The List

Just imagine the number of things that need to be in place to simply receive an attack and issue a return.

Listen, Connect, Stick, Follow, Understanding, Neutralize, Seal, Unbalance and Push. That means you have to be conscious of the Internal Landscape and be able to stay there under duress. You have to be able to expand into your environment and into your opponent and sync up to him. You need to feel the whole 3D nature of the swirling gyroscopic energy coming in and catch it softly, support for a moment, release it and assist its acceleration away from you. All the while from beginning to end you need to attach to the opponents reflexes following their timing, turning them on and off at will.

I used to categorize these skills according to their traditional Chinese names but it seems that one should be able to define Tai Chi to someone who does not know the private vocabulary. If I talk about the Ting, Wen, Na, Fa cycle it isn’t clear to an outsider that this relates to the application of energy and its timing. Of course the acquisition of Jins and cultivation of Jing, Chi and Shen and all the rest are essential components that comprise the fundamentals, qualities and skills I mention here.

The Tai Chi Curriculum Includes the 1) Proficiency in the Fundamentals 2) The Qualities and 3) The Skills:

1) Fundamentals – Stances, Posture, The Moves, The Forms, Balance, Rooting, Stepping, Head up, Tailbone down, Joints sunk, Functional Use of the Waist and Back, Breath low, Open crown, Opening the hands, The Gaze, Peripheral Awareness, Independence of body parts, Weight forward towards ball of foot, Integration

2) Qualities - Calm Mind, Softness, Strength, Simplicity, Naturalness, Comfortable, Subtle, Clear, Relaxed on the inside, Peaceful, Artistic, Precise, Meaningful, Hidden, Open, Unified, Musical, Continuous, with Straightness and Roundness, Insubstantial and substantial, Quality of Motion

3) Skills - Footwork, Handwork, Use of the mind, Awareness of group energy, Gathering and Issuing, Understanding, Intention, Opening and Closing, Solo practice, Chi gung, Applications, Two Person Practice, Improvisation, Hydraulic Motion/Wave Energy, Transfer of Momentum, Appear, Disappear, Expand and Condense, Consciousness of the Body Field, Continuity, Timing, Yielding, Sinking, Dynamic Relaxation, The Ability to Receive Energy (Push, Punch, Grab, etc.) and Transmute it without undue strength and Return it, Internal Awareness, Fajin

And still… without the Secret Handshake this is just The List.

The Tai Chi Curriculum

You could say that the Tai Chi curriculum is Proficiency in Forms Practice and in Two Person Practice. Everything meaningful for me in Tai Chi would be covered by that.

Unfortunately this curriculum would not help to define Tai Chi to the non-player or distinguish it as an Internal Art. Well, it turns out that there is no consensus reality amongst Tai Chi players with regard to that type of definition either except that we know it when we see it. This is a factor allowing the unscrupulous or delusional to ply their trade.

It is no surprise that in the absence of a clear definition that a clear methodology is so rare. It has been said that the truth about the training methods necessary to develop good internal skills are so counter-intuitive that you are simply not going to discover them on your own. Historically this has been true but as advancing research into Sports Medicine, Anatomy Trains and the Enteric Body has unearthed the Dynamics of Energy involved in reflexes and motor function I think we can find a way to focus our practice to produce verifiable results in less than 3 lifetimes.

Once you are studying Forms Practice and Basic Applications you are Doing Tai Chi. Once you can see yourself inside and get a Radar lock on your partner and you can sense them internally becoming aware that you just acquired knowledge of their center then you are Doing Internal Martial Arts. Your level of skill in these things denotes your level in Tai Chi.

Tai Chi is a Martial Art. It is okay to excel in the Performance Art of Tai Chi as a central focus. A common complaint I have heard is that a focus on the Aesthetic and Artistic will cause people to try and make their forms pretty. Well, anyone who is familiar with high level internal skills displayed in Music or Dance will know that one hint of artifice or self-consciousness will cause the moment to fail.

I think that although Tai Chi is a Martial Art that Fighting Ability is not one of the more important determinants of Tai Chi level. Someone may cultivate partner work rather than combat skills and reach very high levels and conversely those who pursue fighting skills often seem to significantly delay their advancement in Tai Chi as an Internal Art. Furthermore some well-conditioned MMA guy could easily out fight some excellent Tai Chi players so I think a focus on Fighting Skills per se can misdirect our inquiry. If Push Hands was Ping Pong then I personally play a game more concentrated on extended volleying and being the Minister of Silly Spins rather than a game relying upon serves that cannot be returned or slams. When you play that way sometimes you forget who’s serve it was and even what the score is and you give up keeping score altogether.

So the Art keeps me showing up every day and what I learn in that context I test in partner work and free play to keep myself honest.

BTW - I am still zeroing in on my actual Tai Chi Curriculum List and thank you for being patient and giving me the room to get there!

Useful Exaggeration

In an attempt to define Tai Chi in a way that meaningfully distinguishes it from other Martial Arts I am creating a curriculum list of basic skills. This turns out to be quite a list and I find myself asking why it is currently that only a few of these provide the reason that I practice. I am not motivated to practice so that I will have longevity, be able to kick ass and take names, be able to do the super luminal types of techniques or reach some particular level like Mastery; all things I had written on my syllabus and believe intellectually are components of Tai Chi.

What keeps me showing up every morning is the Interest, The Quest, The Exploration of Inner Space and the Mechanics of Moving. The Feeling inside my body as I Sink this hip or Relax this Side or Expand the Body comes from Becoming Conscious of the Movement and Conscious of all the little unseen Sub-routines in the Body’s Operating System that assist in or govern the movement. The Examination and Re-programming of those Sub-routines allows me to increase my bandwidth of Inner Space by simply monitoring things instead of having to run them all.

The Forms provide the Context and I provide the Subject. Picking up the foot, stretching into space, turning, moving, coiling, opening and closing provide the Experiments and while the results are Martially Useful that is rarely my focus, it’s more about the Feeling or the Experience. The Ego, Anger, Frustration, Desire to Succeed and other Psychological manifestations that come to my attention during this work are one and the same as the ones I involuntarily Act Out under duress when I am pressed in Push Hands beyond my Ability to respond to in a Taiji way. (Yeah, sorry about that one friends…)

At any rate that is my Useful Exaggeration for now and I will pursue it until it is less useful and move on to the next Useful Exaggeration.