My 10 years of Practical Method–Less is More

The way of learning and training Tai Chi is different by different people. I am a kind of slow learner. Realizing that, it actually helped me overall. I am also grateful that Master Chen pointed out the simplest path for me to follow. It worked out for me.

One of the great assets about Master Chen’s teaching is that he knows exactly what you need to work on by just looking at your first move. I have been practicing the Practical Method for about 10 years. What I have received from Master Chen is very simple, yet, most beneficial for me. Some friends joked about that I must received the secrets from Master Chen. No, not at all. I would say the secret is within the simple instruction.

I had practiced Chen Style Xijia yilu and Yang style for almost 20 years. When I had a chance to switch to the Practical Method, it took me almost 2 years to fully grasp the choreographic part of Practical Method yilu. (That’s why I said I’m a slow learner.) In the first correction, Master Chen walked me through the entire yilu, then gave me the simple instruction on training. Stretch to the limit in every move. I didn’t ask why, didn’t care about theory. I just followed the instruction and practiced for two years. I found out that my body started to get stronger/harder. This had laid the foundation for the second correction. This time, Master Chen just let me continue the same training, and add a further “push” whenever I finish the move which has already stretched to the limit. The result of this further “push” causes the force I was pushing forward to come back to me. Or you can say that there’s a pull in every push. I felt this was a great step forward in my training.

Two years later, Master Chen came to Phoenix (2/2011) and I received the third yilu correction. More important, he taught me the training method which led me to a true break through. I finally understood the significance of not-move. I wrote an article about using the yoga block in training and keeping the knee not moving. When you have a point truly not moving, you can achieve Yin Yang split.

In November this year (2012) Master Chen visited Phoenix and gave workshops. I had a chance to get a fourth Yilu correction. This time it was recorded and you can see the video. (Fortunately and unfortunately, the correction session was in Chinese.) It covered a lot of in-depth details. Hopefully I can digest the correction in next two years.