Phases of Tai Chi Study and Practice

The key to studying and practicing Tai Chi successfully is doing so sequentially. This means starting from the fundamentals and building upon them.

Phase 1: Fundamentals

Tai Chi fundamentals include 2 aspects:

  1. Common basics - Strength, speed, mobility, and pliability development shared by all traditional Chinese martial arts such as basic foot works, striking skills, etc. If you have already learned Shaolin Kung Fu well, this step could be omitted.
  2. Tai Chi basics - Training and conditioning of Yao and Kua (waist and hips), Canshijin (sliding weaving strength), elongation of tendons in our joints, Pengjin (elasticity of our body), Cunjin (inch strength), and Dantian centered circular body movements.

Without a solid understanding of these basics, routine practice would be purposeless. In learning the fundamentals, we know why and for what we practice routines or a series of movements for.

Phase 2: Learn some routines and master the one you like most

Routine practice is actually a fun way to practice the fundamentals. We apply all the fundamentals into the moves and forms of the routines. The word to describe a well practiced routine that reflects all the fundamentals is plump or bellied.

The routines that we all need to study are:

  1. Chen Style Old Routine 1. This is the mother of all popular schools of Tai Chi practiced today. It mainly aims at practicing driving all our body movements by Dantian, a spot in our lower belly. It looks slow, soft, and occasionally mixed with Fajin (exertion).
  2. Chen Style Old routine 2. This routine shows how fast, hard, and powerful Tai Chi can be. There are a lot of Fajin in this routine. The routine is short, but requires a lot of strength to practice.
  3. Yang Style 85 step. This routine was finalized by Yang family 3rd generation master Yang Chengfu and it is the comprehensive routine of the Yang School, the most popular Tai Chi school of study.

By studying the above 3 routines, you should have a clear picture of the evolution of Tai Chi and Tai Chi as a martial art instead of a kind of physical exercise.

With all the above, you can now decide which school is for you.

The fundamentals and routine practice are a major part of our learning process. As we practice and improve each day, we can never stop this process. Simply put, fundamental and routine practices are life long tasks.

Phase 3: Tuishou (Push Hands)

Now we are starting to learn about our opponents. We are trying to develop skills of listening, uprooting, and make use of our opponent’s power to strike back.

Listening refers to the ability of detecting our opponent’s intention. If we know where and how our opponent is striking before or when the strike is started, we know how to use it for our striking back.

Uprooting refers to redirecting our opponent’s striking by warding off, an absorbing action, or an abrupt and explosive action to make our opponent lose balance.

When our opponent realizes the loss of balance, the intuitional action is to regain the balance. Usually this will cause part or all of their body to fill with tension and this is the perfect time to strike back, with the power he is exerting in the effort to regain the balance.

How much and how well we have learned the fundamentals will fully reflected in warding off, absorbing action and abrupt and explosive exertions.

Phase 4: Shanshou (sparring)

Learning to fight freely.

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