Ever ready to see what other Martial Arts have to offer, I enrolled on a short course in Tai Chi. It runs on three consecutive Tuesday evenings from 19:30 to 21:30.
I attended the first session on Tuesday 1st July. The class was taught by a genial man who was obviously enthusiastic about his subject.
What I learnt from this first (and for me, the only) lesson is that Tai Chi, as commonly taught in Britain, is a grotesque parody of an Eastern martial art which has been reduced to an effete mixture of pseudo-eastern philosophy and some movements which are too sedentary to be called exercise.
We started the class by learning the basic stance. It is just a relaxed version of Haiko Dachi. In this stance we meditated by “smiling” at various parts of our anatomy and making them smile back at us. Our faces, hearts, liver, spleen, kidneys and the ”part of our bodies that was currently giving us most pain” were all treated to this “new age” cordiality.
We next learned about one of the energy channels which stretched from the perineum to the crown of the head. From here we tried to “hug a tree” while keeping this energy channel erect.
The rest of the class continued in a similar manner.
You might be forgiven for assuming that I think that Tai Chi is entirely without merit. In the case of the system that seems to be common in Britain your assumption would be correct. It is not, however, difficult for someone with a bit of Karate training to see the martial origins of several of the movements and postures.
Under the guise of “moving energy” round various channels we performed several exercises that encompassed Haiko Dachi and Nekoashi Dachi, and which powerfully emphasised the hip movements necessary for powerful techniques.
If I were to be analytical about why Tai Chi has become transformed from an acknowledged “killer” martial art into Yuppie Yoga; I believe it is a flawed transliteration of the Chinese instructions. The “rooster walk” is just forward movement in Shotokan Karate style (semi-circular movements of the feet etc). I do not believe that choosing to name the technique after an animal was particularly significant. It was probably just descriptive. I think that successive generations have unnecessarily invested the descriptive with mystic significance.
Along with many things I have done, I am glad to have taken this Tai Chi class, but I do not think it is something I would do again, nor could I recommend it to anyone who is interested in Martial Arts.
Ken Dixon