Being different with other kinds of Chinese martial arts, Tai Chi Chuan is a type of martial art which needs the learners to pay more attention to their thinking and movement. In order to practice such sport well, the learners may need to understand and remember the seven essential points well below.
Being different with other kinds of Chinese martial arts, Tai Chi Chuan is a type of martial art which needs the learners to pay more attention to their thinking and movements. In order to practice such sport well, the learners may need to understand and remember the seven essential points well below.
Approach
Approach Tai Chi Chuan with no preconceptions. Experience it as meditation, physical culture, and as an exercise of Chi. You may develop self-defense along the way, but you may also develop that which is truly supreme and ultimate.
Patience
Every person is an individual. Some things will come quickly, others slowly, and some, perhaps, not at all. Know that each person develops at his own pace. In the whole process you only compete with yourself. Do not try to compete with other learners of Tai Chi Chuan in your group. Remember that progress in Tai Chi Chuan is measured not in months, but in years.
Perseverance
While most students experience some benefit from Tai Chi practice within the first few weeks, Tai Chi is the practice of a lifetime. Ever increasing benefits of Tai Chi Chuan accrue with the decades of one's practice. Practice should be morning and night all the days of one's life.
Empty the mind
Tai Chi Chuan is meditation. This improves sensitivity to input, ability to react, to concentrate and to be sensitive to and to control Chii.
Feel Air as substantial
If the air has substance, how much more substance will even your most supple opponent have? Also, this will aid in doing the form smoothly and at an even pace.
Softness through root
Develop your foothold so that five or six strong men together cannot push you. Also, develop your ability at neutralizing and softness so that you need never use that root. In this way, while having substantial root, you will always feel light and supple.
Benevolence
Never try to harm anyone in practice, teaching, or demonstration. In push hands and self-defense, as in form, you are competing with no one except yourself. If you feel a need to overpower your partner in practice, then your real need is to overpower your own ego. Your partner is there to help you develop your skills, and you, his. When you are pushed by your partner, it is not your partner who has pushed you, but rather your inability to neutralize the push that has pushed you.