This article covers the bare minimum amount of knowledge that any beginning Tai Chi teacher, style, school or method of Tai Chi should know and be able to convey in order to teach Tai Chi. Without this basic knowledge students will not be able to gain any of the real health, healing or energetic benefits of Tai Chi. Most of what is detailed here is normally taught within the first year or two of Tai Chi training and can easily be learned within the first 3 years of training.
Imagine going to the auto dealer and buying a high performance sports car that costs more than your house. Then, after you buy the car, you find out that you did not get what you thought you paid for. Instead, you got the car frame/shell of a high performance sports car and all of the internal mechanical parts are missing or have been replaced with a cheap engine.
Now, imagine that you do not have any idea about engines or transmissions. Due to your lack of knowledge you do not understand why your car will not run and do all of the impressive things that you have seen and read about. Without getting some education you would be stuck with a car that looks like a sports car, but, which in fact internally is not one.
Unfortunately, this is an all too common scenario found by many students and practitioners of Tai Chi in America. There are plenty of skilled Tai Chi teachers to be found in the USA. They figure that if the Tai Chi moves frame/body/form looks good then the inside and knowledge base is most likely okay as well. Without any other information to go on, students simply sign up and take Tai Chi classes from someone who looks the part.
Many people mistakenly think that if they just keep practicing the Tai Chi form then eventually they will grow into the knowledge and somehow magically gain the majority of benefits that Tai Chi offers. Unfortunately, magically getting the benefits of Tai Chi this way is about as likely as a car frame magically growing a new engine. As nice as that would be, it simply is not the case.
This series of blog posts are designed to help our local Maryville Tai Chi students know what to look for and what kind of questions to ask a prospective Tai Chi instructor. We at Clear Silat’s Tai Chi have an international reputation as Tai Chi instructors who regularly release advanced Tai Chi courses, classes, and video; these posts are best suited to Maryville Tai Chi students.
Best,
Richard Clear