3A Form Improvement

This is what students and I call the bread-and-butter course of the curriculum. In a very real way I feel we are all students of Form Improvement the entire duration, for outside of William Chen who’s Form looks unimprovable? And perhaps William Chen is improving his even as we speak! This course is especially designed for, too, those who’ve just learned the Form and want to become better at doing it, feel more energy and increase the many other benefits. We usually go through the entire Form in depth, drilling on many basics and, too, subtleties of internal energy, mind sets and mental effects, rooting, breathing, body alignment, weight transfer, upper-lower body relations and particularly finger-foot relations, applications in self-defense and general applications like moving a big table, weight transfer, the horizontal-vertical dynamic, body unity nuances, and others. It is the only course where I have the opportunity to share a lot of what I know about Tai Chi Chuan and the Form, and the veterans often in class share their knowledge, too, some of them nearing 15 years’ vintage. In this atmosphere of a one room schoolhouse, green or new students benefit enormously.

Also, Form Improvement is the main use of Tai Chi time on the weekend and weeklong intensives, which is a big reason of their great value accompanied, of course, by other rich aspects of Tai Chi I can’t get to in classes, and the wonderful experience of getting away. Other occasions for Form Improvement include the Summer Evening Week, the Evenings on Saturdays that open each new quarter of courses, and special half-day or daylong get together events.