Tai Chi How ToTai chi how to is a page that answers some of those tai chi questions that pop up in my email alot. Please if you have a how to questions that you would like answered use our contact us page and we will try to answer it for you. Tai Chi How To : Find Out Which Tai Chi Style is Right For YouTai chi how to find out which of the tai chi styles is right for you can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. I will attempt to try and guide you through this process, but really we are all different which makes this a hard task. My first suggestion it to have a look at our tai chi chuan styles page after which you should get a feel as to the differences in the major styles. Then I would suggest you get out your local phone directory and see what tai chi schools are in your area and go along to a different tai chi style school each week. You will find that most school will give you the first lesson free. If you haven't been able to pick a style after that and are stuck on say two but are unsure as which one of the two you would like to learn, you could then attend another lesson in each of those styles at another school, that is of course you have the luxury of having a few tai chi schools of the same style in your area. If not just go back to the same schools and explain that you are still unsure. Remember though this fact YOU MUST CHOSE ONLY ONE STYLE, At least until you have completed a year of it, as trying to learn two styles at the same time is pointless. You will only find yourself confused when doing the movements of one and half way through ending in the tai chi position of the other. I hope this tai chi how to helped. Tai Chi How To : Find The Right Tai Chi TeacherTai chi how to find the right tai chi teacher: Once you have found the right style, it is then time for you to find the right tai chi teacher for you. There is a lot of dynamics to this so i will try and cover the main and most important ones. Is the teacher experienced? Find out who taught the teacher and how long he/she has been learning for. Are they able to teach you about the aspects of tai chi that interest you? This my be the health benefits of tai tai or the martial art aspects of tai chi or both but remember Tai Chi its like a tree it has many branches and it's roots are deep and your teacher will not know everything there is to know about it as this is impossible. I must stress that the nationality of the teacher does not make a differences as just because a person is chinese, that doesn't automatically make him/her a good tai chi teacher and just because a teacher is not Chinese it doesn't mean he/she isn't a good teacher. In my experience I have found the best tai chi teachers, still consider themselves Students and are always learning. Even the highest levels of masters around the world that I have known of or had the chance to meet and / or have read about share this in common. They all consider that tai chi can not be completed as it has no end therefore you can never have learned tai chi you can only be learning tai chi. This will make more sense to you once you have been learning tai chi for a few years. A good teacher should be able to help you to feel chi flow in the first few lessons. Granted some people take longer to get sensitive to feeling chi but be very weary of teachers that tell you that it takes years of practice to feel the chi in your body, as this just is not true. A good tai chi teacher does good tai chi. By this I mean they perform tai chi effortlessly, and make the form look easy. All there movements should not look separated the whole form should be as one movement, not like a lot of different movements stuck together, but one. As a beginner this might be hard to pick but maybe you could look at a video of a tai chi master such as Chen xiaowang the 19th generation keeper of the Chen family tai chi style or another famous master of the style you have chosen and see what I mean. Last but in no way least, as I said in the beginning, There is a lot of dynamics to this so i will try and cover the main and most important ones. You must find a teacher that you like and respect as a person, who is honorable and well balanced. Tai Chi How To : Be A Good StudentTai Chi how to be a good Student, the student must practice tai chi every day.The morning is the best time for practicing tai chi as the body is already relaxed from sleeping and this means that the benefits from tai chi will be greater. To be a good student the should turn up to lessons early and start to prepare by stretching and doing the tai chi that you have been taught, so that when your teacher arrives at class the student is already, ready to start. To be a good student don't complain, here is an example. Once at a school I attended, one of the new students was talking about how he had to take a train for half an hour then a bus to get to the lesson and how he didn't know if he could keep this up. I told him how I lived 2 and a half hours away by car and still made it to every class and how our teacher at the time traveled all the way to China four times a year to learn as that's how far away his lessons and teacher was. Needless to say he complaining stopped. The point is, distance does not come into it when you are a good student and want to be trained by a good teacher. When you are a good student all that matters is being at that lesson. A good student doesn't fell that he is learning to slowly. If the teacher keeps the student learning one aspect for a long time it is usually for a good reason. Tai chi requires the student to have a good grasp of the basics of each movement. As a good teacher knows there is no point in learning something you are not ready to learn yet as this will only confuse the student. So a teacher my teach a student the same lesson over and over until they get it right. An example of this is when I first started to learn bauga chuan and had to sit in horse stance for most of my first 4 or five lessons and that was all I did for hose lessons. After a while I realised why as you will when this sort of thing happens to you. A good student will go to every class, if for some reason they can't make it to a lesson, they will ring their teacher or ask another student to give the teacher their apologies for not being able to attend. Tai Chi How To : Get The Best Out Of Your Tai Chi ClassesFor tai chi how to get the best out of your classes I have just noted down a small amount of how to archive this as it is an individual decision and people learn differently and in different ways. You should bring a note pad to class and when you get a chance write down important points that are said to you by your teacher. Or tai chi movements that you feel drawing may help to remember. Some teachers don't mind the student bringing along a small recording device to speak into, for taking notes, but please ask the teacher first. You should listen to your teachers advice as they are the ones with the experience and watch there movements closely but without staring. By this I mean watch what how they move but don't focus hard on them while the are moving as this is bad practice. Watch but don't stare. Look at there foot moments as this is usually over looked by students who are focused on the hands. Watch the waist movements as this to is also over looked a lot. Remember this fact. "The waist leads and the hands follow". Chinese Swords GuideA site taking an in depth look at taiji swordsmanship. Tai Chi form, martial applications and weapons training are all part of the complete systems handed down from teacher to student over hundreds of years. For the Tai Chi how to question about finding he right style for you try this link. Would you like to add an article to this site?, or advertise your tai chi school for free? Want to keep up to date as new pages are added to this site? click on the RSS feed on the left under the navigation bar. Back to the Tao Of Tai Chi Home page 
|
