“Workin’ On A Dream”
Let’s talk about proper practice methods for a moment. Some teachers believe your should set a rigid practice schedule and stick to it. Today you’re working on leg strength, so you’re going to do the drill post exercise for 20 minutes then practice moving drills until a couple hours have passed, your legs are bit rubbery, and your practice time is over. Tomorrow you’ll work on the timing of your forms for the first hour, spend 30 minutes working on kicks, and then the last 30 minutes doing fali (power release) drills.
This kind of practice schedule is important… if you’re practicing for a major tournament where your skills are really going to be tested, or if your village is always being invaded by marauding outlaws from across the boarder and you’ve been put in charge of protecting the village’s precious supply of Jelly Belly Beans. However if you live in the same World I do, where you feel you have to work and the police department does a pretty good job of protecting the village provisions, you may not have that kind of time to devote to hard-core tai chi, and besides you haven’t even been in food fight since high school.
Great, so we’ve established you don’t really need to practice all that hard most of time. So how do you improve your skills? How do you grasp that all-important sense of accomplishment, not to mention attain a stronger body and just plain old feel better? Is going to class once a week for 1-2 hours enough? Well not really, unless you think a snail’s progress is just out of reach and a nifty goal to shoot for. If you want to be able to notice your own progress more often than you change the oil in your car, you’ll want to do a bit more.
Well then, what’s the right amount of practice? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say, “that depends”. Don’t you just love it when a teacher takes a firm stance? Most students are looking for leadership here; the thing is most students don’t follow through when a teacher pushes them to do more. So what’s the answer? The answer is… “Do what feels right.”
What in the World does “do what feels right” mean? It means you should look to yourself for inspiration. What do you want to achieve today, tomorrow? If you want to maintain what you learned in class and advance at a slow comfortable rate, spend 5 minutes a day running through what you practiced in your last class. If on another day you’re feeling particularly frisky do 15 minutes, or more. There’s lots of information available on tai chi and it’s philosophies: buy a book on tai chi, read it, and apply what you learn.
When I spend time with my master, I see him take little slices of extra time and run things through his mind while practicing small sections of a form he’s working on. Sometimes he’ll do this for 30 seconds, other times for 5 minutes. Follow Master Cui’s lead and do what you’re inspired to do.
Where does inspiration come from anyway? Before I’ve accomplished anything, I’ve always dreamt it first. If you’re just starting out you might want to begin with a few thoughts before building up to the big leagues and real life waking dreams, you know the “I have a dream” kind of dreams. Remember start small and work your way up. If you’re like me in the dreams you have with your head on the pillow, things don’t always turn out the way you intended them to. My dreams of tai chi proficiency can sometimes come up a bit short too, so I look for inspiration. Inspiration takes me places I may never have thought of, but it always takes me somewhere. 
Your thoughts?
John
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Jun 3, 2009 - 08:06:26I know every teacher teaches differently, and every person learns differently. When I began, I was taught very slowly, and it took 6 months to learn the set. I nearly had to beg for new moves. How much of that was due to my (lack of) ability and how much was tradition, or my teacher’s “style,” I don’t really know. However, after 6 months, I felt like I’d accomplished something.
Well, not exactly, I was told. I was now to do 4 sets “every day” for the rest of my life. Any protest of this was met with “You breathe every day don’t you?” So that was the standard that was set, that was “how much is enough” as prescribed for me. I just accepted it.
I certainly didn’t meet that standard every day of my life. But it became, for me, a way of defining a “normal” day, and it’s something I always aspire to. It is a standard that, personally speaking, has suited my abilities and temperament.
Walt,
That’s good your inspiration was your teacher. It’s always interesting to hear how others view things. I was taught fairly slowly too, yet never really felt the need to ask for more. Now that I have lots to work with, and on, I find there are a few areas I want more in.
There is so much still to learn. I don’t think I’ll ever run out of inspiration.
John