Going for it! (Photo by: nimish_gogri)

7 Stages of Learning Tai Chi

Having taught tai chi and qigong to more than 15,000 students, I have come to a deep understanding of seven distinct stages that my students have gone through in learning and adopting tai chi into their daily lives.

Stage 1: Starting the Tai Chi Search

Students talk to their friends and health and fitness practitioners. They read tai chi books and tai chi research on the Internet about practices that can help them achieve their goals. They find something that rings true intellectually or emotionally—it seems right, it makes sense or they think it will solve their particular problems. They look for intellectual confirmation to bolster their view. They narrow their choices to a few.

Stage 2: Seeing What Fits

In this stage, people research what tai chi teachers and tai chi classes are available. They may take an introductory tai chi class or weekend seminar and talk with different tai chi students and teachers. They may purchase a tai chi video and try a practice on their own. They find out about the challenges involved and then must make a decision if it is something they want to do.

Stage 3: Committing to a Tai Chi Class

In this stage, people commit to a tai chi class several times a week. External factors matter: the setting of the tai chi class, the personalities of the teacher and other students.

Stage 4: Practicing Tai Chi Outside of Class

There is an ancient phrase that tai chi teachers like to quote: “The teacher leads you to the gate, but only you can pass through.” At some point, students must take tai chi unto themselves and make it their own.

That begins with practice tai chi outside of class. The tai chi teacher will show what the next learning phase is and ask students to practice in order to progress. At first tai chi beginners will feel happy to learn the basic tai chi movements and get better at them. But, the bigger challenge is to learn them well enough to feel their impacts deep inside the body and mind and develop the new inner rhythms that will lead to adopting tai chi as a daily practice.

When students begin to practice tai chi outside of class their practice is often erratic. There is no support from their tai chi teacher or other students when they encounter moments of forgetfulness or awkwardness.

There are also the very real challenges of encountering negative emotions without anyone to provide guidance. In addition, there is the inherent slowness of the process in learning and remembering the tai chi moves and feeling the benefits. The best strategy for success at this stage in learning tai chi is for students to find a consistent time and place to practice—a time that is held apart and becomes routine and inviolable in a place where the tai chi practice cannot be interrupted.

Stage 5: Committing to Tai Chi Mastery

Students have stuck to the tai chi class long enough to learn basic tai chi movements and have developed the practice habits that bring about new internal rhythms. While practicing tai chi, there will be breakthrough moments when new plateaus are reached. In these moments students suddenly feel more agile and alive; their minds and spirits have moments of great clarity and focus; they feel moments of total relaxation combined with a new ability to handle tensions and anxieties. They recapture the sheer joy of learning they once had as children.

Stage 6: Facing Challenges

Chinese energy practices inherently come with inner difficulties to overcome and pass through. Plateaus may be followed by periods where not much seems to happen, the practice seems to be going nowhere and self-sabotage is likely. This is where tai chi students feel their negative karma and the effects of the accumulations of negative emotions.

They may quit just before a new summit is reached and sink back into self-destructive habits. Tai chi brings them increasingly into contact with their ego and the flow of their energy. When they begin contacting that energy, for better or for worse, they will contact areas of their emotions or thinking that may make them feel out of control. When they start traveling in unfamiliar territory they might become uncomfortable and afraid of working through these feelings. They become fearful of what they may encounter and stop practicing tai chi.

One of the warning signs of self-sabotage is disassociation. Students do the tai chi movements on automatic pilot and remain unaware of their effects. They will have to make peace with themselves before they can pass through it and head towards the sublime. With diligence and perseverance students will build a solid tai chi foundation that will effectively and increasingly enable their practice.

Stage 7: Re-inspiration

In the period that follows a plateau or an encounter with a self-destructive habit, students need approach their practice gently and find ways to challenge themseves with small successes so that their tai chi practice inspires them again.

They might try:

• Focusing on relaxing particular body parts as they do the tai chi movements, such as softening their shoulders or relaxing their stomachs.
• Making their tai chi movements more connected and smooth.
• Doing tai chi movements extremely slowly.
• Practicing one tai chi movement over and over.
• Relaxing into one tai chi posture and hold it for a minute or more.

Thinking of ways to continuously re-inspire themselves will keep the tai chi practice fresh and alive. Satisfaction must come from the inside and increasingly this is what the practice of tai chi can provide.

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Tai Chi Secret #5

There are traditionally five levels of credentials and competence for tai chi masters. Contrary to popular belief tai chi does not have black belts or other obvious visible signs of competence. Nevertheless, in China, there is a long-established hierarchy of learning and teaching in tai chi that progresses in five levels.

Level 1—Basic Tai Chi Movements and Body Alignments

Beginning tai chi students study until they are competent in the basic movements and body alignments. The overwhelming majority of China’s active tai chi instructors belong in this category.

Level 2—Intensive Tai Chi Study

Junior tai chi students study regularly for at least five years with a tai chi master and actively practice for at least ten years. Their advancement to the next tai chi level depends on natural talent, hard work and other factors.

Level 3—Study Directly with Master

Senior students take classes with a tai chi master several days a week—if not daily—for at least a decade.

Level 4—Formal Disciple with Specialized Knowledge

Tai Chi Masters are the formal disciples of authentic lineage holders. They receive the deepest and most secretive levels of specialzed knowledge available in tai chi. Tai Chi Masters can be truly exceptional at some but not necessarily all aspects of tai chi.

Level 5—Lineage Holder

In a particular tai chi or school, lineage holders are disciples who over time are chosen and specifically trained in the entire tradition to hold all, not only selected parts, of the tai chi tradition and the knowledge of the previous tai chi  lineage holder.

Although some tai chi masters are beginning to issue teaching credentials to students who have passed instructor trainings, the vast majority of available tai chi teachers lack such credentials much less the competency to offer such credentials.

Consider your Goals

You may have determined that you want to learn tai chi for one or more reasons, which may include:

•           Relaxation and stress reduction

•           Improved health and wellness and longevity

•           Joy of movement, entertainment and socialization

•           Learning a tried and true and challenging body/mind/spirit practice

•           Self-defense

•           Putting more chi energy in your life

•           Spirituality and personal growth.

Perhaps you want to enhance your life or address specific health issues. Tai chi research has shown to have a positive effect on mitigating high blood pressure, pain (physical, emotional and mental), carpal tunnel and other repetitive stress injuries, and helping patients recover from accidents or operations. Perhaps you need a tai chi teacher skilled at teaching the handicapped or the elderly.

You need to tell potential tai chi teachers what you specifically want to achieve and ask if they can help you, rather than assuming that they can. Not all teachers may be able or willing to teach what you need or desire to learn.

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Tai Chi Secret #1

The first tai chi secret is that choosing the appropriate tai chi style for your goals is very important. In fact choosing a tai chi style is one of the most important decisions you’ll make/or don’t make on your journey to learn tai chi. Not ‘consciously’ choosing would be like attending a university and not caring what degree you studied.

For most of the public, tai chi is just one subject, much like a subject area like math or literature. Yet to the more experienced tai chi practioner there are many style of tai chi and choosing the right style is a very important thing to consider before you begin. Now you may luck out and study a style that matches your goals; then again you may not resulting in frustration or even worse injury.

So in this post I am going to review the main styles and go over what tai chi styles are best for different goals and age groups. And don’t worry, even if you already are practicing a certain tai chi style it helps a lot to know the differences because at some point you may also benefit greatly from learning another tai chi style or at least you can be more informed about the specific tai chi style that you are practicing.

Essentially, it should first be pointed out that all tai chi styles have far more in common with each other than they have differences. All tai chi styles improve health, reduce stress and help you move more gracefully. All tai chi styles develop chi and use slow-motion, flowing, circular movements. For most practicioners, they choose a tai chi style based on the quality of the teacher where they live, the convenience of the school and other personal factors. Knowing about the tai chi styles upgrades your tai chi knowledge and guides you to make the right choices in the future.

Tai Chi’s Five Major Styles: Which Style Is Best for You?

Each tai chi style has a different syllabus, structure and flavor as regards how its specific tai chi techniques are applied. All five tai chi styles can potentially give you tai chi’s health benefits.

Four of tai chi’s five major styles—all except the combination tai chi styles—derive their name from the founder’s surname. The Chinese talk about the tai chi of the Yang Family, Wu Family, Chen Family and Hao Family.

Each tai chi style takes a different approach toward the movements of their forms and each tai chi style has many variations or schools. Each tai chi school is composed of practitioners who follow specific leaders or teachers within the tai chi style. Each tai chi school generally emphasizes a specific approach to the art: their tai chi forms may have recognizable stylistic differences, trademark movements or develop specific self-defense training skills. Let’s look that the five major tai chi styles:

The Yang Tai Chi Style

The Yang style is the most popular and widely practiced tai chi style worldwide. In England and America at least 20 main variations of the Yang tai chi style exist and in China there are even more. The various schools originated from the approach of a specific tai chi master or from a particular geographic region within China. Each variation has a distinct flavor, looks different from the others to a greater or lesser degree and may emphasize different technical points. All, however, will be called Yang style tai chi.

The Wu Tai Chi Style

The Wu tai chi style is the second most popular tai chi style. It has three main variations with strong stylistic differences that derived from the founder, Chuan You, his son, Wu Jien Chuan and his grandchildren.

The Wu tai chi style was created directly from the Yang tai chi style and as such is the largest variant of the Yang style. However, unlike most traditions in the Yang tai chi style, most Wu tai chi schools emphasize small, compact movements over large and medium-sized ones. The Yang and Wu tai chi styles, with all their variations, encompass the vast majority (80 percent or more) of all tai chi practitioners.

The Chen Tai Chi Style

The Chen tai chi style (villiage) is the original style of tai chi from which the Yang tai chi style was created. It is relatively hard to find Chen tai chi style teachers and adherents account for about one percent of all tai chi practitioners.

Unlike most tai chi not all the movements of the Chen tai chi style’s first level of training are done in slow motion. The Chen tai chi style alternates slow-motion movements with short, fast, explosive ones. It demands more physical coordination and may strain the lower back and knees more than other styles; consequently Chen style tai chi is difficult for the elderly or injured to learn. The complexity of the Chen style tai chi movements, which include fast releases combined with jumping kicks and stamping actions, makes the Chen tai chi style more athletic and physically difficult than most other tai chi styles and, as such, is often more appealing to young people.

The Hao Tai Chi Style

The Hao tai chi style is exceedingly rare in China and almost non-existent in the West. The Hao tai chi style is characterized by small frame movements that are extremely small.  Hao tai chi style’s primary focus is on tai chi’s more internal chi movements with physical motions being much less important. As such it is considered an advanced tai chi style that is hard to appreciate for practitioners without significant background knowledge of tai chi.

Combination Tai Chi Styles

Combination tai chi styles are the third most popular styles after the Yang and Wu tai chi styles. These tai chi styles freely mix and match movements from the four other tai chi styles as well as movements from other internal martial arts styles, such as bagua and hsing-i.

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