7 Mistakes to Fix in Tai Chi

Here are the seven big mistakes I see from my students during their taijiquan practice. Hi, I'm Master Gu from Wudang Taoist Wellness Academy. I'm going to help you live long and live well. Let's see how to fix these seven mistakes. The beginners, quite often, they just pay attention to the movement of their full limbs, but not the body. The beginners, they do merely just double arms. As a matter of fact, as you have observed, I have my body like a rotation. Two feet left, then two right, then two. Anyway, you see, front left, front right. Body method, generally speaking, is quite like a rotation. You just remember front, side, front, right. It's not merely the arm movement. This is the movement without any body part. That's not good. The beginner, he might lack the coordination between the eye and the movement. Still take this as an example. See, our eye, we go to left, our eye go right. This is an example. Or like this. So, wait. Now, eye from one side, and then eye change to go forward. Eye go left, and then eye look forward. Eye look one side, and go forward. Eye follow the main hand. If our body, the physical part is jing, and then we have the qi to move with the posture internally, and then our spirit reflected come out from the eyes. The eye follow the movement. This makes a whole combination of the three trails of a taiji demonstrator. Jing, qi, shen, all coming together. Very important. So, you must fix that mistake in which you don't have the cooperation with your eye. I'd like to invite you to join my free four-week courses, which helps you to raise your energy and calm your mind. Week one, we'll explore the Daoist approach to wellness, laying the foundation for your journey towards holistic health. Mastery meditation is the focus of week two, where you will learn to quiet the mind and find inner peace amidst the chaos. Week three, delve into qigong in depth, harnessing the power of breath and movement to cultivate vitality and balance. In week four, immerse yourself in the art of taiji, mastering its flowing movements and experiencing profound relaxation. So, I sincerely welcome you to join my free four-week courses. See you there. Wish you live long and live well. The beginner does not have sufficient solidity. Taijiquan demonstration, generally speaking, consists of the lower part, movement from the lower part and upper part. The function of our double feet, leg and feet, firstly, serve as something to support you. You must have firm grounding or sufficient solidity. Based on this solidity, then you demonstrate in a relaxed way all the movement from the upper part. So, if, for example, when we... Whatever step down there must be solid. Once we touch the ground, solid, solid. You must have sufficient solidity, okay? Now, the weight from right go left, from left go right. One single leg, so solid. Whatever step, solid is very enough. Next big mistake, don't have sufficient flexibility. So, taiji, whatever move, we see a good taijiquan. First of all, impress the people. It's a beautifully, you know, curved, or we say the soft, gentle move. Very flexible, not rigid. Although we have the martial meaning, but we still, we are very gentle and relaxed. So, the rigid way, you know, it's quite... I pretend to be rigid, you see. So, must change, avoid that. Next is the coordination. Of course, we have left leg, right leg, left hand, arm, right arm. How to do in a coordination way? Take this famous taiji posture, for example. So, this is the coordination. They do like this. Here, it's already very early, they have finished. And then, it means this is not a good coordination. One move, all moves. Here, down there, move. Here is also move. So, foot go there. So, everything, all are moving, all are moving. It's not like this is quite early, you have finished, and then you do. That's not good coordination. Next, a big mistake. They don't have a good degree of a specific posture. What is a good degree? We say, wu guo wu bu ji, wu guo wu bu ji. Don't excessively do a move, and neither insufficiently do a move. The right degree is 5.0, it's like this. If you do this, it's overmuch. If out of fear, you don't touch the opponent, something like this. It's here, but you're just here. That's not enough. So, neither this, nor this, the right degree is here. Another about degree, we say, shu zan er bu zang yang, jing cou er bu xiao qi. It means, you must spread, but not excessively do it. Nicely spread, wide tiger. If you do this, it's overmuch. If you do like, in order not to do like this, then you become to the other end, go do like this, it's too small. So, too small, too big. Tai chi chuan move, avoid too straight, too sharp corner. And in between, it's a nice curve. See, this is all nice curve. Even a push, it's not totally like this, it's still. That's about a degree. Tai chi chuan, the chuan means fist, means boxing. Although now, in slow motion, we mean to obtain the health keeping aspect, but anyway, the structure, its origin is related to martial arts. We still need to do the martial thing. For example, something about martial arts has three essential elements. One, gathering your strength to prepare for it. Then, you go out, there's a route. How? What's the route for your attacking hand to go out? Third element is the power point, power point. This posture, for example, so number one, I have inhale to prepare. Number two element, the route is from here. Number three, the power point is here. If I do another one, number one, get ready. Two, go out. Three, it's here, it's a power point. So these three, as a Tai chi demonstrator, even for health keeping sake, you still need to have something like that. Okay, one, two, three, it's here. Ready, one, you have, it's like a preparation. Two, okay, this is the route, how it goes out. Three, it can be here. So, transition, one, get ready. Two, this is the route. Three, wherever you are, you attack the opponent. So every move, every posture, they will have the martial flip. That's all, the seven big mistakes I point out. So wish you have a good progress. Thank you for watching.