Finding your own way
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We've all watched experts in Tai Chi Chuan throw people around with very little
effort, but how did they get to the level where they could perform these seemingly
impossible feats?
I was lucky enough to be coached by three different Tai Chi Chuan Sifu over
the course of a weekend recently. In between being thrown to the ground (and
ending up in a variety of interesting and painful locks) I had a few insights
into how these Sifu had acquired their skills.
What I noticed about them (in between the floor rushing up to meet me) was that
each one's explanation of how they could effortlessly send me flying was subtley
different. For instance, one emphasised softness as the key to his technique,
another emphasised correctness of posture and the third relaxation. What was
even more remarkable, to my mind anyway, was that they had all been taught by
the same teacher, yet each one emphasised something different. How can it be
that there can be so many different ways to think about the same principles
I asked myself?
That's when it hit me. There are as many different ways to understand Tai Chi
Chuan as their are people in the world. What each Sifu was doing was simply
relating to me the way the art worked for them. Let me elaborate. We all learn
differently. Some of us need to see a technique to grasp it, some of us need
to feel how it works, while others need to intellectually understand it before
we can apply it. Or sometimes a combination of all three or some other learning
route. There's no "one way" which works best for everybody.
Of course, as any good student of Tai Chi Chuan knows; softness, correct posture
and relaxation are all interrelated. In fact you could say that it's impossible
to correctly attain one of these attributes (in a meaningful way) without the
other two also being present, but that's just another idiosyncrasy that makes
the art so intriguing. And don't forget that what one person describes as softness,
another could reasonably describe as relaxation or even good posture.
As students of Tai Chi Chuan it is our duty to stick rigidly to the principles
handed down by our forefathers (or mothers) in the art, while at the same time
finding a way of internalising those principles that works for us right here
and now.
How do we do this? Well the answer is in a saying that my Sifu is very fond
of. It's a saying he got from his Master, and it goes something like this.
"Everybody likes to shine, but few like to polish!"
No amount of theorising about the concepts of Tai Chi or the techniques of Tai
Chi Chuan will help you shine if you aren't prepared to put in the hours of
diligent (and hopefully fun) practice. Tai Chi Chuan is an art that takes a
long time to acquire, so don't try and rush things and enjoying your polishing
along the way.
By Graham Barlow
(c) 2001 YTCCA