Tai Chi

Tai Chi is a very difficult discipline to fully understand and at some level you absolutely need a teacher. That said, you can get started with a combination of training videos and textual study of the underlying principles.

I teach the Yang style of Tai Chi and have my own teachers that are high up in the Tai Chi world (). A good teacher can show you things in months to years that you may or may not ever figure out on your own.

Because of my long-term study of Tai Chi I&#39ve gone through numerous training videos, texts, etc. and they are often very hard to learn from. My teacher, Master Vincent Chu, created what I think is one of the best tai chi training dvd&#39s sets that I&#39ve ever seen. (it is available via our site, by clicking the dvd link). I&#39m obviously biased, but I&#39ve watched many of these, including other videos by my own teachers and even knowing the form sometimes they are difficult to pick up from the videos. This one I still learn quite a bit from and is about the only one that I truly feel someone can start learning the form and truly develop correct principles from.

Congratulations on your interest in learning T&#39ai Chi. I would recommend starting with a class. That will get you started, introducing you to the various positions. A teacher can guide you to the correct stance, whereas if you rely on proprioception it will often be inaccurate, based on postural habits you&#39ve developed over time.

Once you learn the postures and flow of the form, if you continue to practice on a regular basis, after awhile the form begins to teach you, as the universal forces move through your body.

The more you invest in studying the principles on which T&#39ai Chi is based, understanding structure, the importance of grounding, alignment, and a slow meditative heart/Dan-tien centered pace, the greater the benefit and the more the energies can begin to teach you as they move through your body.

There are many styles of T&#39ai Chi, and teachers with a variety of skills. If you start with a short form, you can concentrate on form, structure and alignment. With that foundation, you can go on to learn more complex forms, but you will benefit from the beginning, and not have to unlearn improper form.

Have patience with the process and let yourself enjoy it. Allow yourself to practice in a meditative frame of mind avoiding a need to achieve something.