Beginner Learning Tai Chi
Submitted by newagetaichi on Thu, 02/28/2008 - 23:20.
When it comes to learning Tai Chi, some of the common problems which beginners faced includes the following:
- Not able to synchronise betwen hand & leg movement
- Poor coordination between hand & leg movements
- Not able to provide a strong base of support for the leg posture, where the width between both legs are often too close together.
- Difficultly in remembering all the movements sequence
- Can only focus only either the hand or leg movements but not both
Anyone who faced similar problems or have encounter other different experiences when starting to pick up Tai Chi? Post your Tai Chi learning experience to share with the rest of the Tai Chi enthusiastics .
Forms and transitions
Sometime its easy to miss out the finer details during the transition of forms in a routine, and hence movement become like 3-in-1, general form there but not refine enough.
Correct Practice Makes Perfect
Very good comment and it is quite common for most beginners where the finer steps are often being missed out. Even for those who had been practicing so a very long time, without constant refinement and feedback, the more finer details will also often get missed out.
We must understand that Tai Chi consists of very specific movements and technical skills that needs constant practice and refinement in order to habitualise the movement routines. Hence, mindful awarness is one of the skills which needs to be developed, where we are always keeping awareness of the movment sequences yet being in a calm and relax state of mind. This could not be possible without constant practice and habitualization.
The different movements in Tai Chi is often being broken down into a series of movement sequence so as to aid in the learning and understanding of the whole Tai Chi movements. Very often, the sequence for the transistion movements is broken into the preliminary movement,the backswing or recovery movement, the force producing movement, the critical success sequcne and the follow through phase where the critcial success sequence actually determines the overall success execution of the movements.
Taking for instance the '金鸡独立' (Standing on 1 foot with high knee raise), the critical success sequence is the part where the body weight transfer has to be properly transferred to the supporting leg first and maintaining posture erect and neutral so that the lifting of the other leg will result in a smooth transition rather than a unstability movements.
This critical success movement if being left out, will result in very low success rate for the proper execution of the movement. Hence it is important to habitualise this during the normal practice. Correct practice makes perfect and understanding the reasons and concept behind each Tai Chi movment helps to better remember the movement sequence and from there to habitualise so that it will become automatic to the sub-conscious mind.
It is ok to practice slowly during our own practices so that we are more conscious of the movment sequence in the initial stage. Once we get to be more familiar with the movement steps, we can then link up the whole movement sequence into one continuous move together with the music. Tai Chi is a lifelong exercise with endless bounaries of exploration.
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