Tai Chi Chuan – Let’s Do It Wrong!
I like to experiment. And in my laboratory, often I’ll
take a small aspect of tai chi, and make it the ONLY thing you do in tai chi.
That way, I get a fuller experience of that small aspect.
It is often very hard to get students to join me. They
want what is familiar, what feels “normal” or “correct”. They want the end of
the road, not the journey, not the beginning. But aren’t journeys and
beginnings exciting? Doesn’t this tap your creativity?
So resistance is what I often meet when encouraging a new
look at something small and then making it BIG. Students do all they can to
normalize my exaggeration. It stops the process.
Myself, I don’t get it. You have to knead the dough, pull
it, pound it, and stretch it, let it rise, before you can begin to bake it.
It’s OK to distort, because you can always return to normal. Some experiments
work, others fail. This kind of fundamental work is particularly difficult with
more advanced students, the ones who “know”.
Perfection is not the goal. I think perfection is a
fortunate accident that stumbles upon a few in a precarious way. To keep your
goal as perfection cuts off all exploration.
So when I want students to “do it wrong to get it right”,
we are not in the land of the perfect. We are in the land of the explorer
trying to find some gold. In a way, I
think that is more like tai chi than some fantasy of being a star or master. If
you become a master, great! But there are no guarantees. Some students have
great talent, some have little talent. Regardless, we can all be explorers in
tai chi.
I have to say, the long time students who do not like to
explore, who just like to do the form over and over and over again, as if THAT
will create some perfection, they are often the WORST tai chi practitioners.
Your tai chi form is your best habit to date. Nothing
wrong with that, but perfecting an imperfect habit will go nowhere.
In the meantime, try being open to NEW as the new goal.
You might even enjoy it!
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