Thoughts of a Taiji Beginner

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Tai Chi Books, Video, Knowledge, Practice

Nowadays, push hands practice has been going quite well, but it was never as good as that day. But still quite close, so it seems i have only awakened for a moment. With more practice, just need more practice.

Another thing, I am currently looking for a cheaper version of Dong Ying Jie's (Tung Ying Chieh) book: Taiji Quan Shi Yi(太极拳释义). The one selling on the Dong family website is awfully expensive!!!!

Other than that, i saw a video the other day on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YPhhGPgCiY&search=zhong%20ding where Chen Xiao Wang was demonstrating Zhong Ding(中定) Central Rootedness. It was quite incredible! The guy could not even move Chen Xiao Wang while he was standing on only one leg!!

Yesterday, I did a group demonstration for Queen Elizabeth! And when she was looking at our demonstration, i overheard her saying that she has also just started learning taiji(Disclaimer: Don't quote me on this!) However, although we were there doing the routine from start to second White Crane Spread Wings(白鹤亮翅) for like an hour with a short break in between, she only looked at us for about a minute.

During our demonstration, My knees were aching at first but at the end of the hour, the aching was gone and their movement was much smoother! This reminds me of something Dong Ying Jie said, of always practising the routine 3 times in a row. The first time for warm up and stretching, the second for corrections, improvements and getting into the mood and the third for solidifying the corrections and doing the routine perfectly with your body and mind as one. Only so can you improve rapidly. And then he said, that would make up to 10+ times per day(not possible for the normal working man!!!!).