Six Steps to a Better Tai Chi Form

There are six steps to a better Tai Chi form. If you follow the six steps in order, you can improve step-by-step and understand what you need to achieve at each point along the way. As you identify your weaknesses, you will also learn the characteristics and applications of the Tai Chi moves, giving you a better foundation.

Step 1: Understand the Theory and Become Familiar with the Forms

Theory and forms are the start of learning Tai Chi. In this step, you need to become familiar with the basic moves, and understand how they coordinate with each other. Through practice you will learn the basic stance and hand forms. You will understand the direction and angle of each move and how transitions work between moves. Take your time to get each move right before moving to the next move. Once you are familiar with all the moves, consider yourself to have completed the first step.

Step 2: Demonstrate Understanding of each Move’s Requirements and Characteristics.

This step requires your teacher to correct any obvious mistakes, such as failing to keep your body vertical to promote relaxation and combat stiffness. You will also begin to concentrate on some major components such as coordination, breathing, and turning. You will concentrate on few special moves. As you practice, you will incorporate your understanding of these moves’ characteristics into your Tai Chi.

Step 3: Adjust your Movements for Accuracy

After adjusting the obvious movements, now is the time to get in more detail and adjust the rest
of the smaller movements. Imagine carving a jade statue. From Step 1 and Step 2 we get the statue’s basic shape. Now it’s time to carve the details such as the eyes and the clothing lines. Use Standing Post (Zhan Zhuang) as “standing meditation,” a moment to stop and check for accuracy and make sure all your movements are fluid and relaxed. Make sure your upper body is light and spry and your lower body is stable and powerful.

Step 4: Connect Your Body and Be Natural

Once you have mastered the above three steps, you can try to connect your body together and move your energy around your body. You will need to smooth your transitions, and make sure you have round form and even speed. You must perform your moves easily and naturally.

Step 5: Understand Applications

When you are familiar with all four of the above steps, you can break the moves into pieces to learn more details and understand the purpose of each move. You can start to do some Push Hands with classmates to begin to see application in action. Understanding the attack and defense purpose of each move will give you a deeper understanding of all the forms.

Step 6: Define your Form

This final stage requires you to combine concentration, breathing and movement together and have your own form ready. You will be able to do your moves without thinking. Once you reach this stage, you will have reached a new level on your Tai Chi journey.


Keep practicing. Day by day you will be closer to each step.


Copyright@ Huan's Tai Chi 2011

Mastering Your Tai Chi Move

An MIT study on how we learn movement showed that although students can visually absorb an entire move, their pupils only focus on small areas. Students can repeat the movements within these small areas very well, but they often have trouble understanding the move as a whole.


Because Tai Chi involves coordinating the whole body, it’s hard to imitate a move correctly if you only focus on part of it. In order to learn a move successfully, you need to step back and watch the entire move several times. Pay attention to the movements of both the upper body and lower body, the left and right sides, and how they move and coordinate together.


Try to imitate the move and ask your teacher for feedback. Notice the areas you need to work on. Have your teacher do the move again. Concentrate and focus on the areas that you have missed. Ask your teacher how your body should feel when you doing the move correctly. Practice it again and have your teacher correct you. Once you have it right, practice as many times as it takes to do the entire move without thinking.



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Inspiration for Tai Chi: Master Calligrapher Wang Xizhi

Wang Xizhi (王羲之, 303–361), one of my favorite Chinese calligraphers, lived during the Jin Dynasty (265–420). He is considered by many to be one of the most esteemed Chinese calligraphers of all time, and is often referred to as the Sage of Calligraphy (書聖). He learned his art from Wei Shuo (衛鑠; 272–349), commonly known as Madame Wei, a master calligrapher at that time.


Wang Xizhi loved geese. According to legend, he learned the secret of how to turn his wrist while writing by observing how the geese moved their necks. Wang Xizhi also had a very clear pond in his backyard. After every use of his brush, he washed off the ink in the pond. Day after day, the clear pond turned black. People called it the “Black Ink Pond.” No matter if he was walking or resting, Wang Xizhi always kept thinking about how to improve his writing skills. The structure of the words never left his head. He even practiced writing without a brush in his hand by moving his fingers on his clothes. After time, his clothes would wear right through.


In Chinese, there is a saying “Ru Mu San Fen.” Its literal meaning means “carving into timber three-tenths inches deep.” Its metaphorical meaning is used to describe words that are penetrating, profound and convincing. One time, the emperor asked Wang Xizhi to write some words for Chinese Memorial Day. He ordered him to write the words on a wooden board and then asked a wood carver to carve the board. When the wood carver did his job, he was amazed. He cut layer after layer and could still see ink. He found that Wang Xizhi had already written the words inside the wood. He couldn’t help but praise: “Wang’s words were really like a knife carving into the wood.”


These stories show how creative and diligent this master calligrapher was. I hope the image of his writing will speak for itself. If we can practice our Tai Chi the way Wang Xizhi practiced his calligraphy, we will then be able to really master the art.


Copyrigthed by Huan's Tai Chi 2011