How to Tell the Good from the Bad in Tai Chi Form
From Inside Kung Fu magazine, May 1982.
Reprinted with permission.
TAI CHI CHUAN
Of all the world’s martial arts, which one is the most popular? If popularity is defined by the number of practitioners, it becomes very easy to say which martial art is “most popular.”
Not karate, not tae kwon do, and probably not any of the hundreds of styles or substyles of kung-fu.
The most practiced art in the world is surely tai chi chuan. Along with hundreds of thousands of practitioners in North America and Europe, there are hundreds of millions of practitioners in China who practice the forms on a daily basis. (A hundred million people would represent only about ten percent of the total population of the People’s Republic of China.)
With so many practitioners, the people who know the art naturally represent a cross-section of the human population, with all the strengths and weaknesses common to human nature. Therefore, it seems obvious that there are both superior tai chi masters and inferior tai chi masters, and all the degrees of competency in between.
The question that arises, then, is how to tell a good tai chi instructor from an average one. This becomes a very complex issue, because tai chi chuan is a very subtle and sophisticated art. And since there are differing opinions on how the art should be used, or even on exactly what tai chi is, it is impossible to say that one person’s opinion is “right” or “wrong.” But there are some general guidelines that can be used as a basic way to judge practitioners and instructors. Regardless of the style of tai chi chuan, the basic requirements are the same.
To be continued.
