teachings
Heal where it’s most painful
Have you had an injury but you just can’t pinpoint where the pain is? You know it hurts, but you just don’t know where it hurts. And if you don’t know where it hurts, you don’t know the source, and if you don’t know the source, you can’t fully heal the injury.
From my basketball days, [...]
Unusual training
To really make tai ji part of life, you’ll have to infuse not just the teachings of Tai Ji, but also the training of Tai Ji, into your daily life. I’ve heard of farmers in Chen Village weeding out their plantation in a low stance, only to change to the right leg if it’s too [...]
Never force your opponent 100%
In push hands, one of my teacher’s favourite quote is to tell us not to push your partner into oblivion.
Push 70% and leave 30% for yourself (逼人七分，留三分给自己）
I’ve unconsciously recorded this in my mind, only to realise I like the quote because I used it in my teaching as well!
The reason he gave? If you push [...]
Different kinds of teaching
I am slowly aware of how different kind of teaching suits different people, now that I’m experimenting with my own students. However, the method that my current teacher is using, may not suit most people. I guess the first thing that comes to mind is - is he even teaching anything?!!
I’m still doing Sun style. [...]
A compassionate teacher always loses
Compassion has a bad name in the competitive world. It means losing. It means you’re not up to standard. It means you’re not promoted. It means you don’t know how to play the game. But sometimes, in order to learn, a teacher has to show you what not to learn. And that is when he [...]
A child’s defense mechanism
As I learn about defending using Tai Ji, a child taught me about her defense mechanism. We were eating ice-cream, and suddenly, she waved a spoon of ice-cream in the air and said:
“This is where my dad is…” and moving her spoon to the left,
“This is where my mum is…” and imagined feeding each of [...]
