the approach advocated by Master Waller.
Techniques have their place as a learning tool but are not a good approach to use in actual self defence.

A technique involves a series of steps employed against a particular attack.
Should your opponent deviate from the anticipated course of action, a technique could easily fail.

PE in school

Some school children enjoy sport and get a lot out of PE.
A lot of people do not enjoy sport.
PE lessons in school are taught as though sport was the same thing as physical education. But this is ridiculous.

Physical education is about learning how to use your body. You do not need a PE kit to be taught biomechanics.
Understanding correct body use will improve your quality of life.

Who taught you how to use your body?

This is a reasonable question, and most people could not give a decent answer.
Did anyone teach you:

1. Timing
2. Balance
3. Rhythm
4. Footwork
5. Biofeedback
6. Coordination
7. Biomechanics
8. Proprioception
9. Mind/body unity
10. Optimal body use
11. Kinaesthetic awareness
12. How your muscles work
13. Healthy skeletal alignment
14. Ambidextrous use of the limbs
15. How and why to relax your body

Your parents probably did not teach this to you.

School did not teach it either.
PE or physical education in school translates to mean 'sport' and sport is not teaching you how to use the body.

Relax

The human skeleton can easily be aligned in a manner that works constructively with gravity.
Gravity is useful.
Rather than fight against gravity or crumple, we want our bodies to feel light, mobile and strong.

We want to transfer body weight when we interact with a partner/opponent.
Relaxed muscles are heavier than tense ones.
Relaxed joints enable the body to sink and settle; thus creating more stability and an increased ability to transmit power through the entirety of the body.

More than you expect

It is a mistake to think that we are 'fighting' or merely engaged in combat training.
We are undertaking something far more significant and meaningful.

To understand our training you must gain a more profound understanding of existence.

Tai chi chuan and baguazhang students are required by their art to see a different world.
A major cognitive shift is necessary.
Everything changes.

A new you

When you build strength using internal exercises, there is none of the strain associated with other forms of exercise.

The workout gradually becomes more challenging as you progress.
Each stage increases your suppleness, flexibility, joint strength and awareness.

Students commonly remark that their body feels completely different after a few short months of practice.

Misunderstanding

Having obtained perhaps one or two belts, students quit.
They leave with the mistaken impression that they know far more than they do about the art they are studying.

In truth, even after several belts, knowledge remains superficial.

Most martial arts feature approximately 10 coloured belts.
These serve to lay the most simplistic foundation for the training to come.
They cover the basics, and nothing more than that.

To imagine that a beginner is anything more than a 'beginner' is incredibly naive.

Black belt does not mean 'instructor'

Gaining a black belt does not mean that you are ready to teach. Not at all.
There are 10 dan belts to pass in our syllabus.

Being an instructor is altogether different to simply attending classes. Not every black belt student is capable of being an instructor.

Sport

Various sport activities emphasize strength, endurance and speed. Development of muscle control rather than skeletal balance takes precedence. Gaining speed at the expense of mounting tension, is too often the goal.

 (Liz Koch)

Does Master Waller have any indoor students?

Only his wife.

Curiosity

One of things that characterize the most mentally healthy among us is their great taste for mystery and their profound curiosity.
 
  (M Scott Peck)

How can I become an instructor?

We welcome anyone who wants to become a tai chi instructor.

You need to be an excellent communicator and to be genuinely interested in other people and their wellbeing.

Begin well

Look at the requirements for each belt and work towards gaining those skills.
Become responsible for your own progress.
What do you need to do to make it happen?

Set realistic learning goals, such as acquiring one new movement, exercise or skill each week.
Make sure that you are diligent.
But be careful not to force yourself.

Determine how much time each day you can manage to train.
Be realistic.

Aim to read a webpage, a page from a tai chi book each day.
Get into new habits of learning.

Mindful behaviour

Mindful behaviour is considerate.
It is not phoney or contrived; it involves taking responsibility for your own conduct and being sensitive to the consequences of your actions.
This is accomplished through intuition rather than planning or psychology. 
Total immersion in the moment enables a person to act without thinking, to move without hesitation and to choose without seeming to.

To be mindful, your attention must cease to be directed upon yourself.
It must face outward and feel the nature of your relationship with everything else.
You move as one with those around you; there is no division between you and another.

Last night @ Hatton Gallery

We met some really nice, friendly, enthusiastic people at Hatton Gallery last night.
People came and trained with us for as long as they wanted.

All manner of skills were introduced at a basic level.

Marc and Andy did a great job helping out.

Hatton Gallery - Saturday 19 May only, 7 - 11pm

Slow down and relax!

Take a moment from the bustle of The Late Shows and chill out at the Hatton Gallery.

Help to create an origami installation, watch a slow-motion dance performance evolve during the evening, have a go at tai chi, or enjoy a few healthy drinks from the Thérapy Bar.

http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/hatton/news/the-late-shows/

Tai chi tasters @ Hatton Gallery

The Hatton Gallery in Newcastle are offering an event on the evening of 19th May as part of the Late Shows 2012 (www.thelateshows.org.uk).

The Late Shows take place across a series of venues, and the idea is that people spend around 20 minutes at each venue before moving on to the next. The theme, in contrast to the Olympics, is 'As Slow as Possible'.

The Hatton Gallery plan to include a slow motion dance performance, an origami artist, and a tai chi demonstration.

10 minute tai chi taster sessions available: 7:30 - 10:30 PM.

http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/hatton/

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&safe=off&ie=UTF-8&q=hatton+gallery&fb=1&gl=uk&hq=hatton+gallery&hnear=hatton+gallery&cid=0,0,16801065053691983608&ei=8hmyT8TdMoGf0QWgxNSLCQ&oi=local_result&sqi=2&ved=0CAkQ_BIwAA

Advanced

Advanced level practice signifies the completion of the external to internal journey, but not the end of the training itself.
There may be no new forms, exercises or drills to learn, but the process of learning does continue.

The tai chi now looks far less obvious. Everything is subtle and understated.

Expert (higher dan)

An expert must work through 3 dan belts with the aim of internalising their tai chi.
These difficult grades require an immense amount of practice, culminating in the student passing the 10,000 hours of practice threshold.
Only after 10,000 hours can the student potentially lay claim to being an 'expert'.
Again, there are no shortcuts.

Now, the body should be integrated, flowing, and be moving in accord with the internal principles at all times.

Experienced (lower dan)

The first 3 black belt belts require the student to show a developing degree of internal progress.
New forms are learned, along with applications and more in-depth principles.
Neigong is now explored deliberately and consciously.

The student is still largely external at this stage but is making notable inroads towards the internal.

Beginners

The 10 coloured belts are primarily concerned with starting the journey from external to internal.
Students are usually very external in their attitudes and body use.

Rare moments of internal skill may emerge as their practice continues, but no beginner can claim to possess a comprehensive grasp of the internal at this stage in their learning.

Sifu on the beach

Sifu in London

Collecting forms

Form collecting is a modern habit which arises when a student is unwilling to commit the necessary practice and patience to mastering one style of tai chi.
In short, the student gets bored.

A form is a complete record and repository of the system.
It contains every strategy, skill, movement required to gain a good sense of the art.

Stylised

Some schools stylise the form in order to aid learning.
Unfortunately, this can lead to long-term mistakes and misconceptions.

We do not stylise any form movements.

Slow down

It is necessary to slow down in order to see what is happening in our lives, with our bodies, with our thoughts.
Many of the tai chi chuan exercises are performed slowly in order to increase awareness.
We learn to notice the hidden, the small, the subtle.

On the Tube

London

Sifu in London

Other forms

We teach a number of forms derived from the Yang Cheng Fu form:

1. Sabre form
2. 2 person cane form/drill
3. Staff form
4. Walking stick form
5. Pao chui form
6. Straight sword form 

For strength or for combat?

Different schools teach tai chi chuan in different ways, and the purpose of the form changes relative to each school's agenda.
Low stances and long stances are commonplace.
These postures indicate that the form is being used to develop strength, and that combat skills are trained separately (if at all).

Master Waller's form is practiced for combat. The postures are exactly the same as the self defence movements. 
Strength and combat are trained simultaneously.

3 years of basics

Traditionally, at least three years of dedicated training were required before a student could be considered to have acquired a rudimentary knowledge of tai chi skills.

(Zhang Yun)

Training opportunities

We offer a lot of training opportunities for our students.
Whether or not people avail themselves is really down to the individual.

If you simply want to attend weekly and do no practice at home, that is fine. Just recognise that progress will be slow.

Barny in suit

Is it new?

When I first started training with Sifu, I found that he periodically gave students glimpses of what I thought was 'new' material: bagua, sword, sticks etc.

Years later, I now know that most of the syllabus is dan-level and never revealed to beginners by Sifu. The unfamilar things we are occasionally shown are not new material. They are glimpses of the syllabus that lies way beyond our understanding.

Peter Southwood taught the same way. Nobody really knew what Peter knew because he didn't advertise his skills or share things readily. To see, you must earn the knowledge. Through hard work and patient practice.

Sifu never demonstrates on cue. He's not a performer. Occasionally, he'll indulge the keener student, but usually he wants people to keep their mind on the work at hand.

5 stages

There are 5 stages to learning any form:

(i) The pattern

The outline, the sequence of movements.
This stage of learning is often called 'the square form' because it is crude and largely inaccurate.
The form is practiced slowly.

Unfortunately, most tai chi people only learn the first stage, and remain a perpetual beginner.
Neglecting the remaining stages leaves the form meaningless and empty.


(ii) Internal strength

Internal biomechanical concerns are incorporated.
The way in which the body is used is now the concern.
Every single movement is imbued with internal strength.

An understanding of The Way and Its Power, the tai chi classics and taoism is necessary.


(iii) Application

Traditionally, it is said that there are at least seven applications for every form posture.
There are three types of martial application within form: chin na, jing and shuai jiao.
Competence in all three areas of skill is required.
A student must be capable of skilfully applying the form in a thorough and convincing way against an earnest attacker.

Applications must adhere to the tai chi principles (4 ounces of pressure, softness, stickiness, yielding, peng etc).


(iv) Shen

Shen is a vitality that can be seen shining through a person; it enlivens the body and refreshes the mind.
The eyes look expressive and alert.

For 'shen' to manifest, a person must lose all self-consciousness.
There is no more self or other, just movement, just sensation/feeling.
Instead of feeling apart from what is happening, we feel the physics of the movement, the kinetic flow.


(v) Natural

Instead of glossy, flamboyant, outward show, the attention turns inward.
The tai chi is not ornate.
It is simple, direct, flowing and natural.
Within the slow spirals, curves and gentle steps can be found a grace that is difficult to articulate.

Training sessions

If you attended lessons for 4 years, but did no home training, how much practice have you done?

Assume that you attended 45 lessons a year: 45 x 4 = 180 training sessions.
This is the equivalent of 6 months daily home training.

Weapons night

Students are given the option of learning weapons after passing their second belt.
Weapons training helps to increase strength, flexibility and coordination.
It improves the ability to use either hand.

Rubber-coated sticks are required for partner exercises.

If a student wants to learn broadsword drills they will need to bring their own sword.

Ambidexterity

All weapons must be trained equally with each hand, whether drills, form or partner work.

What good is a weapon if you can only use it with one hand?

Mirroring the form

Traditional tai chi forms are asymmetrical; favouring the right-handed person.
They do not offer a balanced workout.
In order to balance the body the form must be mirrored.

Our students mirror every form in the syllabus except pao chui.

Recipe

It is common for a student to ask for more and more detail.
They want web pages that explain every nuance and subtlety, that elaborate upon each minutiae of practice.
Essentially, they want you to give the art to them. It does not and cannot work this way.

If students cannot remember what they have been taught, they should make their own notes in lessons rather than ask the instructor for them.

Movement

Most people have seen groups of tai chi students moving together in a dance-like sequence.
This is referred to as 'form'.
The definition of the word 'form' is: "shape, appearance, the way in which a thing exists".

Form is one long sequence in which the body explores a variety of different movement patterns.

Mind

Yang Cheng Fu advocated using mind rather than force, and this sentiment lies at the heart of what we practice.
Clarity, composure, inner stillness and calm enable the student to be present at all times.
The focus is upon the essence of things.
To quote the taoist maxim: "eat the fruit, not the flower."

A mind that is here and now is better capable of responding to the needs of the moment appropriately and effectively.
To complement the mind, the form taken must be natural and easy, fluid and restrained.
The aim is to go from a neutral state, to action, to neutral again; without disturbing the inner harmony.

Traditional ethos

I do not enlighten those who are not eager to learn, nor arouse those who are not quick to give an explanation themselves.

If I have presented one corner of the square and they cannot come back to me with the other three, I should not go over the points again.

(Confucius)

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 and 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.

Compact

The movements we use are motivated by neigong considerations and martial application.
Students are not permitted to lean, reach or over-commit.
Disconnection is unacceptable.
Tension is unnecessary.

The postures are natural, comfortable and useable.
Nothing is exaggerated, stylised or awkward.

Small circle movements are favoured over sweeping ones.
Students are required to use jing rather than li.

Stick drill - number 7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEUpskKm4IQ

Simplicity

At the root of finding balance in your life is a commitment to simplicity.
When things become ornate, over-complicated and embellished, they lose their essence.
Tai chi chuan is about getting in touch with the real: what is right in front of you.

The extraneous is removed, and the material is pared-down to only what you need.
To what matters.

When you have the essentials, there is economy. You are not burdened by the superfluous.

An alternative

A lot of Western people start the day by smoking a cigarette, listening to the radio/watching TV, reading a newspaper and having a cup of coffee.

Tai chi chuan offers an alternative.
Instead of feeling groggy and tired in a morning, you feel invigorated, relaxed, alert, calm and clear-headed.
You start the day from a position of strength, rather than weakness.

Stuffy?

There can be something rather stuffy about tai chi chuan people gliding around a hall in slow motion.
The slow motion form is only one aspect of the curriculum yet it has become the most easily recognised symbol of tai chi chuan.

Beginners occasionally take themselves and their tai chi chuan far too seriously. It is important to have fun.
Master Waller does not allow any posing or showing off.

Out of joint

Modern life is filled with distractions that distort your perception of reality and make you feel strung out and tired.
Television, computers, junk food, noisy neighbours, work, videogames, mobile phones, driving and family problems can all make you feel unhappy and agitated.

It is important to find ways to earth yourself. To be centred once again and complete.

To find stillness and quiet. To rest. To stop. Exotic practices are not required.
You do not need to join some esoteric meditation group.
You can find tranquillity and balance without even leaving your house.

Improved nervous system

As the practitioner incorporates the quality of tai chi movement into his life, he finds that he stops banging into things. The result of not falling into each step provides the opportunity to instantaneously ease back from unexpected barriers.
 
  (Wolfe Lowenthal)

Weapons forms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BKPeM2PS9M

Beginner

Beginners must have knowledge of the basic 16 qigong exercises, along with the initial partnered drills.
There is limited martial training.

The emphasis is upon improved coordination, relaxation and a grasp of the rudimentary theoretical considerations.

Weapons work in our curriculum

Master Waller is currently teaching:

· Knife drills
· Countering a knife
· Escapes/knife
· Chin na against a knife
· Improvised weaponry/knife
· Small stick drills
· Stick drills
· Broadsword drills
· 2 person cane form/drill
· Sabre form
· Staff form
· Walking stick form
· Straight sword form

Some of this training is suitable for tai chi for health & fitness students.

Training together

It can be great fun for a couple to attend tai chi chuan classes together.
Freed from the daily cares of your lives, you can spend time with one another whilst engaged in a productive activity.

As well as relaxing and having a laugh in class, there is always the possibility of practicing at home between lessons.

Theory and manifestation

When you learn anything, there are always two aspects to the learning. One is the internal theoretical understanding of the matter, and the other is the manifestation, verification and/or the application of the theory. From theory, you gain internal comprehension. From applications, you verify and validate the usefulness of the theory. Both of these aspects mutually support each other.

 (Yang Jwing-Ming)

Aaron

Jerrard

Grading

Students are corrected in class during the course of an ordinary lesson but this is not in-depth.
More detailed assessment is necessary.

In order to encourage progress, we grade our students every 12 weeks.
The instructor works one-to-one with each student; offering insights, corrections, tips & pointers.
Being assessed in this way is tremendously beneficial.
The student has many new considerations to work on and they can see what their owns strengths and weaknesses are.

Movement through the grades is quite slow in the internal arts.
The required quality is high.
Patience and practice will assure steady progress.

Stephen

Jill

Programming

You have also been programmed not to suspect, not to doubt,

just to trust the assumptions that have been put into you by your tradition,

your culture, your society, your religion.

And if you are not happy, you have been trained to blame yourself,

not your programming, not your cultural, and inherited ideas and beliefs.

What makes it even worse is the fact that most people are so brainwashed

that they do not even realize how unhappy they are

- like the man in a dream who has no idea he is dreaming.

(Anthony De Mello)

Inner demons

Whilst it is appropriate to be concerned about the emergence of aggression in your practice, be aware that we all possess 'good' and 'bad' aspects of our nature. It is part of what makes us human.

Do not let the unpleasant insight weigh too heavily upon you. Learn from the experience. Have awareness.

But do not be too hard on yourself. Just be careful. That's all.

Any martial art worth learning involves risks, dangers and opportunities to come face to face with our inner demons. What matters is not the demons themselves but how we choose to cope with them.

Harmony

When you become one with your tai chi chuan and tao, things will happen that you cannot readily explain.
These are not supernatural events.
By removing the barriers between yourself and everything else, you move in rhythm with the universe and benefit from this harmony.

Why bother learning an internal art?

Why bother learning an internal art?

There is more to life than buying goods, eating, sleeping, drinking alcohol and watching TV.
You are more than this.

Tai chi chuan and baguazhang train your body and mind to move in a graceful, natural, healthy, functional way.
Strength, flexibility, vitality and good humour typically emerge.
Greater harmony and balance is found.

You look at life a little differently.

Mutually destructive

Every martial artist seeks to defeat their opponent in combat.
But at what price?

Blocking, struggling, forcing, striking a balanced opponent... these are also harmful to your own body.
In defeating your opponent you may also harm yourself.

If defending your own body results in injury to your body, is this success?
Have you not failed in your intention?

Bruises, sprains, stiffness, soreness, cuts and damage are all bad for you.

Paul

High stance, small circle

The highest level of tai chi chuan practice is high stance and small circle. In high stance and small circle you can conserve your energy to a maximum level. This is very crucial in battle. Endurance has always been the crucial key to survival in a long battle. Moreover, due to high stance and smaller posture you can reach to the deepest relaxed stage, the mind is highly concentrated, and the sensitivity and alertness can be extremely sharp.

 (Yang Jwing-Ming)

Defensive?

People are typically very guarded and defensive. They hide behind pretty solid walls.

These defensive measures are what make people tense and jittery. They represent a conflictive response to adverse conditions.

Instead of joining, blending, accepting, the individual objects, blocks and fights. This is not the tai chi chuan way.

Understanding the relationship

You sought the instructor. The instructor did not seek you.
It is important to remember this.

The student is not a client or a customer.
They are an 'apprentice' and the teacher is the 'master'.

Corrections

Make your mistakes in class rather than the street. The class is a safe, controlled environment. The street is not.

Learn from your corrections and be spared pain in real life confrontation.

Learn from everything

Taoism is not a philosophy or a religion.

It is about learning from everything.

Presence

Ed Parker says, "The only reason men fight is because they are insecure; one man needs to prove that he is better or stronger than another. The man who is secure within himself has no need to prove anything with force, so he can walk away from a fight with dignity and pride. He is the true martial artist - a man so strong inside that he has no need to demonstrate his power."

 The Chinese word for this kind of confidence is 'sai', which can be defined as 'presence'.

 (Joe Hyams)

Yu-chun on retreat

Yu-chun is going on a 6 month meditation retreat to South Africa. She will be returning to class in the Autumn.

 Dear Sifu,

I feel very lucky to have found your school and have had the opportunity to be your student.

I really do enjoy all the lessons and learning about the art. I know what I have learnt from you will always stay with me.

Thank you Sifu for your generosity and the passion you put into teaching.

Warmest wishes for the coming months and the future.

(Yu-chun)

Marc

Feedback

Good morning Rachel,

I just wanted to again express my thanks to you for inviting me into your home and to Sifu a truly inspiring workshop. I can say that it was one of the most educational and enjoyable workshops I have ever attended, and I've been doing martial arts since I was 15!

Please pass on my thanks to Sifu for allowing me to attend even though I am ungraded, I really appreciated the opportunity.

(Graham)

Feedback

I have trained with many instructors including yourself where I know that I want what they have.

However, you have a training method that works and have students with real abilities. This is very rare in the internal arts.

(Tim)

Valentine?

Zen Master Unmon said: "The world is vast and wide. Why do you put on your robes at the sound of a bell?"

(Koan)

Conventions and traditions encourage a formulaic response to reality. By their very nature they lack spontaneity and genuine feeling.

Valentine's Day is an exercise in kitsch.

The sale of cards, chocolate and flowers have made Valentine's Day a marketing triumph.
How much money is spent of token items intended to express genuine love and affection?

If you love your husband/wife, partner, friend... then you should show this all year round.
Do not simply go through the motions one day each year.
Do not perform the empty ritual because it is expected of you.

Where is the passion? Where is the life?

Teaching

In order to teach any subject, an instructor needs certain requirements:

1. Subject knowledge
2. Teaching skills
3. A goal
4. A syllabus
5. Topics
6. Discrete lessons
7. Proof

An expert must have at least 10,000 hours of practice behind them.
Dr. K. Anders Ericsson found that this was true of any art; whether tai chi chuan, dancing or playing the piano.

Warm wife

Form, but no substance

A tai chi chuan class should offer you a system of exercise (and self defence) that builds your strength and skill, gently and consistently.
It should also balance body, mind and emotions.

In order to fully understand the tai chi chuan, the instructor must possess an in-depth martial understanding of the art.
Mere theory is insufficient.
Self defence tips & pointers are plain useless.
There needs to be a fully comprehensive working knowledge of the system, and the capacity to use it spontaneously.

As a student, you may not care for self defence at all. This is fine. Not everyone wants martial skills.
But the instructor is different.
An instructor cannot afford to have huge gaps in their understanding.
What the instructor does not know, they may assume or omit. This can be a dangerous and foolhardy approach to take.

Concentrate

The word 'concentrate' means to enrich, to make more rich in essence.
This can be a very good thing. It can lead to significant refinement.

But it also refers to the process of focussing on one thing at the exclusion of all else.
This is not always a good thing.

Tea Sutra in Newcastle

Self defence classes

A lot of people go to martial arts classes in order to learn self defence. They want to avoid violence and look after themselves.

There are quite a few ‘serious’ martial arts classes available in the UK where the training is so realistic that you actually get assaulted. You may learn great skills but the whole point in attending was to avoid being attacked…

Other classes promise self defence and offer nothing of tangible value.

Children in a playground ‘rough each other up’ without any animosity, fear or pain. It is just fun.

Our school looks at self defence as play. If adults can adopt a playful, exploratory attitude, they can develop practical useable skills without getting hurt or memorizing fixed responses.

Good martial arts classes of any style should be able to offer a practical syllabus without brutalizing students or giving them empty skills.

You hide your skills well...

Your tai chi chuan skills cannot be hidden from others, for they should be part of your everyday movement, your everyday being.

We walk, and our religion is shown (even to the dullest and most insensitive person) in how we walk. Or to put it more accurately, living in this world means choosing, choosing to walk, and the way we choose to walk is infallibly and perfectly expressed in the walk itself. Nothing can disguise it. The walk of an ordinary man and of an enlightened man are as different as that of a snake and a giraffe.

(R H Blyth)

If your internal skills are not evident when you work with other people, you should question whether they exist at all. The absolute necessity of partner work is irrefutable.

Partner work separates those who practice tai chi chuan from those who do not.

Natural responses

If you simply follow drills and deliberate patterns, there is no way to gauge what will emerge in reality. Random attacks - incorporating a variety of punches, kicks and grapples - test your ability to respond spontaneously.

The exercise should be playful and fun, but the attacker must strike with the intention of making contact.

Afterwards, you look at areas of weakness and doubt. Focus upon the gaps and deficiencies: consider what you did wrong, why it didn't work and what you need to do in order to improve your response. Your partner should help you with this, along with your teacher (if required).