What Happens in a Tai Chi Class?

Welcome to this weeks episode where we ask the simple, but surprisingly complex question...

Q2. What happens in a Tai Chi Class?

A. Well, The short answer is that in a class of Tai Chi, you learn tai chi.

The content of that learning experience however can vary from school to school, from teacher to teacher so much, that books and web sites and DVD's recommending one version over another, one style over another don't help an awful deal. What really helps is not how much you know about tai chi, but how much you know about yourself

Let me explain that a little.

What one person sees as soft, another sees as hard. What one sees as slow, another sees as fast. My dog can run pretty fast. But put against a greyhound and he looks like a tortoise. We think of a tortoise as a slow mover, but put one against a snail and youve got one speedy shelled creature - and so it goes on.

I have been to beginners classes that have had an inordinately complex structure. (for me) but for the teacher they have epitomized simplicity itself. I have been to advanced classes Where we have done little else that practice the first 2 minutes of the short form. Nothing is set. Everything is fluid. There is no such thing as absolutes or certainties. You have to learn to take it as you find it.

For that reason it's always best to go and view a class before enrolling, signing-up or committing yourself to a life-long apprenticeship with the loudest school with the biggest advertising budget.

Find out where your nearest classes because - geography is always going to be a big issue - and go and visit each one. Introduce yourself, say you are there to just to watch (or join in if invited) and just see what you think and how you feel.

So what are you looking for? Well, get your note book and and scribble down a couple of points.....

Listen on for the whole podcast or visit teapotmonk.com for more taoist nonense...