Building up your strength takes time, practice, commitment and patience.
In truth, you may not even realise it is happening.
Internal arts training is not strenuous or stressful.
You undertake regular training and let the mild exercise build up layers of strength.

An hour of training every morning mounts up over time.
Pretty soon you have a level of strength you never expected.
This is not the strength required to lift a massive weight.
It is the strength to deliver a penetrating strike, snap a limb or flip an opponent without trying.

Be careful not to trust your own wisdom prematurely.

We all look back now and then, and find our former judgements lacking, and ill-informed.

Tai chi students smiling is a parody of the actual requirement.

Can you honestly picture Imperial Guards 150 years ago smiling gaily as they practiced the art?
Does such an image inspire confidence in their abilities?

This does not mean that you should look glum, not have fun or feel miserable.
Just do not be a phoney.

Value is relative to perspective and perception.

A beginner values what they think something is and what they believe it is worth.
An advanced practitioner may not see any value whatsoever in a commodity prized by a beginner.

One of the requirements of tai chi is to be calm and composed at all times.
This refers to:

1. Cognitive awareness and clarity
2. Being in the moment
3. Having balanced emotions

So why are tai chi people smiling?

This is a good question.
They are smiling because they want you to see that they have cognitive awareness and clarity, are in the moment and have balanced emotions.

You ask questions because you seek answers, and you shape your requests accordingly.
But all questions are blind.

You do not know the answer.
You do not know what it is you are seeking.

How then can you hope to ask for it?

Answers are relative to questions.

Who is to say that you are asking the right questions?

People who practice tai chi as performance art want to look good.
A pleasing smile indicates that the student is enjoying themselves, happy and not struggling with the movements.
It projects a sense of ease.

A master always has something to offer, while we go hungry because of our lack of appreciation.

 (Kakuzo Okakura)

Seeing an old man who wanted to take up philosophy but was embarrassed, Socrates said to him, "Don't be embarrassed to become better at the end of your life than you were to begin with."

(Thomas Cleary)

Effort/reward ratio:

Internal body use challenges conventional wisdom and the conventional application of strength.
The body must be strong.
The application of that strength is unorthodox.

The aim is to use most of your power in combat; uniting the entire body in application.
Yet, the target is small.

Every action is a complete action. Every part of you does every movement.
This may sound strenuous but it is not.
Instead of delegating the workload to your arms and shoulders, every part of the body is involved.
Instead of forcing your will upon the entire attacker, you limit your attention to a small part of their body and use everything you have on that target.

The strategy comes from The Art of War.

It is not uncommon to see tai chi people practicing a challenging form with a beatific smile on their face.
This may at first seem pleasant.
After all, smiling is good.
Isn't it?
  

Internal Kung Fu badges

When Yang Lu-chan popularised tai chi by teaching it to the Manchu Emperor's palace guards, he probably taught sword forms.
Why?
Because in 1850 it may have been a well-used weapon in China.
Yang Lu-chan's purpose in teaching sword would have been for self defence, for viable, practical martial purposes.

150 years later...
In the UK nobody carries a sword.
You are unlikely to be attacked by a sword and you are unlikely to be carrying a sword yourself.
The police are not happy with members of the public owning or using swords.

 If you are studying tai chi in order to preserve the heritage, then swords are a must.
 You should learn how to use both the straight sword and the broadsword.
 Learning the spear and staff may be valuable too.

 Many practitioners commit a significant amount of time to learning weapons forms and drills.
 These people keep the traditions alive.

Dave Lowry maintains that not all so-called 'martial arts' are actually martial arts.
'Martial art' literally refers to a combat system that has been tried in battle/used by professional warriors/soldiers.
Such an art was intended for self defence and the training methods should reflect this.

A lot of contemporary arts are 'fighting arts'.
They may have been designed as a sport, or for their aesthetic value.
e.g. modern tai chi is often merely performance art.
A fighting art may be very functional and effective, but (strictly speaking) it is not a martial art.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6E1cR8toNk

Range is different to reach.
It represents a scale of extension; between what is close and what is far.
Reach is the extreme, the limit of range.

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them.

 But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.

 And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

 

 (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)

Shen is manifested through the eyes.

You must be one with the moment, and every facet of your being must be expressed through the eyes.
This is not to be confused with staring or looking aggressive.
The spirit must come through you.

When you practice the form, take a moment to feel the shape and nature of the movement being performed.

Remember that the form contains approximately 225 separate movements, although many are repeats, and variations on a theme.
Across the form you will see many examples of each animal represented.

You must understand all of the movements in terms of the 5 animals.

 The art of teaching is clarity and the art of learning is to listen.

  

  (Vanda Scaravelli) 

Each of the animals embodies certain characteristics that must be explored in self defence.
This constitutes the 'way of' part of the syllabus.

These qualities must be incorporated:

1. Bear
   - gravity, indifference, casual
    
2. Bird
   - open & close, unite upper & lower
    
3. Monkey
   - withdraw, yielding, softness, distraction
    
4. Snake
   - reeling silk, speed striking, wave, penetration
    
5. Tiger
   - advance, wu nien

Merely to train 5 animals in form is to practice the shape but not the essence of the animal.

A Tai Chi Grandmaster must have taught an extensive number of high-level Instructors, be in a position of significant responsibility within a school and have influence in the wider tai chi/martial arts community.

What is a treasure?

1. A quantity of precious metals, gems, or other valuable objects
2. A very valuable object
3. Keep carefully (a valuable or valued item)
4. Value highly
5. A collection of precious things
6. From Greek θησαυρος; thesaurus, meaning "a treasure of the chest"
7. A concentration of riches, often one which is considered lost or forgotten until being rediscovered
8. A term of endearment
9. To consider to be precious
10. To store or stow in a safe place

The 16 treasures are key skills that underpin the entire system.

People are seldom aware of postural faults; their sense of balance is not reliable.
When most students are asked to adopt a shoulder-width stance with the insides of the feet parallel, they usually have one foot askew but feel as if they don't.
Then they look.

Does your martial art cater for the realities of self defence?
Are you learning to respond to multiple attackers?
Will your opponents be armed?
Do they carry knives or other improvised weapons?
What will you be wearing? What kind of footwear?

Be honest about what you are expecting to do with your art.
Is your art up to the needs of self defence?
Are you training the necessary skills?

In order to step, all of your weight must first move into the supporting leg - making it 100% weighted.
The unweighted leg then lengthens and the foot places.
There is no more weight in the foot than the weight of the foot itself.
When stepping, transfer weight from the heel to the ball of the foot.
Feel how the ball actually pushes slightly back towards you when it receives pressure from the weight shift.
This awareness is very important because it prevents the knee joint from being bent too far.

Learning to strike somebody and learning how to take a strike are essential.
Being hit can really mess you up.
Clever self defence tactics and techniques may fall to pieces when you are actually taking hits.
It is imperative that you know how to relax and roll with the punch.

Developing your own striking ability is critical. Without it, you cannot hope to defend yourself.
You need to make each blow count. 
Range, timing, distance, accuracy and penetration must be practiced relentlessly.
A bag or focus mitt is not the same as a person. You need to strike real people.
Do not pull your punches. Let them land. Feel whether or not you are receiving adverse feedback.
Learn to control your power, your commitment and your intent.

Punching thin air may train the body mechanics behind a strike but tells you nothing about your ability.

Fear needs to be addressed as well as competence under pressure.

You do not have to endure severe combat training in order to see how you cope under duress.
It can be done safely and playfully. If this sounds improbable, look at sport.

What matters is the core requirements:

1. Keeping a cool head
   - no anger
   - no upset
   - no panic
    
2. Decisiveness
   - action
   - no dithering
   - no getting ready/anticipating
   - no worrying
    
3. Effectiveness
   - does it work?
   - are you able to follow it up?
   - can you improvise, adapt and change?

You need to know that the material works and have the confidence to use it when the situation is unpredictable and confusing.

Group dynamics and evasion strategies cannot be codified into a step-by-step guide.
You must learn to go with the flow, responding and adapting to the needs of the situation.
This takes patience and practice.

If you lose your composure, you lose everything.

You need to work with punches, kicks and grapples. It needs to be varied, confusing, unsettling and unpredictable. A melee.

Tao Te Ching, The Art of War, The Book or Five Rings and I Ching all offer excellent principles.
These are what you need in self defence.

Scour your art for underlying precepts of body use, relationship and strategy.

Provocative behaviour will draw attention to yourself.
Wearing your martial arts costume, sweatshirt or lapel badge all call attention to what you do.
Similarly, macho behaviour only demonstrates an inner weakness. An insecurity. Your fear.

Keep your skills quiet and subtle. Avoid being noticed.

Optimal range is a necessary consideration in terms of health, and combat.
It is the degree of range that enables you to use your extension most effectively.
Considerations:

1. Ease
2. Root
3. Comfort
4. Strength
5. Stability
6. Movement
7. No leaning
8. Relaxation
9. No stretching
10. Maintain balance

When operating within your optimal range, your body is far stronger and more resilient.
It can adapt, change and move with ease and comfort.

Stretching the body is good when the purpose is exercise.
When lifting a heavy object or when engaged in combat, stretching in not a good idea.

The problem with stretching at the wrong time is that it puts stress on the body, reduces stability and prevents freedom of movement.
A stretched joint cannot rotate and turn comfortably.
It is not relaxed.
It is prone to injury.

The internal arts never advocate stretching in everyday life or combat.
The joints remain free and loose, heavy and dropped.

The internal arts teach the student to move the entire body towards the opponent, rather than stretch out the limbs.
Stretching is regarded as foolish:

1. It exposes the ribcage, armpit and torso
2. It makes the joints less resilient
3. It makes it easier for your balance to be taken
4. An opponent can avoid a strike more easily
5. The further out from the centre you reach, the less power you have

Rather than stretch, you step.

If you cannot employ optimal power at your current range, do something else.

Long, narrow stances are not combat stances. They were designed for performance.

The deep, horse stance is not for combat either. It is intended to build strength in the legs.

A realistic combat stance enables you to be pushed firmly from all sides without any loss of root.
It allows freedom of movement.
It keeps the joints and spine mobile and loose.

Find the stance that allows you to use your body in a smooth, natural, spontaneous fashion.
A stance that easily facilitates walking.

Partner work, form and other drills can teach students about reach and range.
Three useful solo training methods are easy to practice at home:

1. 3 tier wallbag
2. Striking post
3. Pushing peng (against a wall)

The wallbag ensures that your strikes are powerful and have no adverse feedback into your body.

Use a tree, column or doorframe as a striking post and practice stepping and striking.
With practice, you learn how much power you possess at what range, and begin to find the different ranges instinctively.

Pushing peng is about finding optimal alignment, relaxing and cultivating groundpath.
Virtually any posture from the form can be trained this way.

Ask your training partner to:

1. tug sharply on your wrist
2. kick your thighs and calves vigorously
3. push your torso from all sides
4. be awkward against your applications

Did you lose balance?
Did you need to tense-up or perform an action in order to compensate?

If your stability is lost or you lacked power, explore your stance, reach and range.

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...

The journey into self...

Taoism is concerned with the nature of our existence. It is not a religion in the common sense of that term.
It asks hard questions about our values, beliefs and perceptions.
It posits the possibility that much of our knowledge is based on cultural conditioning, rather than fact.

A serious journey into taoism will challenge the most ardent student.
There are no rituals, dogmas or practices to perform.
No worship.

The insights uncovered by your study will affect your everyday life.
Taoists try to appreciate, learn from and work with whatever happens in life, rather than impose order on a chaotic world.

Taking an unflinching look at who you are and how you live your life will go a long way to tempering your ego.
Taoism is not for people seeking a new 'lifestyle region'.
It is uncompromising.

As an off-shoot of taoism, zen also warrants some serious study.

Immersion in the way...

Mastering yourself is not so easy.
Taoism counsels you to remain quiet and anonymous, to avoid attracting attention.
You must become one with the tai chi, and one with everything around you.
The process refers to the ongoing loss of self and the immersion of your mind and body in tao:

1. No ego.
2. No opinions.
3. No aggression.
4. No attitude.
5. No pride.
6. No vanity.
7. No petty behaviour.
8. No cruelty.

Lose everything that stops you from being a pure, natural person.
Only when you have surrendered every thought, memory and pre-conception can you begin to feel humble and compassionate.
These qualities must be genuine, not artifice.

It may take a lifetime but it will be time well spent.

 Taoism furnished the basis for aesthetic ideals, zen made them practical.

(Kakuzo Okakura)

Why is the tao so valuable?

 Because it is everywhere,

 and everyone can use it.

 

 This is why those who seek

 will find,

 And those who reform

 will be forgiven;

 Why the good

 will be rewarded,

 And the thief who is cunning

 will escape.

 

 (Lao Tzu)

Our tai chi movements utilise three dimensions at all times:

1. Vertical
2. Horizontal
3. Forwards & backwards

Every posture, every movement, is a combination of these three dimensions.
It has to be. It is the physics. Width, height, length.

Certain body parts enable us to use three dimensions:

1. up & down, using hand and back
2. side-to-side, using the waist, hips and legs
3. movement between the feet

 Pick any tai chi exercise or movement and consider it in light of this.

Pushing is the action of moving something using the application of force.
Force requires something to push off; this is called resistance.
Resistance is the opposing force.

Tai chi never uses force against force, so it can only be applied when there is very little resistance.
We only ever apply 4 ounces of pressure.

Mastery

After a 20 year Master/disciple relationship, Peter Southwood awarded Sifu Waller 'Master' status in the Year of the Tiger.
He said that Sifu Waller should start wearing the red sash instead of black.
Peter Southwood felt that Sifu Waller qualified as a Tai Chi Master on the basis of the following accomplishments:

1. The 1300 page website giving unparalleled insight into tai chi
2. Exceptionally good shuai jiao, chin na, jing and form applications
3. His grasp of whole-body strength, how to cultivate it, refine it and teach it
4. His study of taoism and the Tai Chi Classics and his skill in infusing the art with the requisite principles
5. The production of a professional-quality syllabus, complete with logical, comprehensive grades, belts and assessment

The samurai must maintain his faith in his beliefs, even as the social or political climate shifts and alters. He must be patient, must act in a manner that may at times seem irrational or illogical, must resist the temptations of instant gratification, and must work towards fulfilling what may seem to be an impossible idea.

As a result, the samurai is often something of an outsider, a rebellious figure because he refuses to conform to the habits of the day.

(Takahiro Kitamura)  

Consider Newton's third law of motion: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The more force you apply, the more resistance you will encounter.
This is clearly counter-productive.

Slow, smooth, soft movements are a sure indicator of skill.