Tai Chi, Taiji, Tai Chi Chuan, Taijiquan
Wikipedia is a good starting place to sort out what’s what:
Tai chi (simplified Chinese: 太极; traditional Chinese: 太極; pinyin: Tàijí), short for T’ai chi ch’üan or Tàijí quán (太極拳), sometimes colloquially known as “Shadowboxing,” is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits, and meditation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_chi
When you look up the individual characters 太 and 极 you get a pair of adjectives that might be “highest” and “utmost.” Basically, two superlatives that only have meaning by being associated with something. However, in 2021, in just about every place in the world, including China, Tai Chi refers to a group of people doing a slow-motion dance-like exercise by following a leader, no training required. Or, it can refer to a very disciplined internal martial art that takes three years just to get past apprenticeship level.
I find it useful the remember that “Tai Chi” was often imported to the West as a new-age exercise all about being peaceful and calm. It is not unusual to find that a “Tai Chi” class will ignore the fact that the movements, each and every one of them, are sequences of moves intended to deal with an attacker in a fight. Ignoring the martial aspect of the art is fine if the only aspect you want to teach is slow-motion calisthenics, possibly combined with the concept of flow. In fact, in well done Tai Chi Flow videos, if you follow along with rapt attention, you are very likely to experience flow and to gain some of the many health benefits available where the focus is primarily a gentle exercise for health.
Gentle exercise is great, especially when one is a bit past their athletic prime. However, as a competitive martial art form, a bit more than gentle exercise will be required to get the most benefits. I took my first Tai Chi lesson 40 years ago, but since I had a full-time day job, my daily practice was maybe 10 minutes most days. That was enough to gain some helpful tranquility to deal with my work. I can only wish my youth had included sports with high kicks like she does, but watching her performance is certainly inspirational.
What I learned in my first class was a version of Cheng Man-Ching’s simplified Yang Style Tai Chi for health — with martial arts emphasis rather than gentle exercise emphasis. It took 32 weeks to learn the basic choreography and another few years of daily practice before I found a master who took me to the next level; to where I could confidently say I knew a Tai Chi Chuan rather than just saying I knew Tai Chi.
The martial aspect is very important and central to making a seven-minute routine something that energizes as well as relaxes. The older books, the classics of Tai Chi Chuan, have detailed martial arts orientation. For example, much of the first part of the Thirteen Treatises is metaphysical discussions, but the parts dealing with the actual moves are very specifically about fighting.
“Lift Hands. If the opponent attacks me from the right side, then I quickly turn my body to the right and sink on my left leg…” (page 130, “Cheng Tzu’s Thirteen Treatises on T’ai Chi Ch’uan” by Cheng Man-Ching)
As with most mind <=> body disciplines, the “secrets” can be expressed in words, often words with a metaphysical slant, but no amount of intellectual understanding substitutes for having the visceral understanding brought about by a lot of physical practice. The posture “Lift Hands” is in most styles of Tai Chi, including the gentle-no-fighting versions. But to gain the health benefits, the secret juice, so to speak, one has to practice it hundreds or even thousands of times, paying ultra-close attention to one’s internal body mechanics, timing, positioning of all parts of the body, weight distribution, eyes, etc. At some point, later rather than sooner, you might get beyond this, but you will always need to periodically review the details, the timing, the mechanics, etc. Having a teacher who can see what you are doing is invaluable. However, videoing yourself and ruthlessly critiquing yourself is a reasonable substitute, once you intellectually and viscerally understand what you are supposed to be doing.
This kind of dedicated practice is not necessary if your goal is simply to participate in weekly Tai Chi Flow sessions. After a few months, you may find yourself practicing between sessions anyway, just because one of the moves or a short sequence of them has now become pleasurable.
If you do want to plunge into actually learning a complete Tai Chi Chuan form, it certainly won’t hurt, regardless of your age. My first class was taught by someone who had learned 3rd or 4th hand from Cheng Man-Ching when he was teaching in New York starting in the late ‘60s. This form is still probably the most widely known in the West; however, there are a great many others that you will find being taught today in 2021, some easier, and others much more difficult. Just because a move is impossible for you to do now only means you either take extra steps or otherwise adapt your movement to get to the next posture.
For example, closely look at how he places his foot in the turn at 2:13 — this requires “opening the waist.” I let myself get out of practice once and couldn’t get my toe that far around before transferring the weight until I worked on it again for many hours over several months.
The magic involved is not simply mastering the seven-minute long choreography, it is performing the sequence with the mind completely filled with the positions of every body part and, to some extent, imagining dealing with your opponent in slow motion. I can write some words about what goes on after you get that far, but if you have gotten that far, you don’t need my words.
My feeling is that taking the time (as in years) to really get a Tai Chi Chuan form is very much worthwhile, no matter what your age when you start. And also no matter whether you can actually do the high kicks or not. You do need to find a teacher whose performance of the form being taught impresses you as “working.” Like a musical composition, when done well, you know it even if you can’t explain why it was done well.
