Partial artists

As an instructor, it is disappointing when students start lessons wanting to learn a martial art and never get past the beginners qigong class.

Everyone can learn the basic exercises if they commit time, effort and patience to the task.

Conditioning the body

We can address balance and connection once the muscles soften, the joints relax and the body opens. The psoas muscle needs to lengthen naturally; this will aid in strengthening the body without tension, as well as providing stability.

Qigong and neigong serve to internally work and support the body as you perform tai chi. From this foundation, you learn how to move in a tai chi way.
The form and self defence training exercises explore this unique way of moving.

Each new exercise offers an opportunity for you to increase your physical awareness. It is an inward journey of subtlety and relationship. The conditioning and awareness training encourages your mind to soften and your body to grow in new ways.

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.

Arrogance

It is quite common for people to attend a tai chi class and never return. This is alright; tai chi is not for everyone.

New starters also imagine that they can gauge the teacher's ability and understand the syllabus after just one lesson. This is absurdly naive and somewhat arrogant. 

Imagine watching a movie such as Project Hail Mary for the first time... If you switch it off during the title sequence, can you honestly claim to have the remotest grasp of the film? You need to see it through to the very end to do that. Having watched the film, you may understand the plot but can you say how it was made, why it worked and be capable of making it yourself? There is clearly much more to a film than the final product that you see onscreen. 

A tai chi syllabus is a complex journey of physical practice and psychological change, and only the most dedicated student will ever reach a stage where it makes sense to them.

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."

(Proverb)

Tai chi classes

Not all classes are the same.

We recognise that ours is a little different from the mainstream. Rather than simply perpetuate an unthinking approach to tai chi, we encourage students to engage with the art, to be creative and to ask questions.

Western people often complain that tai chi stances hurt their knees or that self defence does not work. It is important to address these and other concerns.
Perpetuating potentially harmful traditions is not smart at all. Sifu Waller encourages a forum for discovery.

New starters

Experience a 2-week introduction any Monday night except bank holidays.

Martial skill

Judo, ju jitsu, karate and wing chun will reward the dedicated person with some degree of martial skill in a reasonable amount of time. The internal arts are not quite the same; the time commitment is longer and the expectations differ.

It is not enough to evade, grapple, punch and kick. How you do it matters more than the application itself.

In taijiquan, the skills must be applied without using localised strength, aggression or any loss of composure. This is not easy.

Touch

For our tai chi students, nothing is better than working with the teacher directly. You feel how they move, how softly they make contact and how little effort takes place. This is an invaluable experience.

Your teacher offers you a physical illustration of what is to come. They should embody the very characteristics and qualities you are currently working towards. Without working 'hands on', this understanding is not possible.

Why is the root of wisdom so deep?

Because it must be planted in our lives.

The road to the precious capital is not for the inattentive.

(Loy Ching-Yuen)

Not so easy

The martial art of tai chi is comprised of physically easy movements that do not tax or strain the body. Anyone could perform them in theory. 

In practice, tai chi is quite hard work. The easy-seeming movements are actually very subtle, and require good coordination, timing, rhythm and balance.

Copying the outer appearance of tai chi is not sufficient. What matters in tai chi is the internal, the substance - the things that are not so easily seen.

 The enigmatic nature of the Tao Te Ching is due fundamentally to Lao Tzu's realisation that we make sense of living by entering it directly, not by trying to understand it as detached observers.

We cannot escape ourselves. To use a Zen metaphor, the sword cannot cut itself. Neither can we make sense of living through a haze of intellectual constructs; living is larger and more elusive than the systems we invent to explain it. So we never quite understand ourselves and the universe in which we live. The Tao is the freedom that comes with not-understanding.

(Ray Grigg) 

As you like it

If your personal commitments are such that you cannot (or do not want to) put a lot of time and effort into your tai chi, that is fine. You must do what feels right for you and your lifestyle.

People all get something different from the art.

Take it easy. Do what you can. Do what suits you. And let the art unfold at its own pace.

Old & young

The Tai Chi Classics tell us that an old man defeats a gang of youths. But he cannot be using strength. So how does he do it? A young, fit person can tense their muscles and force a result.

An old man cannot. He must rely upon:

1. The quality and effect of his touch (jing)
2. Whole-body strength (neigong)
3. Alignment (qigong and form)
4. His capacity to respond appropriately (combat)
5. Timing, positioning, rhythm

As you grow old, your external strength will drain away. Whole-body strength does not fade in quite the same way.

With understanding, and the correct application of the tai chi principles, you can hope to maintain a level of fitness and martial competence well into old age.

A tai chi person must behave as though they had the limited strength of an old person, and rely upon the internal rather than the external.

Understand

You must never resort to force or brute strength. The moment you start to tense your muscles, your whole-body strength is gone.

A lower level student has difficulty coming to terms with the nature of whole-body strength.

The reason why you train it for years is so that you do not have to consciously apply strength when you need it. Whole-body strength is inherent; it is there all the time.

If something never comes or goes, why would you need to deliberately summon strength?

Until you understand this for yourself and have the faith that comes from pressure-testing your whole-body strength, you will remain a beginner.

Falling into the well

Letting go of your old habits and trusting that whole-body strength is present requires a leap of faith. You must simply move and then evaluate the consequences later. How do you do it?

There is no doing. It is like the koan: When you can do nothing, what can you do?

Whole-body strength will be there when you stop all the doing, all the preparation, anticipation, the physical and psychological tension.

The doing was all the work that developed your whole-body strength. Like ingredients used to bake a cake.

To apply whole-body strength, you must simply relax and move as softly as you can - using the whole-body.

Being soft and gentle is the key - the less effort you make, the more whole-body strength will emerge.

 Those who use force soon exhaust themselves.

And what can be accomplished with exhaustion and struggle?

But those who follow Tao become one with the Tao.

Because they move with the world, they become one with the force of its moving.

Because they are one with the world, great things easily happen.

Therefore, those who trust the Way of the world are empowered by the world.

(Lao Tzu)

Ghost walking?

In Asia, ghosts are depicted as having no feet. They float. A tai chi student cannot float but their sense of being 'suspended from above' should feel as if they do.

Asian ghosts don't have heavy footfalls. In fact they make no sound on the ground at all.

Many people have very loud steps. Concussive. Vibrational. Loud. This indicates weak, collapsed muscles. They have succumbed to the pull of gravity...

Instead, we must lengthen upwards and be light and silent. Like the old Kung Fu TV show where Kwai Chang Caine must walk on rice paper without tearing it?

Our next induction course is Monday 7th September.

New starters are welcome!