Tai Chi Options

i have just started tai chi. I am really intrested in it
so please co (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) uld i have some tips to beginning tai chi?

OK since I've been doing taiji for 22 years or so and teaching the past 10, maybe I can start off. Having a good teacher is very important. A taiji teacher ought to have been practicing taiji for at least 10 years IMHO. There are different aspects to taiji that are like three legs on a stool; it isn't real taiji unless you have all three. The three are: forms; energy work; qigong; and martial applications, or at least push hands. Each aspect reinforces and teaches you something that will improve the other aspects. Don't think that you can learn to just do energy work only, or focus only on the forms and thoroughly master them.

In the beginning your focus is mostly on the forms, like katas in karate. Do them mindfully with good awareness. Biomechanics can be learned fairly easily, but the hard part is learning to do the movements in a relaxed manner. When you are relaxed, the energy flows more easily; there are also very good martial applications reasons for this. In addition, when you are relaxed, you are more sensitive to energy-- your own or your opponent's.

It takes a long time to really learn taiji, so remaining motivated is very important. Don't just practice during classes. Practice daily on your own. You put in the time, you get the abilities. Read, go to classes regularly, practice on your own. I like to go to the park and practice. It is relaxing and enjoyable. I used to be be afraid of doing it in public and draw the stares of people. I mentioned this to my teacher about being inhibited by the stares of onlookers. His reply was "f%*! them." I haven't had any inhibitions about practicing in public since.

This post has been edited by Goibniu: Jun 26 2008, 08:56 PM

Stick to it for starters. There are actually two types of Tai Chi (according to the dude who taught me). Basically centuries ago there was a monk (I'm bad at remembering names, let alone chinese names), the last surviving one who know the true form of tai chi was conscripted by the Manchurian Emperor, who had conquored much of what makes up modern China. Out of defiance to the new emperor, this monk tricked him into thinking he was learning tai chi when really the monk was teaching him a bastardized form that keep its true secrets from him. At the same time the monk taught the true form of tai chi at his temple. This lead to the kind of tai chi taught from legitimate temples, and the kind you might learn at a college or martial arts studio.

Is the story true? I don't know. Maybe its a myth. I couldn't tell you the difference between the two styles if I saw them. But the point is to know the source of where you are learning tai chi. Ideally, you want to learn it from someone who is certified from a legitimate temple. This is mainly to ensure you're learning the real deal, but also to make sure you don't learn something that might actually lead you to hurt yourself.

Aside from that understand that if all you do is learn the physical movements you are really just learning what amounts to an aerobic exercise. Tai chi is also part of a complex philosophy and if you really want to get the benefits of tai chi, don't treat it like just a way to exercise and stay healthy, but a way to learn to cycle energy through you. Learn to channel that energy and learn to use it. If you're expecting to really benefit from tai chi pretty much expect to adopt it as a life style. A good book to check out (one the guy who taught me gave to me) is called "The Essence of Tai Chi". Its a small little book but its packed with useful information.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) thank you all very much you have been very helpful. i will check that book out. thank you all

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) i have looked for quite a while but nothing, this main seem a stupid question but what is the main reason for doing tai chi?
does it unblock energy knots ready for kundalini?

so is this part of the background and reason of tai chi.

in chinese principal there is yin and yang, positive and negative, active and passive, agresive and weak. In tai chi the mind is a unlimited dimension, where there can be unlimited creativity and unlimited development. this development creates harmony in ones self but also harmony in society. Tai chi is about trying to reach the ultimate, the perfection of harmony, ANd this can only be done through balancing the yin and yang.

is that right?

Sorta
Yin/Yang theory is Taoist(Daoist). Taiji is strongly influenced by Taoism. In Chinese thought, there are two kinds of mind Shen and Yi. I don't know that they see either of them as unlimited, but Shen they see as having large limits. Taoism and Taiji are certainly both about being in harmony and being natural. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blablabla.gif)

As one of my first teachers used to say "Bu shou, Gan. ( Less talk, more do). Only by practicing can you get the benefits, but as another of my teachers used to say, "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect." I have a fund of sayings from my old teachers that I use. I'd suggest that you just keep practicing the basics for now. Don't worry to much about the theory. There is no such thing about an armchair taiji expert. You have to do it over and over again, practicing daily or at least regularly. Your body loses some of its abilities if you don't practice at least every other day. I've been doing it three to five days a week for over twenty years. It is this practice that has taught me, not books. Sure, I read books sometimes and discuss it with other taiji players, but that sort of thing is mostly to keep motivated. By the way, I've been doing this since 1986, but while I'm good, I'm by no means a master.

I called my friends who do taiji "taiji players" because the Chinese don't say that you practice taiji, they use the expression "war taiji" or 'play taiji'. 'War' is the Mandarin word for play, like the word for 'toy' is 'warju'. You play taiji. It should be fun, so go out there and have fun practicing. Like I said it should be fun, but even play requires discipline if you do it three or four days a week, or daily. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/showoff.gif) So go out and have disciplined fun or I'll come over to St Ives (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wheelchair.gif) and kick your butt dammit! lol. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/knuppel2.gif)

Tai Chi can deffinately help harmonize your yin and yang. But balancing both works on different levels - mental, physical, spiritual for example. The purpose of doing tai chi is firstly as a means of self defense. Tai Chi masters are wildely reknowned for their seemingly super nature ability for self defense. While practicing the movements alone is slow and meditative, sparing and actual use of it is quick and very inuititive. As a means of self defense Tai Chi simply works similar to the premise of Judo or other forms of martial arts in that the student learns to use his/her opponet's energy against them. An adversary makes an action and you are taught how to simply react to them in a way that prevent them from harming you. And this can be on a spiritual level too in that you are not only engaging a person in physical combat, but on a spiritual level as well.

Simply practicing Tai Chi will no more harmonize your yin or yang than jogging 10 miles every day. Tai Chi can be used as a medium to take Taoist philosophies and put them to use by translating them through its movements. My teacher used to tell me that Tai Chi is 10% physical, 90% mental. Without learning the mental, tai chi is just a means of staying physically fit. And thats not a minor thing either. Many scientists agree that one of the big factors towards longevity is staying flexible. Flexibility doesn't just mean healthy joints, but healthy circulation. On a metaphysical level tai chi serves as a means of circulating Chi, which also has its health benefits that can break down blockages and lead to better health.

Yet again exercise like jogging can also circulate chi. So the purpose of practicing tai chi is not only to learn a means protection, but to learn a tool to help you circulate your chi, learn how to focus it, learn how to harness it and use the Chi of others agains themselves, should they pose a threat to use. An analogy I use is to draw a parallel between the "force" off star wars and "Chi". Both are believed to be in all things and be the reason that life can exist at all. Its believed that through the use of both one can harness super natural abilities as well as gain control over others who have less ability over their chi. This is also why the dark side is weaker than the light. The dark side seeks to focus and use the force through absolute power and dominatation. The light side seeks to use the force through wisdom and compassion. While power and domination can be pwerful tools, one will never fully be able to grow into something great without wisdom and compassion - which allows for infanite growth. Likewise one can harness chi, learn to use much like the force and use the Chi of others against themselves in times of self defense.

Taiji is primarily a martial art, but people seem to focus on side effect benefits. They are marketing it for little old ladies anymore. But I spar with a bunch of guys in a loose group we all 'fight club'. Everyone there is equivalent to a black belt (most martial arts don't use a belt ranking system) and most are considerably younger than I am. But I seldom get hit solidly and can toss most of them around or slip past their defenses and tag them. The point that I'm trying to get across is that the forms work, energy work, and the martial arts work all reinforce on another, but most teachers only teach forms work. That isn't actual taiji and is why taiji isn't usually regarded as a practical martial art.

I'm just going to pontificate on taiji a bit more because I'm in the mood.

One of the useful things that taiji teaches is how to emit specific kinds of energy like ward off, rollback, press, etc.. Sticking energy, listening energy and expansion energy can be quite useful in healing work for instance. You would learn expansion energy, for instance, by your teacher hitting you with his fist using expansion energy (lightly and repeatedly), then having you try to reproduce this specific energy. This demonstrating on you directly and giving you immediate feedback is a very efficient method of learning it. And I should mention that each form of energy has a different feel to it. Once you learn it you won't mistake sticking energy, for instance, from listening energy. About five years ago I was working in a physiotherapy clinic with a Chinese medicine specialist. I didn't know initially that she did taiji. But she was a rather argumentative woman and she was emphasizing her points by repeatedly jabbing her finger into my chest. She was automatically using some 'tzuann' or drilling energy with each finger jab. I recognized it but found it annoying so without moving physically I began using deflecting energy, 'peng'. She looked puzzled and then broke into a smile and said "You know taiji." Well anyhow it stopped the argument, but it also shows that to anyone who is trained to be sensitive can read even the energy of a finger tap. She knew that I was using peng and that she was using tzuann. It is a bit hard to explain, but the two of us knew the basic capabilities of each other in that moment if you know what I mean.

When I learned Tai Chi I also learned two other styles that are based on Tai Chi, but both are a bit more agressive. I also was taught dragon style Ba Gua and some Xing Yi. Ba Gua has two sections - 64 manuvers called shen tien ba gua and 8 manuvers that involve walking around a circle and completing a series of manuvers called ho tien ba gua. These additional styles also incorperate the philosophies of Tai Chi and mimick many of the manuvers, they're just more agressive and in my opinion, expand one's ability to utilize Chi in general. I have studied other forms of martial arts on and off, but by far the most effective I have studied so far has been those three. Xing Yi is especially aggressive and very deadly in the hands of a skilled fighter. Ba Gua is more moderate and ho tien ba gua looks more like an elaborate dance. But make no mistake - a skilled fighter is deadly. The same is true for Tai Chi. However I consider it the more moderate style of the three since it focuses largely on defense and counter strikes, rather than attacks.