Tai Chi, or, in modern Chinese, “Tai ji”, is a movement art that originated as a martial art in the nineteenth century in a small village in Henan province in north central China. Introduced to Peking (modern Beijing “northern capital”) it became well-known due to the reputation of the founder of the eponymous Yang style, Yang Lu Chan. As time passed, tai chi became famous and popularised. In order to teach the public, difficult moves were removed and the entire set, or Form, was simplified. This simplified form, when it transferred west, into the fertile ground of the 60s counter-culture, was even more diluted, and uprooted from its martial base, such that many practitioners refuse to acknowledge that it was even a martial art at all. Thus, tai chi has come to be seen as gentle movement routine suitable only for those who have lost dynamic whole body power; in other words, the elderly. In 150 years, from Yang the Invincible to Tai Chi in a chair, it is a tale found in all arts, from dynamic, energetic origins to effete, enervated exhaustion. As in empires, so in the arts. However, this isn’t the whole story. What is not widely known, and what is actively and heatedly denied by those not in the know, is that the Yang family kept the secret, powerful martial form inside the family. This was passed down to disciples (usually sons) only although in 2 cases, it went outside the family, to a step-brother (Tian Zhaolin) and to an outsider in Hong Kong (Ip Tai Tak) because the lineage holder had no sons ( but he did have daughters). Although I do not fight, nor do much martial sparring any more, I have learned the lineaments of this secret internal power from the son of the step-brother ( Tian Yinjjia) and the second disciple of the outsider (Robert Boyd). Although this secret power is absolutely unnecessary to enjoy tai chi, or even to gain a high level, even a bare understanding of the importance of structural alignment, relaxation and awareness can propel one to a superior level of practice. And so working on alignments is a big part of how I teach.

But herein lies a problem

The typical modern citizen coming to learn tai chi has a vague idea of it being relaxing, gentle and not too taxing. This isn’t incorrect, but it’s also extremely one-dimensional. On top of that, the average westerner coming to a class, especially if elderly, is suffering from many ailments that cannot be ignored. Osteoarthritis, diabetes, obesity, venous insufficiency, peripheral vascular resistance, metabolic syndrome, sciatica, not to mention the corrosive and debilitating effects of being immobile on a chair effectively since they started school, all the way through college and 40 years of a sedentary job, transport and TV life at home. The posture is often greatly distorted, with a raised upper back leading to a forward head position,which can collapse the chest leading to a switching off of the diaphragm, then an isolated, weak core, often stretched tight because of lumbar concave compression (lordosis) due to the aforementioned sitting all day. The legs are very weak usually, and the capacity to do something like a squat is nigh impossible, or not without pain. In addition, fitness levels are very poor, and I have not even mentioned twisting due to unilateral tightness, jammed legs, scoliosis, kyphosis as well as the lordosis mentioned above.

As a result of this, in order for any class or teacher to retain students, the tai chi that is taught is, perforce, going to be weak and very gentle, with participants merely skirting the edges of their ROM ( Range of Motion). In other words, they are learning a choreography that does little to change their posture. Granted, they do get benefit, and their coordination, balance and leg power might indeed improve, but it is a fraction of what they could be getting. The problem of tai chi is the same as that of a meditation cushion; once you get off the cushion, you go back to your discursive mind, with endless chattering and distraction. When you leave tai chi class, lack of awareness and change in your posture leads you to ”fall into dysfunction” and you reinforce the postural misalignment which can have terrible long-term consequences for your health and for which you sought out a class in the first place.

How I teach

Given all of this, I have, over the years, modified how I teach, by combining instruction in the sequence of connected postures that people recognise as Tai Chi, with information on bodily alignment, and how to change the posture to conform to this superior alignment. This alteration is not easy, and may take years, depending on how much effort is put in. Some students make dramatic progress in 6 months. Every class, I reinforce and go over these same principles again and again. We go through the Form slowly, trying to correct without hypercorrection, constantly attempting to smooth out the rough corners. There are many factors for success. But we are dealing with another problem too.

The frantic modern mind in the abused body

In modern life, many of us live in our heads. We exist in bubbles of the past and, more frequently, the future, or we are listening to music, podcasts, or watching TV, YouTube videos etc. The actual lived moment-to-moment nowness of the present is regarded as something to be actively avoided. A 2014 experiment demonstrated that people would rather shock themselves than be left to their own thoughts for a mere 15 minutes. What happens when there is no external stimulation? Emotions come up; anger, shame, anxiety, fear, depression and boredom ( which can encompass most of the others). This incapacity to sit still and do nothing can be attributed to many things, the main one being, in my opinion, being brought up in a household where the child doesn’t feel loved or noticed, or worse, lives in perpetual fear. Add in a noisy city, incessant stimulation from TV from childhood, relentless advertising that we are never good enough without X product, (1000x worse on social media), strict school regimes with possible bullying and a crushing conformity and so on. Such people (myself included) found solace in loud, shouty pubs and bars where you have to shout to be heard, or walk around with permanent headphones on. This tuning out of the body leaves one adrift from oneself. If you include a total disconnect from Nature, industrial, empty nutrition, polluted air and microplastics in everything with who knows what cellular effects, as well as EM radiation, poor sleep patterns, toxic relationships at home and in work, a feeling of pointlessness to existence, a total erasure of spirituality from daily life, and it comes as no surprise that modern western humans want to numb themselves as soon as and as often as possible. I certainly did. I won’t bore you with my own personal past, suffice to say that I was on the path to alcoholism, and possibly death from the same, like my best friend, dead at 38. Or a fate of being homeless like my sister, or angry and resentful like other siblings. Tai chi was my path out of that tangled thorn forest. Through learning to feel my body, I was able to release a lot of tension, tension that was constricting my mind, keeping me festering in resentments. On top of a lot of deep massages, a lot of standing practice, and constant movement in the Form, I learned to smooth out my nervous system. I’m not 100% Zen yet, but my mind and my body are a different species than I was at 24, when I started. It took many many years of searching for the right information. What I try to do when I teach is give all of that information as soon as possible, saving students the decades of frustration that I had. Feeling, releasing, getting comfortable in one’s skin, all this is very important, and has implications beyond a one-hour weekly class. I was also, at 34. ( I am now 57), extremely fortunate to find a living meditation master from Tibet, whose teachings are now the most important thing in my life and a perfect matrix within which to couch the movement arts of Tai Chi and Qi Gong, a relaxed mind in a relaxed and healthy body, mens sana in corpore sano.