"If one practices with incorrect or dysfunctional habits, the mere
repetition of the same mistakes only ingrains the habits further,"
I always warn my students.
How should one practice?
Since mere repetition does not lead to mastery, the practice must
change dynamically at each stage of one's individual growth and development.
Each movement should be fully integrated with the principle of proper alignment
of the muscular and skeletal structure according to the fundamental Taiji
guidelines.
One of the most basic of such Taiji guidelines is that the waist
should direct all movement like the center of a wheel. Close your
eyes and extend your hands sideways; by turning the waist from side to
side you will experience how arm motion should be directed and initiated
from the waist.
What is the correct model to follow in one's practice?
" My teacher's form," is the most obvious reply but the wrong answer.
Imitation of one's teacher's form is only an initial stage of learning.
You must know which form to imitate.
A student must learn to recognize whether s/he is imitating the
true Taiji form or actually picking up the teacher's unconscious habits
and physical limitations.
I once observed a famous Chinese master who had injured his left
hand while fighting in World War II. When he performed the Brush
Knee with his left hand, his old war injury caused his left wrist to jerk
up. That was not the case when he did the Brush Knee with his right
hand; then no such jerk existed.
The students in the class, with perfectly good left hands, all imitated
this injured gait of their teacher. To this day, I can identify his
students just from this left wrist jerk style.
A master should polish out most of the obvious dysfunctional habits
in his/her own style but a student should also be keen on investigating
movements by observing other masters on his/her own.
By learning from all the blind men & women who have touched
the elephant, one gets a fuller sense of what the elephant looks like.
Finally, there comes a point when a student graduates from the 'monkey
see monkey do' style of learning into his own original form. S/he
must create and develop a uniquely intimate style of practice that infuses
the individual with the form. Form and self merge into one.
It is only then that such a student may be called a master.
For this very reason one of my Taiji teachers refused the title
of Master. He felt that he had not achieved such a stage of originality
and mastery.
thanks to Donald White for his correction
in the usage of the English language.
June 1, 1999