Hi, I’m Glenn Nunes, teaching Tai Chi since 2005, I have noticed many students face more or less the same difficulties. Learning tai chi is really easy but requires practice, dedication and a willingness to learn.
Friday, 8 June 2012
Importance of BASICS
Why are basics so essential?
A baby at first crawls, later stands and then takes baby steps forward. Every step of the way, the baby gains strength and confidence to take on the next step in the process of learning to walk and run.
Without adequately crawling, standing or struggling to gains its balance as it tries to walk, the body of the baby is not sufficiently prepared to take on full scale walking and running.
Each step of this learning process has to be fully experienced, only then will the mind and body understand and naturally co-ordinate with each other. This co-ordination between mind and body is essential for the baby to walk, run and go about life’s business in a normal way. In other words the foundations of walking and running are laid solidly during this process.
A similar process happens while learning Tai Chi or for that matter any art.
Many a time, students in their haste to learn quickly tend to skim over the basics in Tai Chi. He or she feels that the teacher is unnecessary prolonging the teaching and could definitely go faster.
Basics like a correct stance, an erect spine, etc. are very important. They have to be firmly understood and established at the beginning. These are the foundations of learning Tai Chi and later enjoying it.
The basic course in Tai Chi does precisely that. It focuses on the foundations of stance, balance, movement, etc. That is why sufficient time and practice must go into this.
Repeated actions become habits. Habits once ingrained are pretty difficult to undo. Many a time bad habits are nothing, but undesirable actions repeated many times that have gone unnoticed.
If the basics are not firmly established at the beginning itself, ‘bad tai chi habits’ develop. As a student progresses, these bad habits become increasingly difficult to weed out.
Taking a couple of examples -
· An incorrect stance is unstable, uncomfortable and at times painful. If not corrected early enough, you end up repeating the incorrect stance everywhere it occurs in the form. Later on this could lead to physical discomfort either in the knee or the back.
· Looking down towards the feet – is a common habit which develops, when the student looks at his or her feet to ensure proper footing in a step. This needs to be done only for a couple of classes initially, not more. What is more important is to ‘feel’ the correctness of the foot placement.
In the beginning while learning Tai Chi, understand correctly the steps being taught. Spend a little extra time to pay attention to the initial steps. If you are unclear about any step, clarify your doubts with your teacher.
Once you learn the basics correctly, your subsequent practice of Tai Chi will become more easier and more effortless.
Posted by Glenn Nunes at 04:34
