Tai Chi Chuan Practice

A repost from January 2014:

I have been so busy with Taoist studies, yoga practice, weightlifting, walking, gardening, teaching, reading, and working part-time that I have not been practicing my Chen Taijiquan forms each day.  Starting today, I will renew my efforts in this area of mind-body arts by the daily practice of the Chen 18 Form and Chen broadsword 23 Movement form.  

We don’t "really learn” Tai Chi by listening to, imitating, and following a live Tai chi instructor, or reading Tai Chi books, or watching Tai Chi instructional DVDs.  The “learning” comes from practicing Tai Chi, playing Tai Chi, moving by Tai chi, and feeling Tai Chi.  We move from being awkward and uncomfortable to moving gracefully, fluidly, easily, confidently, and beautifully.  Live and virtual Tai Chi instructors provide us with information and ideas about what Tai Chi has been for others and could be for us, its rich history, and provide us with a model of how a "form" might look and be realized as expressed by their body-mind.  

Our instructor's "mind" set or intention is important - depending, for example, on whether they emphasize martial applications or they are a New Age energy arts dancer.  Likewise, our own progress in "learning" will depend upon our own "mind set" of intentions, dedication, toughness, the courage to go beyond our limitations and failures, and our willpower.  

Learning Tai Chi is always a complex matrix of interactions, lived experiences, daily training, and accumulated muscle memories.  Less thinking and more practice, training, and doing will result in the greatest learning.  Repeated movements are the foundation for Tai Chi learning.  

"Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person's physical, emotional, and mental states."
-  Carol Welch 

"Knowing is not enough, we must apply.  Willing is not enough, we must do." 
-  Bruce Lee  

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new.  But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful.  There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power."
-  Alan Cohen 

 

Chen Style Taijiquan Short Hand Form, 18 Movements
Created by Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei

Bibliography, Resources, List of Movements, Resources, Links, Instructions, Comments
Webpage by Michael Garofalo

 

Chen Style Taijiquan
Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei's Short 18 Movements Tai Chi Hand Form
List of 18 Movements

1.     Beginning Posture of Taiji 

2.     Buddha's Warrior Attendant Pounds the Mortar

3.     Lazily Tying One's Coat  

4.     Six Sealing and Four Closing  

5.     Single Whip 

6.     White Crane Spreads Its Wings

7.     Walk Diagonally  

8.     Brush Knee

9.     Stepping to Both Sides   

10.   Cover Hands and Strike with Fist  

11.   High Pat on the Horse  

12.   Kick with the Left Heel  

13.   Jade Maiden Working Her Loom  

14.   Cloud Hands  

15.   Turn Body with Double Lotus Kick 

16.   Cannon Fist Over the Head  

17.   Buddha's Warrior Attendant Pounds the Mortar  

18.   Closing Posture of Taiji    

List of Movements in Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei's Short 18 Form  (1 Page, PDF)  English Only  

List of Movements in Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei's Short 18 Form  (1Page, PDF)  English and Chinese   

List of Movements in Chen Taijiquan, Old Frame, First Form, Laojia Yilu   (2 pages, PDF)  English and Chinese 

Chen Style Taijiquan

Tai Chi for Health by Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei


Chen Broadsword (Saber) 23 Movement Form