This article is copied from an email I recently received from my teacher and friend. It is not my writing.
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If we are to teach with integrity we must explore what we have been taught so that when we regurgitate it, it remains what we were taught, with as few changes as possible. At least until we can say with some confidence that we have Mastered the set.
In a living, breathing, alive art changes must be made.
Changes that betray the Principles of Taijiquan are called Regression.
Changes that follow the Principles of the Art are called Progress.
The Yang style I learned from T T Liang was something I held sacred for decades and did not change at all, until my own learning and progress was sufficient to make changes ‘that do not betray the Principles.’
If we are to be teachers we need to take what we learned from a class, and practice it until we can do it. That is the only way for progress to be made.
Exploring the differences between Eight Section Brocade and Hunyuan Qi Gong should be a fun and exciting thing to do. Something that could take years even with good effort spent.
The reason it could take years is that all of these Internal exercises have to be done sufficiently that they ‘Change Our Bodies’, and that takes a lot of time and effort.
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Exploring the differences between Yang Shen Gong and Yang Family 21 requires years of repetition of both sets until we can feel the differences happening in our own bodies. Until that time has been spent we cannot say we know those sets, or the differences or similarities between them.
Casual practice brings casual results.
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One of the basic attributes of Taiji is that of Separation, shown in the Yin/Yang symbol that defines our art.
Gearing, Separation and ‘the turning of the joints’ all refer to the same thing and that one thing is one of the most basic attributes of our art.
Silk Reeling can teach us how to move body parts separately from each other. When we have sufficient co-ordination we can then begin to move all body parts separately, but together. In the same manner that gearing works in a clock works. All gears move separately, but together.
Being able to move our head separately from our shoulder is basic.
Being able to move our shoulder separately from our waist movement is basic.
And yet people still struggle with this concept when it could have been solved years ago. How?
When we focus on this one thing in class most of you can do it, or almost do it.
If you were to go home and work on it until you could do it, the issue would be solved.
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Circles or Jibengong, or Silk Reeling requires the ability to separate our body parts from each other, and then will teach us how to move with them combined in a ‘body as a single unit’ manner.
Sinking the hip/side we are leaving, with weight still on it is basic to Circles. It is really the foundation that Internal is based on.
If one were to work on Positive and Negative circles in a focused manner that ability would be gained and could be further built on in Yi Lu, 42 and 24 forms. Then real progress would be made.
Without doing this work our abilities will stall and our knowledge of Tai Chi/Taiji will remain low level.
No one can be forced to do this work. It is all up to you.
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Best sets, assuming that people will work on them.
If people do not work on these sets, nothing we can do will help them, and we may as well teach only in a light manner, and I refuse to do that.
Give the student a nice experience in class and call it a day.
As it is I believe that to be a successful teacher, in terms of number of students, not quality of students, we can only teach Lite Tai Chi.
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Qi Gong – Yang Shen Gong
Tai Chi – Yang 37 form
Supplementary – Silk Reeling every day, Tai Chi walking, Eight Section Brocade, several other stand-alone exercises and sets but not so many as to confuse the student
Intermediate learning – Chen Circles and 42 form and more Silk Reeling
Advanced training – Chen Circles, 42 form, 24 form and Yi Lu, Push Hands every day
Regarding Push Hands, both Chen Fa-ke and T T Liang called this ‘a time of great danger’. Not in the physical sense of being damaged but in the sense of giving up your Internal progress for the sake of Winning.
Small loss, small gain
Big loss, big gain.
If you gear up and use External means to Win, you have abandoned your art and created a reflex to tighten, float, and lose alignment. In other words, you lose big time. Your progress stalls or can even go backward if you resort to ‘brute force’ to Win.
If you elect to retain Taiji Principles you may lose in the beginning, but with sufficient time on task, and coaching you will begin to Win, with Principles in place. Your choice.
