When do you start to learn Tai chi, Kungfu? Why do you want to learn? (6)

Sérgio Miguel Ferreira • Hi Cathy. I started practicing martial arts when i was 8, more specifically karate, and rhitg then and there, i felt that martial arts was the “way”. I discovered tai chi, when i was 19, and since then, i always practiced it (more or less). And you’re rigth, most people who practice it, are old people. But don’t worry about that, it’s just a misunderstanding. Everybody should do it, because tai chi, is a complete martial art, but it also has a ‘problem’. It takes too much time, and focus, at the beggining, and it’s hard to see it as a martial art. It also happened to me. Only very recently, i understood that the problem, is not in tai chi, is in us. We are “trapped” in our concepts of physical strenthg, that we don’t know that there are other ways to manifest strenght. In tai chi that is the case, but you can see it too, in other chinese internal styles, such as in baguazhang or xingiyquan and even in the japanese style of aikido. Together with tai chi, bagua and xingiy are known as ‘Neijia’. They use training methods that are different from the external styles, such as hard kung fu styles (long fist, choy li fut, wing chung, white crane, maying prantis) or karate and taekwondo.
Fist they train the mind, you must learn how to relax and feel the ‘chi’. That is why the ‘form’ is done slowly. Then you learn how to use the ‘chi’ in self defense, with the Jin.

In external styles, is exactly the opposite, first you train your body, and then you train your mind to use the ‘chi’, like the famous technique of ‘Iron Shirt’. So for younger people, external styles are easier to understand.

But like Yoda said to Luke “The dark side is not more powerful, it’s just quicker, more seductive”. The external styles are more seductive, but there are not more powerful, it’s just a different prespective.

So keep doing tai chi, and maybe, many years from now, your coleagues will be the ones who are having an “old people’s” life.

Chris Hamlin • Hi Guys,I agree with Sergio’s perspective. It has a lot to do with the impetuosity of youth and i think, certainly in western thinking, external styles are usually more easy to see your progress in: “Today i broke one board, tomorrow i will break 2″.

I firmly believe that if we taught Tai Chi to children in schools, it would benefit the whole of society. Children would learn more discipline, would learn more respect for themselves and others and they’d have more spiritual development.Another thing to look at is actually the dynamics of age. Perhaps the reason you see “old people” doing Tai Chi in parks is because for them it is something that they have learned over a period of time and perhaps there is a social aspect and because they don’t work as much, they are out in parks more. You may find that just as many young people learn Tai Chi, but because they are learning, they may not have time, they may feel embarassment for doing it in public, that they just don’t do Tai Chi in the park as much as older people would?

I certainly see this effect in Kung Fu, where the younger people don’t like to practice in public, especially when they are beginners.

Either way, enjoy your Tai Chi, do it wherever you can!