I have been thinking about the point of Olympic
advancement and Tai Chi decline. Of course I cannot include the real truth of
my longtime association with the first school that I started in; it would be too cruel to that crowd. On one hand I have been the recipient of great generosity and must
respect the conditions under which that was given. On the other hand I have
trained earnestly at Olympic levels for 20 years with unacceptable results. Of
course I blame myself but I also blame the system and methodology. I do not blame
the individuals but even to voice an honest assessment of current methods and
results publicly would come across as disrespectful. Imagine you had a music
teacher who told you that they would teach you everything openly without
holding back but only when you were ready. After 20 years you were still
playing scales and etudes and were not ready for concertos. I would question
the pedagogy. Luckily for musicians there is a well-established pedagogy that
reliably leads to Mastery and the same is true in sports. My long time teacher
in that school was still doing and teaching Tai Chi at the beginner exaggerated
level after 20 years. You see, although the muscles are inside the body or “internal”,
wiggling them around or the ability to do isolations is not “Internal”. The
thing about useful exaggerations is that they are only useful as long as they
are useful.
While I do not believe the necessary advances in
methodology and pedagogy will come from neuroscientists and physiologists I do
believe that the Tai Chi reformers will use the language and science of those disciplines
to formalize and make clear those concepts formerly thought to be bound by
Chinese language and culture.
My personal belief is that the Traditional Art of Tai Chi must be preserved. The
traditional methods of teaching and learning need to be re-examined. Consider
the advances in sports. In Olympic competition all breakthroughs trickle down
to the collegiate level within years. High school athletes are competing at
levels set by Olympians within a decade. Why don’t we see this sort of progress
in Tai Chi? I know people who put that kind of time and energy into their
training but they don’t get the results. Clearly, if the Ancients were here,
with their skill and ability they could modernize the approach. The safety
measure is not to modernize the form but to modernize the training method. I
know it is not an Internal Art but in Figure Skating for example you can see
physical feats increasing along with artistry, understanding and internal
grace. These people retain their skills into old age. Maybe we should look at
the physical training techniques, apparatuses and principles discovered by
modern sports medicine.
The old training methods were in harmony with a
different age. The thing about the Daoist Art of Tai Chi is that it is in
harmony with its environment. We live in a modern world. Our spiritual advances
are being made in a world of phones and computers in buildings of steel and
glass. So our world suggests a different way to achieve balance than the old
ways. We do not have the luxury of retiring to a cave or a monastery to study
in depth. We must find the opportunity in our world to do so.
The idea that Tai Chi players can achieve Forms, Push
Hands and Awareness at the Mastery Level by the standard curricula we commonly
see just seems wrong. To hide behind pedigree, lineage, secrecy, flowery New
Age language, Cultural or Ancient double speak as an alternative to a clear
transmission of the structural mechanics also seems wrong when dedicated,
earnest students are practicing 3 to 4 hours a day for 10 to 15 years with very
modest results and then to say that it will take 3 lifetimes is again just not
adequate. I know it’s not the same but still in music, dance, visual arts,
sports or even in MMA there are standards and accountability for achievement
and efficacy of training methods. Bottom Line.
Most serious students of Taiji have a deep respect for Chinese
culture and the gift of Taiji that it has given the world. Without the study of
the Authentic Traditional Taiji and the culture that created Taiji it would be
unlikely to progress to the higher levels. The idea that the only way to
describe the central and universal concepts of Taiji requires a specific
language and that to understand those concepts you need to be a native speaker
is silly at best. Nobody can own an idea. Once an idea is at large we may and
should try to describe it in numerous ways.
Taiji requires the Physicality of doing it and feeling it inside
but it also includes an intellectual component. We should certainly be able to describe
clearly in modern language what the methods and the results of Taiji should be.
One must get the balance of those two components right or the work will not
bear fruit.
Neurophysiology is by definition the study of the
nervous system and how it relates to movement. This seems like a useful angle
to use when communicating and defining what we feel in the body.
Neurophysiology is thousands of years old and permeates all cultures so this is
not an attempt to Westernize Tai Chi or Modernize it. It is an attempt to
Modernize the Methodology for a Western Society. We await an Avatar with an
Intellectual approach and sufficient Taiji skills capable of bridging the gap
and willing to tell Truth to Power. Until then the Art of Taiji is in Decline.
