All blog
Teaching tai chi - 3 minutes read
A Problem with Traditional Tai chi Lineages - The Perils of Authority and Power
I sometimes feel sorry for lineage holders. They cannot be regular martial artists like other people. They have to be curators of their lineage and protectors of their school's reputation.
Teaching tai chi - 1 minute read
Easy to do. Difficult to correct.
There are principles, techniques and methods that can only be learned slowly, gently, and carefully.
Teaching tai chi - 7 minutes read
The importance of doing hardly any practice.
Instead of complaining that you hardly practise, let me congratulate you for practising at all. Action is motivation. Hardly doing anything can often be infinitely better than doing nothing.
Teaching tai chi - 1 minute read
Effortlessness in CONTEXT
Teaching from first principles helps to avoid the pitfalls that plague many martial artists. Exercises cause students to forget the importance of context.
Teaching tai chi - 1 minute read
Don't call it "chi" ( "chee", "qi" )
Call it subtlety."Chi" or "qi" (both are pronounced "chee"), unless you are speaking Japanese, in which case it is "ki"
Teaching tai chi - 6 minutes read
Questions, questions, questions.
Students must ask questions. (video) If the teacher doesn't like questions, then you might be in a cult.
Teaching tai chi - 1 minute read
The Technique is not about the Technique
Techniques do not work. Students must embody the principles and apply the method in ways that manifest as incidental techniques.
Teaching tai chi - 7 minutes read
Lest we forget. Balance is a verb.
Martial arts training is a microcosm of international socio-economics. The lessons we learn in class can be applied to peacemaking on a global scale.
Teaching tai chi - 1 minute read
Adaptive pedagogy for tai chi and martial arts
It is impossible to find a teaching method that works the same way for everyone. (12-minute video)