Business address

Newcastle Tai Chi
St Andrew's Church
Station Road
Benton
NE12 8AW
0750 3604568
http://www.newcastletaichi.co.uk
newcastletaichi@hotmail.com

Common misconceptions

Beginners seldom express wardoff internally.

Most students manifest the physical shape of wardoff without the internal energetic quality that makes it a jing.

Common misconceptions:

1. stiff block
   - fundamental error in perception
   
2. immovable
   - yielding is paramount. Without it, there is no taijiquan
   - strength vs strength is not taijiquan
   
3. tension used rather than connection/groundpath
   - beginners-level error
   
4. rigid legs, only turning hips
   - external attitude
   - stance too low
   
5. not using bow stance
   - posture lacks 5 bows
   
6. use of arms and shoulders
   - unite upper & lower timing sequence lacking
   - wardoff is not being produced by spiralling & rippling
   - power must rise up from the ground

You hide your skills well...

Your taijiquan 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 taijiquan from those who do not.

The necessary balance

A taijiquan student needs to concentrate in some respects, and be unselfconscious in other regards.

Both facets of this requirement are addressed through the act of playfulness.