My third teaching session - only one student!

My third teaching session - only one student. I must be really boring my students! When my teacher commented about a student who didn't turn up, he made a comment which I didn't fully appreciate at the time. He said:

"for students who can't turn up, they should actually tell me in advance out of courtesy..."

For my students who didn't turn up, I actually had to ask if they were coming, just to realise only one could make it that day.

I wonder if it's because the classes are free and hence less appreciated than paid-for classes. My initial thought was to make them pay at least a little bit so that they have a financial stake in the class. And I was planning to donate the proceeds away just as an added incentive for turning up for classes.

I voted against it to see if any students will turn up in the first place. Will see how this goes. But somehow, learning Tai Ji IS boring, until you get the "joy" of it. While performing just to show them the full form, someone commented on how I was "enjoying" it. He had a hard time describing what he saw.

I guess it's a compliment in a sense, although to the trained eye, I'm probably still quite some way off! The more important point is, how to make a Tai Chi class more interesting. Some people like being shown the applications, some like the fact that they're learning something, some like the social aspect of it, some treat it as a form of dance choreography - once you get the movements, you have learnt Tai Chi.

For starters, I guess I have to cater to all tastes, just to get them through the "door". If you have any other suggestions on how to make a class more interesting, please suggest away!

How to train longer?

I've been trying to train a bit longer now that I have more time in my hands. It's not going as planned. With all the good intentions of training longer every time i stepped out the door, always end up coming back earlier than intended. Today, i tried training the very basics of standing with "song kua". I didn't even try a very low stance. It's as high as you can get but to make sure the kua is really open. Apparently, as I found out today, it's when you place your finger at your kua, you can't actually feel any tension!...

I just stood there in a meditational posture, remembering also to keep the back straight. It was really tiring and when i opened my eyes (i.e. i couldn't take it any longer), it was just over 5 minutes! My goodness... And then, the rest of the form training was more difficult because of that. Legs were just like jelly.

Sometimes, just before coming back, i'll ask myself "can i stand the pain a bit longer"? And then the counter in the head would be "i won't be doing any quality training because i couldn't concentrate on being relaxed when the legs are shaking". And then if i do come back from training.. "i could have trained a bit longer"...

All the battle of thoughts, and I've come to one conclusion inspired by the form itself. What do you do when you train with the form? Do you try to correct every bit with the principles as you go through it? Or do you try to go with the flow?

I find that correcting bits when going through the form very tiring. It's like checking the dictionary for every word you don't understand! I've actually tried doing this once, but you just lose interest in the whole story. After that, I end up just checking one or two words that interest me, and try to fully understand those words.

Similarly, when going through the form, you can just pick and choose a section that you want to work on and practise that section separately, trying to fully understand it. Keep the section you're trying to practice as short as possible so that you get maximum focus.

When doing the form itself, try to remember the corrections when going through the form. But when you passed that bit that you've just remembered you've done wrongly, don't go back. You end up losing the flow and ultimately lose interest. Force yourself to carry on. And accept that you've made a mistake. At least you've spotted it and is conscious of it. Find some way to remember it so that you can do it the next time. I find blogging helps!

So when you come back from training and feel that you should have done longer, force yourself to carry on and accept that you've given up that chance to do longer. At least you've spotted it and is conscious of it. Find a way to remind yourself that you'll do longer the next time. Any suggestions warmly welcomed!