Practice
Progressing in t'ai chi: practice, patience and the teacher
The first months of t'ai chi are full of visible progress: each week there is a new posture to learn. Then the form is complete, and progress becomes quieter and harder to see. How you handle that long middle stretch decides what kind of practitioner you become.
Learning a long form in stages
Traditional long forms take many months to learn and years to refine. Most teachers divide them into sections and teach a few postures at a time. It helps to think of learning in layers rather than in a straight line.
- Sequence. Remembering what comes next. At this stage, simply getting through the form without stopping is an achievement.
- Shape. Correct stances, hand positions, directions and alignment.
- Connection. Moving the whole body as one: the turn of the waist carrying the arms, the legs driving the weight shift.
- Quality. Softness without collapse, continuity without drifting, calm attention throughout.
- Understanding. Knowing what each movement does, with a partner as well as alone.
Each layer takes longer than the one before. The tai chi classics, which the page on principles in brief introduces, are largely concerned with the last three.
Daily practice
A short practice every day does more than a long one once a week. The body learns through repetition, and a form that is practised only in class tends to stay at the level of sequence. Even ten or fifteen minutes each morning, running through the section you are learning, keeps it alive. Some students find it easier to attach practice to an existing habit, such as before breakfast or after the evening walk.
Practise what you have been taught, not what you think you remember from a video. When you are unsure of a detail, do it the way you last saw it done and ask in the next class.
Plateaus
Every student meets periods when nothing seems to change. These plateaus are normal and often precede a noticeable step forward. They can be frustrating, especially for people used to measuring progress in numbers. A few approaches help:
- Change the focus of practice for a while: one week on footwork, the next on the eyes, the next on breathing.
- Practise part of the form very slowly, or in the mirror-image direction if your school allows it.
- Watch senior students and ask what they are working on now.
- Accept that some weeks are for maintenance, not improvement.
Keep notes after class
Corrections are easy to forget by the next morning. Writing a few lines after each class—what was taught, which correction you received, what you want to ask next time—builds a record of your own learning. Over months, those notes show patterns: the same correction repeated three times is the one to work on. Stick-figure sketches of foot positions are often more useful than paragraphs.
The teacher and the student
Traditional martial arts place great weight on the relationship between teacher and student, and in its best form it is a relationship of mutual respect. The teacher gives time, attention and knowledge built over decades. The student gives attention, effort and trust.
In practice that means small courtesies: arriving on time, listening while a correction is being given to someone else, asking questions at the right moment, and not teaching other people what you have only half learned. It also means honesty in both directions. A good teacher explains, adapts and admits the limits of their knowledge. A good student reports pain or difficulty rather than hiding it. Respect is not obedience, and no worthwhile teacher asks you to ignore your own body. The page on choosing a teacher discusses what to look for.
Play versus practice
Many teachers distinguish between running through the form, which feels pleasant and relaxing, and practising it, which means working on something specific. Both have value. Playing the form keeps it enjoyable and lets it settle into the body. Practice, with a clear aim for each session, is what moves you forward. A useful habit is to begin with one careful, attentive round and finish with one relaxed, flowing round.
Staying relaxed under pressure
Relaxation is easy when nothing is at stake. The real test comes when a partner pushes, when a teacher is watching, or when you are performing in front of others. Wikipedia's overview of tai chi notes that the art is practised both as gentle, flowing forms and through partner work for self-defence. Partner exercises such as pushing hands exist partly to train this: to stay soft and rooted when every instinct says to stiffen. Breathing slowly, keeping the shoulders down and noticing tension early are skills that carry well beyond the practice floor.
Starting again after a break
Illness, work, travel and family all interrupt practice. Returning can feel discouraging when postures you once knew have faded. Go back to a beginning class if the teacher allows it, practise the first section until it feels settled, and work forward from there. Knowledge that took years to build returns faster than it was first acquired. If the break followed an injury or illness, begin with shorter sessions and higher stances, and read knees, joints and a lifetime of practice.