So You Want to Learn Taiji?

Discussing Taijiquan for beginners is a bit difficult as there are many approaches these days and an equal number of motivations for studying the any of the six main Family styles as well as the modern competition versions sanctioned by the various Chinese sports bodies. Many people teach these days and it isn’t as hard to find instruction to suit your needs as it was when I was getting started in Canada in the 1970s.

Some students want a meditative discipline… some are looking for gentle exercise to suit their aging bodies or arthritic joints… some want to learn demanding solo forms and two-person methods that can be used in competitions to display excellence and/or win medals … some want more practical self-defense… some want to feel connected to something exotic or a famous teacher… the reasons seem endless and the good thing is that “if you seek you shall find” [well, in the larger urban centers in any case].

Deciding what you want from your own study is important and you may have to visit a number of classes/teachers [doing an internet search of what’s available in your area or checking with your local community centers are good places to start your search] to find the approach that seems to suit your needs as well as your abilities.

It’s tough being a beginner as you will know little about the subject [no matter how much you have read or how many kung fu movies you have watched] and can only judge a teacher superficially until you have achieved some real experience yourself. But as the old proverb goes “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” and there are bound to be dead-ends and obstructions along the way. Perhaps, in some ways we can learn more from the difficult points along the route than you can from the sections that seem to sail by effortlessly.

Sadly, most beginners I experienced over the decades that I taught group classes had zero experience in or understanding about Yang-style taiji except that someone [often a well-meaning doctor or physiotherapist] had told them it was easy to do and would help them relax.

A partial solution is to help any beginner understand what they are looking for from their training and what realistic skills they can bring to bear to achieve those goals. Of course, experience usually trumps expectations which means the would-be student may give up too easilywhen they learn that even slow motion movement isn't easy and that they must put in a fair bit of work to see any potential benefits.

Some Yang taiji teachers reach a reasonable compromise by dividing their group classes into solo form or push-hands or martial training and letting students stream themselves accordingly. That's how I handled group classes, in any case, over most of the years that I taught those.

Some taiji teachers chose to teach only seniors and special needs groups and my hats off to them. Any exercise is often better for those people than no exercise and the social aspect of those classes is also beneficial... as long as tea and crumpets while making new friends at break-time isn't the only reason that the students are there. On the other hand, I had a colleague in Ottawa who only taught modified taiji and qigong to seniors and those with special needs. She once confided to me after a few drinks that she like teaching that way as she only had to be a little better at the training than those she taught. Sadly, I think that's a common enough attitude even in those who claim to teach more vigorously and competently.

Many who take up the Yang-style stop training almost immediately when they find out how demanding a more complete curriculum can be of their time and effort. For example, many adult students with full-time work and or families find it too demanding to attend classes regularly, even though that is essential for the first few years of training.

If you are one of those rare individuals with an interest in the martial side of taiji; be aware that there is a risk of injury and that bruises, etc are unavoidable in learning any martial approach that has even a hint of functionality for self-defense. If you’re middle-aged, arthritic, obese or have special health needs; you should stick to the solo form side of the slower-paced versions of the art or learn Chinese Qigong instead.

Look around in your community for instructors [community centers, parks in asian areas of town, commercial kung fu schools, etc.] and visit a few classes if you are blessed with choice in your area. Any legitimate instructor will allow visitors to group classes; if they don’t, that’s a red flag to me and you should look elsewhere as there are charlatans as in any profession; take some time to evaluate what your own strengths and weaknesses are as well as what you want to learn from the teacher you choose.

Brief Summary of Taiji History

You can look at the "evolution' of the Family styles of taiji as being part-and-parcel of their place in the times from which each sprang. Unfortunately, the historical records are often lacking in detail, difficult to translate or contradict each other but, if I had to generalize in a few words...

At the end of the 19th century in China, the instructors of this discipline (it wasn't called “tai chi” or "taiji" yet) would have been puzzled if you said to them that you wanted to study with them in order to become healthy. At that time, it was still primarily a martial system geared to fighting and the student became a healthier person as a by-product of the training.

However, even as early as the 1920s, many of those teaching had modified the forms as well as the training methods to make these more accessible to larger numbers of people as a form of health-building exercise. In those turbulent years in China, there was a strong tendency in the more progressive instructors to try to attract as students those members of the growing urban middle-classes who would have normally turned up their noses at something like the martial arts which had traditionally been considered only suitable for soldiers or bandits by those with any education or social position.

Since coming to North America and being open up to non-Chinese practitioners, the trend -- particularly in the Yang-style -- is towards making its practice ever more “accessible”. This is due, in part, to the good intentions of many modern instructors to make the art more relevant to seniors and those unused to regular exercise as well as the physically-challenged.

Especially in North America and Europe, the art has spread but now the mixing of the early material with qigong for health as well as a variety of New Age therapies has resulted in an evolution that might not have seemed possible to the founders.Consequently, most people now think of slow, graceful movement as being the totality of taiji as opposed to just to being one aspect of Yang-style training; which, in turn, is only one of the six recognized family styles {Chen, Yang, Wu, Hao, Sun and Zhaobao].

Chen-style evolved in a time [mid-18oos+] where firearms were still not common in the rural areas as well as 'out-of-date' in western terms; hence battlefield tactics at the "defend the village" level still largely involved the village militia having to fend off brigands using sword, knives and other impact or cutting weapons. In such a small scale military operation... if you go to the ground, you die or are trampled so most tactics revolved around using weapons while staying on your feet, not being disarmed and having to throw/knock-down someone often wearing armor. Striking with elbows and knees were more useful at such close quarters once a weapon is lost as punching armor with a bare fist usually doesn’t do anything useful for the puncher. Solo forms in such training are less useful than two-person training for cultivating the close-quarters training needed to actually fight.

Yang-style came out of a somewhat more settled time in which western influence -- for good and bad -- was being felt in the urban centers where taiji spread before and between the first two world wars. Particularly in Shanghai which was a hot-bed of Chinese martial arts, many teachers were coming together, comparing notes and there was even some small interest in cross-training in western boxing as well as the Japanese systems.

Some teachers tried to adapt to the new attitudes and the proliferation of modern firearms which made the combative usage of archaic weapons less and less relevant while keeping the purity of what they had learned from the older generation by developing solo and two-person forms as a way of preserving their style; throwing and grappling was becoming less important as the practitioners were not wearing armor or using edged weapons so that striking and kicking tended to over-shadow the grappling/wrestling/throwing arts that had previously been important for supplementing weapons training [I.e., you throw the guy with a sword if you have lost your weapon, you don't punch him in the breastplate to break your own bones]. Other teachers "adapted/changed/ruined" [choose the term you prefer] the forms and training methods to make them more interesting to a more modern urban and middle-class population.

Wu, Hao, Sun and Zhaobao-styles came from experts with those family names who had studied some variation of the Yang style in the early modern period and each took what they had learned from their teacher[s] and modified what they taught to suit themselves and the continuing de-emphasis of practical combat in favor of the exercise, meditative and performance sides of it.

In more recent times, the Chinese Communist government has also had a great effect, both good and bad, on the more recent development of taiji and the other Chinese martial arts but I'll leave that to better historians than I to describe. Suffice to say that In the last 20 years, the traditional systems have also been “rehabilitated” by the Mainland government to a certain extent and older teachers have been allowed to teach publically. In addition, governmen-approved versions of the older approaches have been standardized [i.e., the 88 and 81 Form Yang Taiji Sets].

Additionally, with increased immigration to North America and Europe, more and more teachers claiming to teach “authentic” old-style systems have appeared. Some are genuine, at least in their intentions, while others are just coming to North America to make a good living with the continued Western fascination with the Chinese fighting and health systems.

Final Thoughts

I know more about the Yang-style so will use that as an example of what has happened. Practicing Yang-style Taijiquan competently today is, in many ways, completely different from what the founders had in mind in their day.

For example, succeeding senior students as well as Yang Cheng-fu's sons all taught slightly different versions to their children and senior students. This is partly why there are so-many Yang-style variations today. One group of experts says that the modern versions are highly-evolved and stripped-down in relation to the needless complexity and difficulty of the original version of the Yang style while those in the opposing camp says that the modern versions are debased and simplistic versions of the original. The truth probably lies somewhere in-between, depending on the quality and integrity of whoever is teaching you.

The mythic roots often attributed to Chinese martial arts are interesting to research and often seem to spring out of the reluctance of an innovator to admit that he or she has created something as opposed to it being venerable or the work of heroes and gods. Most cultures have done the same thing in the past and valued the old over the new.

Such research usually leads us back to the same pragmatic position of having to take the word of whichever teacher you study with and their version of the story; or don't believe it and keep your mouth shut if you don't want to fall out with the teacher. I wanted to believe for many years but now realize it is less important to know who your teacher's teacher's teachers were and more important to know whether or not they are teaching you something valid.

This also seems, in my opinion, to be a separate issue from whether or not individual teachers mis-represent what they are teaching to feed the apparent need by many students to feel as if they are plugged into something 'special', something 'secret' that no-one else is getting. There seems to be a large number of such people involved in taijiquan and the modern recreational martial arts -- and they seem to have a lot of money to spend -- and not much common-sense.

Within reason, it is very true that the taiji must fit the seasoned practitioner and not the other way around. It is equally true that copying a good role-model to the best of your ability for your first few years of practice is equally essential! The study of any competently taught version of taijiquan remains an effective way in which to improve aspects of physical health [notably posture, balance and eye-hand coordination], achieve some measure of inner calm and physical relaxation and learn an effective martial system that can be practiced into middle age and beyond. Competence will not come overnight and you must learn to be patient in terms of your own progress without becoming too complacent about it.

While a traditional curriculum is often best for the serious practitioner, it also remains true that it is better to know a lot about a smaller amount of material that can be practiced in the indoor space that you have than to learn longer, more traditional solo and application forms that you can never practice for lack of space or inclement weather if you must practise out-of-doors!

As to martial training through taijiquan, you need good partners to train with and competent instruction, push-hands and solo form training by themselve teach you only enough to make fools think that they have achieved some real self-defense skills. In the end, practicing Yang-style Taijiquan competently in the modern age is in some ways completely different from what the founders had in mind in their day in China; but, the study of this discipline still remains an effective way in which to improve aspects of physical health [notably posture, balance and eye-hand coordination], achieve some measure of inner calm and physical relaxation and perhaps even learn an effective martial system that can be practiced into middle age and beyond.

Competence will not come overnight and you must learn to be patient in terms of your own progress without becoming too complacent about it. Perhaps, the greatest stumbling block for the average beginner in taijiquan is to think that because it looks easy when done by an experienced practitioner that it must be automatically easy to learn; or, to assume that the entire system shares the same characteristics.

What About Relaxation

One of the major challenges of training in taiji is to minimize habitual tension and the different versions all do this in somewhat different ways. In the Yang style, practicing the long, slow form properly can lead to sung a Chinese word which is usually translated into English as "relaxation" but more properly implies an appropriate ongoing application of force rather than a total lack of muscular effort. I like to describe it to my students as "not too much, not too little".

This, in the context of taiji, is best described as a loosening of the joints and muscles so that the body of the skilled practitioner seems somewhat boneless or rubbery when in motion. Of course, too much looseness/limpness is also counterproductive and a lot of the training is designed to help one find a physical balance between being too stiff and being too limp.

As to building health, I think the famous ancient Chinese philosopher, Chuang Tzu, had it right a long time ago when talking about how the hinge of a door or gate is less likely to rust shut when it is constantly used. I might add... as long as it is used efficiently and lubricated judiciously. So doing a slow Yang taiji form make a lot of sense to me in terms of building certain attributes physically as well as laying the groundwork for a meditative practise that can certainly calm the mind and build character.

Developing Martial Skills

Eventually, practicing the slow form properly, when you have developed a core understanding of the martial skills can let you MAINTAIN internal self-defense skills -- but only once you have developed these by practicing with others. Contrary to what I have heard from a variety of practitioners and instructors over the years, you cannot automatically develop such skills solely by doing form.

Training regularly with a variety of partners for some years is necessary if you hope to do more than scratch the surface of the martial side of the Yang-style. For those who have watched too many martial arts movies and are looking for fantastic martial abilities or to be able to have sword fights on treetops – smarten-up! Hard work and commonsense and not mystical mumbo-jumbo are the key ingredients in learning any martial system.

While any good teacher will make every attempt to teach you at your own pace and to safeguard the well-being of the student body while training, you must realize that eventually you will be practicing a variety of martial techniques with your fellows. There is a small -- but real -- risk of accidental injury and you must ready to put up with the occasional bruise, bump, strain or sprain.

A good teacher will care about maintaining a harmonious atmosphere in his or classes for a variety of reasons; but cannot magically make any two people do more than train together with common courtesy. It's perhaps unrealistic to expect more in such an environment. In general, how each of us deals with insensitivity [both real and imagined] is often a matter of "eating bitter" as a Chinese practitioner might have once said. In the Western tradition, the Stoic philosopher, Epictitus, suggested "It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters." That's still good advice some 1800 years after it was first offered.

In other words, learn from your mistakes rather than just blaming your partner or getting irritated with yourself. In addition, don’t avoid practicing with someone just because you find them a less-desirable partner for whatever reason -- it’s good training in patience and perseverance to work with those you like less.

Having previous martial experience can be either a curse or a blessing, depending on what you learned and how well you learned it. In my experience it is usually more beneficial to focus on how what I am teaching you is DIFFERENT from what you already know; rather than searching intellectually for similarities that may only exist in your own mind.

If you train too much and/or at irregular intervals you are much more likely to injure yourself, especially if you’re an older beginner or never did any contact sports as a young person. If you ache all the time and feel exhausted after, then your overdoing it or training incorrectly. It is also important to remember that “softness” is always relative and that being fit and strong is as important in an internal system as it is in any other means of learning self-defense skills. Conversely, it is also important to remember that, without compassion, strength easily becomes intolerance and arrogance; without strength, fears of one kind or another tend to rule our lives.

Once you Find a Teacher

While not all teachers are welcoming of questions during class; most will be happy to respond to questions that are intelligent or timely. Within reason, it is important to realize that a question is only stupid when you don’t listen to the answers or ask the same thing over-and-over.

It makes good sense to keep a simple training journal in which you record your thoughts on your practice and reread those notes periodically. You may well find that comments that seem impenetrable after one or two classes start to make a lot of sense, once you have a few months or years of training under your belt.

The other recommendation I have is to make videos periodically of yourself practising whatever solo forms that you are learning. It can be very helpful to watch these over time and compare them to what is being done by your teacher or the senior students in your class. It’s also a good way to help you identify your progress – or lack thereof.

Finally, you can only get out of the art what you bring to it -- if you don’t practise between classes or think that you can skip your home sessions as the mood takes you; you won’t get much in the way of results. One famous teacher said that three things were necessary to learn taiji: good instruction, hard work and patience and that the third was possibly the most important of those criteria! I’ve been at the Yang-style for close to 50 years and I still haven’t gotten all the answers though most of the important questions are not much clearer than they were when I was a beginner!

Final Thoughts

In the end, the occasional real expert one meets seems to break even their own rules in terms of the fluidity and changeability of both posture and intent. Such movement seems more like that of an animal or reptile… sinuous, rolling, effortless, instantaneous are words that come to mind. You don’t have to live out in the jungle to understand. Watch your house cat as she springs effortlessly for a fly in the air or notice how your dog’s eyes change and it’s body shapes up when it smells or sees a strange dog in its territory.

In human terms, I would also like to be able to say that such experts are also somehow better human beings than they would be without “internal power” but that’s often wishful thinking. Of the few that I have met [out of dozens who said or implied that they “had it”] some were also charming human beings whose presence warmed a room like a warm fire on a cold night; but an equal number were arrogant assholes.

It's often said that "it takes one to know one" and that's often true enough. I have been around enough and have enough skill to recognize such an expert when I meet one -- and Internal mastery is not [in my opinion]:

something mystical;

something that relies exclusively on ten years of solo practice of some “secret” form;

something that co-exists with bad posture and weak muscles;

something that seems to consist of endless talking and theorizing as opposed to sweating and suffering [the Chinese had/have an excellent phrase for this “you must be prepared to eat bitter, if you want to learn.”].

For long-term practitioners, the following is excellent advice on taiji training from the blog of a colleague in Sweden [Thank you, David Lee-Rothberg] though it is applicable to all of the Chinese internal systems:

“The only way to develop in Tai Chi is to find the right road by yourself. Maybe easier said than done, but the art of Tai Chi really demands responsibility from the person practicing it. You can’t really hide away from your own responsibilities if you want to develop and progress for real.”

Good luck with your road and I hope it’s not too bumpy or full of dead-ends.

Best Wishes in Your Training

Michael Babin

So You Want to Learn Taiji?

All Text Copyright © Michael A. Babin, 2024