The key to getting stronger is to master the fundamentals.
Spend a lot of time just standing.
40 minutes once a week is great.
15 minutes a day is a must.

Moving qigong in its various forms will supplement standing, training the body to move in the correct way.
Form accomplishes the same.

Partner drills build up awareness and sensitivity.
The ability to affect another person.

A striking post or wallbag ensures that your strikes possess power, rather than just being empty.

The weakest part of any new starter is the mind.
Modern minds are lazy, distracted, eager for gratification and entertainment.

The calm, detached, logical, disciplined mind of a martial artist is very different to that of a 'consumer'.
We recognise that there is more to life than shopping, celebrity, fleeting fads and fancies.
Patience, tenacity, endurance... these develop a quiet strength.

We are not interested in pitting strength against strength.
Our aim is to evade strength, re-direct power and destabilise the attacker.

Instead of force against force, we circumvent.
We break the root.
We lead into emptiness.

You do not need to be immensely strong in the upper body.
The power will be coming from the ground, so stronger legs are more important.

Most people quit within a lesson or so, others within a year.
The hype surrounding modern tai chi leads new starters to have high ambitions and low commitment.

For some inexplicable reason new starters forget that using the body for hours at a time requires strength.
Combat necessitates concentration and stamina.

It is common to see new starters gasping for breath minutes after a melee exercise commences.
Their minds are reeling in confusion.
They are not breathing properly.
They are incredibly unfit.
Unprepared.

And yet these same people wonder why they are not being shown advanced-level skills...