Our top 3 steps to troubleshoot your Tai Chi
Tai Chi is a funny thing to learn. There’s no obvious path to getting better — you can tell when people are clearly better than you, but it’s almost impossible to see how, outside of a basic feeling of smoothness and getting all the form shapes right.
The only way to really start to master Tai Chi is to practice in your own time regularly. Only by practicing by yourself do you start to really understand the movements and the positions — and start to understand the pieces you don’t quite know or understand. This has a secondary effect: practicing by yourself helps ask much better, more refined questions to your teacher. Aamir’s been my teacher for over eight years now, and I’ve found some things can’t simply be explained in words — I have to take what he tells me and think about it and work on it by myself. Being able to ask good questions, and in turn understanding things in your own way, is absolutely crucial to improvement.
While there are hundreds of questions, though, a lot of the answers are similar. Here’s our top three.
Not too much, not too little
Not sure quite how far over the position of your knee, elbow or hand should be? Chances are it’s somewhere in the middle. “Not too much, not too little” I have told to me all the time: Aamir explains with some examples in this video.
Tai Chi Stance
If this answer isn’t quite right, think about Tai Chi Stance. It’s called Tai Chi stance for a reason, and is by far the most practiced of all the standing meditations. Look at the position of your body in Tai Chi Stance, and see if that helps understand whatever position you’re going for.
Two Circles
If Tai Chi Stance isn’t quite right, consider the two circles of Silk Reeling practice. Throughout all the form there is an inward and an outward circle. Take a look.
We hope those three tips helped, and let us know if you have any other questions or comments! Tai Chi Stance below for reference.
