There is No Such Thing as Easy Tai Chi
The students in the tai chi workshop were standing in a posture, groaning and grunting and shaking as they waited for Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang to look at them. Leg muscles strained from fatigue. A few moments later during a break, a student commented to Grandmaster Chen that tai chi is every difficult.
If you’ve ever attended a workshop by a member of the Chen family, you understand why the comment would be made. Students hold postures while the instructor walks around the room, correcting each student individually. By the time he gets to you, your legs are often shaking with fatigue, and if he puts you into the correct posture, you may just collapse to the floor.
This is one of the reasons I get annoyed when I see ads that promise “easy tai chi.” Those who have studied with the true masters can tell you that there is absolutely no such thing. Fake tai chi might be easy. The health type of tai chi for “moving meditation” might be easy. Tai Chi for senior citizens might be easy.
Real tai chi is a powerful martial art. It is very difficult and takes years of practice to even begin to see proper body mechanics. No pain, no gain. That’s a phrase you don’t hear in the “easy tai chi” classes.
So when the comment was made at the workshop about how difficult tai chi is, Grandmaster Chen smiled and said, “If it was easy, everyone be master.” He should know. He’s the direct descendant of the creator of tai chi, Chen Wangting.
Historians dismiss the old folk tales about a monk creating tai chi after seeing two insects fighting. Historians can only trace tai chi back 350 years, to this retired warrior in the Chen Village in Henan Province, China. Many decades later, the Chen family had a servant named Yang