Chuang Tzu

Viewing Tai Chi as a complete system which needs to incorporate the ways of thinking evident in Taoism and Zen with internal features of form and martial applications is key. Indeed, since starting with the class as well as ‘re-training’ the body to effectively transfer energy, relax, yield and the like; retraining the mind with a more ‘here and now focus’ and by not forcing the physical or the mental has been beneficial to my health. Reading text such as Merton’s and other exercises like the questionnaires compliment form, qigong and application studied in class. This has been emphasised recently by Master Waller where this aspect of the study is essential and informs internal aspects of the art.

(Dr Leigh Riby)

4 ounces

Unless you yield when pushed or pulled, you violate the 4 ounces of pressure maxim.
Bracing presents the opponent with a surface with which to apply force.

When your partner exerts force, allow that force to move you and do not fight against it.

Forms and drills

Forms and drills teach habit patterns.

A new starter moves in a random, unpredictable, unfocussed way which is not economical or powerful.
Sloppy, undisciplined body use is careless and can lead to injury.
Martially, it is unsound.

Form corrects this by training you how to move differently.

Fitness

I realised fitness is the bedrock of a fighter's ability. It breeds confidence, determination and fighting spirit., which can make a huge difference. These simple things can compensate for some lack of technical ability.

 (Goran Powell)

Pattern of movements

A form is comprised of patterns of movement known as 'postures'.

The term 'posture' is actually very misleading because it suggests a static condition.
It is a mis-translation.
In the 1960's when tai chi chuan was emerging in the West, yoga was very popular and tai chi chuan was mistakenly perceived as being "moving yoga".
Yoga features postures, and tai chi chuan was seen to be similar.

Many tai chi chuan practitioners still think of the art as being akin to yoga.
They are concerned about the end position rather than the entirety of the movement itself.
This constitutes a major error in perception and practice.

Yield to force

Instead of bracing when pulled, you yield and go with the pull.
When pushed, yield and go with the push.

This follows Newton's 3rd Law of Motion.

Self defence

The real test of your understanding lies in your ability to apply the art in a thorough and convincing manner against a diverse and varied range of attacks.

It is difficult to remain connected, relaxed and composed if the internal way of moving is not ingrained and intrinsic.

It doesn't make sense...

Why do you expect it to?

This is what learning means.
You are being exposed to the unfamiliar. Challenged by the unknown.

Persevere.
Try it again. And again. And again.
Make reference to the website, to class, to books, to your own experiences and insights.

Bracing

'Bracing' is about making your structure feel stronger:
- if pulled; the student seeks to feed the force into the front leg and thereby gain stability
- if pushed; the student uses the rear leg for support 

Neither of these methods are correct practice for tai chi chuan or baguazhang.

Partnered exercises

Training partnered exercises enables the student to determine whether or not they are employing the principles correctly and effectively.
Inappropriate body use becomes immediately apparent when working with a partner.

No fixed application

Fixed applications serve only to introduce the kind of skills possible within the art.
It is essential that the student avoid reducing the applications to mere techniques.

The 70 applications are not something to be selected during combat.
You just move... and something comes out.

Thinking makes you slow.
Instead of paying attention to what is happening, your mind is reflecting upon memories, options, opinions... the past.

3 belts for beginners

There are 3 coloured belts offered to beginners:

1. White
2. Yellow
3. Orange

Fitness

I was thankful for my fitness. I was beginning to realise how important it really was. It could make the difference between getting away relatively unscathed or getting seriously hurt. If you're unfit, you can easily end up at the mercy of your opponent. If you're sparring you might get a battering.

 (Goran Powell)

Weapons

Weapons forms and drills require the student to take all of their existing knowledge and utilise those skills when wielding a weapon.
This may sound easy, however, extending your peng through the weapon is difficult.

Practicing a weapons form in a martially-viable manner is another consideration entirely.

Form application

Once a student is capable of performing all 70 basic applications, they must turn their attention to the forms.
Not only can countless shuai jiao and chin na applications be found in the forms, but jing expressions also.
The student must study every movement and develop at least 7 applications per posture.
These must adhere strictly to the tai chi principles.

The 70 beginners applications attune the brain to see possibilities within movements, relationships, positioning and angles.
Instead of moving through a lifeless dance, the student finds form to be alive with opportunity.
Every movement and nuance offers new ideas for the creative mind.

Form

Whilst learning the fundamental movements, a student is introduced to form.
Form serves to challenge the student.
The movement principles and habits must now be employed in a significantly more diverse manner.
Variety, combinations, permutations and stepping all require the student to extend their range of skill.

Form also has the added difficulty of being martial in nature.
Not only must the pattern be accurate in appearance, it must also contain internal strength.

Long-term, the student must possess the knowledge of how to apply the form in combat.

What are you doing?

Ask yourself why you are doing tai chi and what you are expecting from it.

Then consider how you train and what you train.
Question whether you are taking your age, condition and health into account.

White belt - it came with the uniform...

In martial arts circles, the white belt is seen as being the belt that came with the uniform.
This should give you some idea of its status.

Passing the white belt syllabus is not a great feat.
Students should endeavour to learn the basic material as quickly as they can.

Do we teach techniques?

No.
A technique is a step-by-step formula for addressing a particular type of attack.
The purpose of these applications is different.

Students learn how to manipulate and manoeuvre their opponents body in an effective, comfortable, flowing, natural fashion.
The principles used can be applied to a variety of different attacks.

Back-up blog

http://newcastletaichi.wordpress.com/

Chuang Tzu

Chuang Tzu was the Chinese philosopher who is credited by some people with transforming aspects of traditional Buddhism into today’s popular Zen. Much like some of the more popular text related to Zen and Taoism that I have read since beginning my Tai Chi study, Merton’s The Way of Chuang Tzu informs my Tai Chi practice. Since there is a long tradition of Taoist monks performing Tai Chi it is hardly surprising scholars such as Chuang Tzu’s writing influenced Tai Chi.

(Dr Leigh Riby)

Forcing

Forcing a result is not the tai chi way - it is foolish and can lead to injury.
Injuries can be painful and restrictive; hampering your ability to do the training in the first place.

Everything must feel easy, comfortable and natural.

Why do we learn shuai jiao & chin na applications during the beginner syllabus?

Beginners struggle desperately to see any applications with the forms of baguazhang and tai chi chuan.
By learning a wide variety of applications drawn from these forms, the student begins to recognise that form movements are not abstract and serve a deliberate, functional purpose.

All of the applications can be applied in self defence.

Health problems

If you have a health problem, an injury or a history of physical neglect, you cannot reasonably ignore this when commencing tai chi.
It is important to start sensibly and safely.

Be honest.
If something feels uncomfortable, say so - serious health problems may well preclude you from learning tai chi.

Ignoring a knee or back injury and trying low stances or self defence is a sign of recklessness.
Allow for your age, your health, your fitness and your condition - and train patiently and carefully.

Our teacher

Master Waller is aiming to offer students a rich tai chi experience that combines modern and traditional aspects of teaching in order to offer the most comprehensive learning opportunity in the North East.

Many people would argue that he succeeds in this aim.
His classes are highly detailed, compelling and never boring or routine.

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.

Use

How you move and use your body in everyday life will radically affect your progress in tai chi chuan and baguazhang.

Day-to-day habit patterns are the strongest.
These are the hardest to lose.
If you spend all day hunched-over, tensing-up, nervous, over-extending... this cannot be ironed out with a 90 minute class.

It is necessary to think about body usage as you are using it.
If you catch yourself off-balance, strained, tensing - then stop.
Re-establish equilibrium and perform the task again, with mindfulness.

This may sound a little difficult, and it is, but with practice you will improve very quickly.
As new habit patterns emerge and you begin to move as a unified whole, disconnection will be immediately evident and feel physically uncomfortable.

Freedom

Letting-go is not easy.
Doing less, wanting less, finding space and freedom in your life will require change.
And people are often reluctant to change.

But, as with all things in tai chi, nothing is forced.
If you want something, and value it, you will find the time and it will not be a chore.

He who knows when he has got enough is rich.

 (Lao Tzu)

Foot work

People often think that the Yang Cheng Fu style of tai chi chuan involves poor footwork.
This observation no doubt arises from watching the slow motion Classical Yang form; which is indeed quite ponderous and involves no nimble footwork whatsoever.

It is important to remember that this form is just the first of a number of Yang Cheng Fu forms.
As a student works through the weapons forms, pao chui and the numerous partnered drills and training methods, their feet become agile and swift.

The careful footwork of the Yang Cheng Fu slow form is deliberate.
It trains central equilibrium, economy of motion and strategic stepping.
Essentially, you only step when and if you have to.
This reduces the tendency to 'bounce', dither or otherwise alert the opponent's nervous system.

For yielding/shuai jiao to work against an opponent, the student must learn when and how to step.
Superfluous footwork wastes time and energy.
Small circle responses are cultivated; with the minimum amount of effort being employed at any given time.

Knowing yourself

Coming to terms with yourself is not so easy.
It is necessary to observe your mind, emotions and behaviour without judgement.
To learn who you are and what motivates your actions.

Most people are so busy chasing the accoutrements of life that they do not make time for themselves.
Tai chi encourages you to slow down and eventually stop.
This may be harder than you imagine.

Fit & healthy?

Fitness and health are not necessarily the same thing at all.
A person may run the marathon but eat junk food, drink caffeine and smoke.
Many athletes have very tense muscles and a decided lack of composure.

People punish their bodies on the road to fitness.

Fitness is usually result-oriented, and the means is ignored - the body is made to perform, regardless of any adverse biofeedback.
This is not healthy at all.
Running the marathon is meaningless if it damages your knees or you have a heart attack.

Health is different to fitness: it involves a physical, mental and emotional balance that transcends any one activity.
Place wellbeing before fitness:

1. Eat the right types of food (avoid additives, junk food, caffeine, alcohol and nicotine)
2. Get rest and relaxation
3. Exercise comfortably and naturally
4. Feel happy and well-adjusted

You might well be healthy but not overly fit.

Slow

Not all tai chi practice is slow. But many of the exercise are fairly slow.
There is no need for rushing.
Rushing is the outcome of anxiety, of conflict between activities or choices.

We encourage students to settle, to give-up the race, to be relaxed, rested and composed.
This is usually not a familiar condition.

Shuai jiao & chin na applications

How to yield

The forms of tai chi chuan or baguazhang were designed to teach the student how to yield to incoming force by adjusting:

1. Turn the waist & shift the weight into the other leg
2. Step
3. Bend at the hip

Spur of the moment

As a student advances through the syllabus, their responses should become spontaneous and easy.
The appropriate application should emerge without contrivance or conscious thought.

Adaptation

For chin na to work, you must concern yourself with the underlying principles rather than technique.
Once you understand how the principles work, you can use them spontaneously in accord with the requirement of a given situation.
This is more realistic.

Adaptation is essential; you change what you are doing relative to what is happening.
If your chin na is countered by your opponent, you move into a different one or adopt a different strategy entirely - such as stepping or striking.

Balance

Balance is a dynamic process, not a fixed condition.
Sensitivity must be cultivated, along with awareness and presence.

Learning to feel how your own body responds to stimuli, how it moves and what problems it encounters is a profound journey of personal discovery.
Along the way you may become more comfortable with your own physicality.
You may begin to slow down, to notice things.

Different condition

All things being equal, anyone should be physically capable of performing any tai chi movement from any style of tai chi.
In reality, things are not equal, and a twenty year old person with a supple body can usually manage postures that a fifty year old could not.
It is important to train tai chi relative to your own individual level of condition.

More or less anyone could learn tai chi for health & fitness, whereas tai chi as a martial art is another matter entirely.

Resistance is common

Beginners inevitably resist force.
They tense-up, pull-back, contract and brace.

Harmony

Harmony is the outcome of finding balance between yourself and other people, circumstances and events.
This requires a significant change of consciousness.
Mere physical exercise alone will not accomplish this shift of perception.

It is necessary to see life differently, to take the lessons of the art into your daily life.

Self defence

A basic premise of training to fight as an 'art' must be that the methods employed should make it possible for the smaller and weaker to defeat the larger and stronger.

(Tim Cartmell)

Biofeedback

The hardest part is often to 'feel' where the arms and legs need to go.
Cultivating this requires tuition, partner work and biofeedback.
The physics is not hard to understand or implement.

Working with somebody else can quickly show you if your framework is relaxed, tense, over-extended or weak and prone to crumpling.

Humility

Although you possess more skill than some people, you will possess less than others.
All things in life are relative.

Arrogance stems from a poor sense of perspective.
Resist the urge to show off.

Appropriateness

It is quite common to see older people exercising these days.
In principle this is a good thing.

However, there are many people running without consideration of good posture; stooped back, hunched shoulders and dropping heavily into their knees.
There are reckless cyclists charging down country pathways where a mishaps could mean broken bones and a hospital trip.
Weight lifters shorten their muscles and maintain a permanently distorted, hunched posture.

Aging cannot be avoided. But you can choose how to exercise. Not all physical pursuits are wise for the over-40's.
Choose your exercise appropriately.

Peace

Slowly, the atmosphere of the school and the attitudes of the art permeate.
The individual experiences a glimpse of calmness.
They recognise that in order to progress, harmony must be found, balance, grace and a sense of ease.

Through gentle daily practice, supplementary reading and a gradual lifestyle change it is possible for all students to find peace in their everyday life.

Encumbered

A new starter comes to class with the typical agitations of modern life:
- they do too much
- they over-extend/over-commit
- they anticipate
- they do not know how to stop
- they contest

Initially, the student has no understanding of what tranquillity means or what it entails.

Birthday greetings from Borneo

Peng

Skeletal alignment facilitates peng.
Without peng your tai chi and baguazhang will simply not work and you will be essentially training externally.
The rounded, flexible shape of peng is present in every single movement.
It provides protection, enables stickiness and allows you to roll around a line of force instead of blocking it.

Alignment is pointless if you do not have peng.
It must be there in every single thing you do and is never lost or broken.
The possession of means that you never have to tense-up.
The skeleton acts as a structural conduit, and the tendons, ligaments, fascia and relaxed muscles provide the springiness.

Boredom

Boredom often stems from a dull mind.
An unimaginative person is like a very young child who craves attention; they require ongoing fuss and stimulation.
Their consciousness has yet to mature.

An inquisitive person can occupy themselves quite easily and can usually find something interesting in any situation .
Curiosity, and the desire for research and investigation are hallmarks of intelligence.

Tai chi practice will improve your capacity for sustained attention, and encourage greater awareness and cognition.

Mobility/stability ratio

Exaggerating the size of the skeletal alignment will lead to postural instability.
There will be a considerable number of evident weaknesses.
No posture is impregnable, but an overly-extended framework is liable to promote tension when put under pressure.

The larger your frame, the less mobile the joints are.
Similarly, a frame that is too small will provide excellent mobility and the ability to move rapidly, but no skeletal balance or strength.

Balance

Using the body as it was designed to be used will always prove more efficient than using it in contradiction to its natural design.

(Tim Cartmell)

Central equilibrium

Central equilibrium must be maintained at all times.
If there is a risk of being compromised by an opponent, there are 3 options available:

1. Turn the waist and shift the weight into the other leg
2. Step
3. Bend at the hip

These yielding skills will enable you to preserve your centre without losing peng.

Internal concerns

In order to perform any given activity correctly, you need to unite mind, body and emotions.
Consider:

1. Balance
2. Reach
3. Alignment
4. Relaxation
5. Composure

Are you moving in the internal way?

Gaining the ability to move correctly is very difficult, but attainable if you are patient and show tenacity.
Take the time to be present.
Make the best of every opportunity to learn.

Amateur instructors

The world is saturated with well-meaning, inexperienced tai chi instructors.
These instructors are teaching an imbalanced syllabus and fail to offer the complete art.
The art is slowly being ruined, watered down to a point where there is nothing internal left.

Qigong workshop

Locks and holds

The single most important fighting skill in internal martial arts is waiting. You wait until your opponent gives you an opening as a gift. Look at joint locks, which are hard to do in full-speed fighting, particularly if you go for them aggressively. Some martial arts like jujitsu and aikido make joint locks look deceptively easy and make them out to be a perfectly reasonable fighting strategy applicable to a majority of situations. In their training practices one partner willingly lets the other grab his arm, usually with a decent grip., deliberately making himself vulnerable. This is a foolish and potentially suicidal strategy in real-life confrontation with a well-trained opponent.

 Internal martial artists don't go there. They develop training methods like silk arms where they can twist and bend their joints like a piece of silk, making their movements highly fast, reactive, unpredictable and mobile, which makes it hard to grab or lock their joints.
  (Bruce Frantzis)

Conventional exercise

Weight lifting, gym work, jogging, sport, yoga and pilates are commonly practiced forms of exercise.
As you grow older, they become increasingly difficult to perform.

Tai chi training is not strenuous or stressful.
You undertake regular training and let the mild exercise build up layers of strength.
Instead of feeling tired, you feel energised and full of vitality.

Sincerity

Lineage candidates are given one year probation in which they must prove their sincerity.

Mainstream tai chi

Many tai chi classes are not teaching a martial art.
Consequently, the students are not encouraged to become fit.
They are more interested in coordinated movement, relaxation and feeling good.

Tai chi chuan requires more of the student.

Disconnection

Here are a few examples of 'disconnection':

1. Localised arm and shoulder movement
2. Tensed muscles
3. Over-extended limbs
4. Locking the joints
5. Deep, long or wide stances
6. Bending the knees too deeply
7. Hunching-over
8. Lifting/puffing the chest
9. Bending from the rib cage or waist
10. Leaning
11. Fixed legs - disconnected upper & lower
12. Over-emphasis of the waist
13. Incorrect use of the pelvis and hips

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