Teacher Training: A Purely Personal Perspective

A Purely Personal Perspective

By Jo Rigg

I considered titling this “T’ai Chi Till You Drop” because sometimes that’s how it felt. Not that Steve was a slavedriver (he didn’t even bring his whip!), he simply wanted us to do it right so that we will be able to teach it right. Understandable. That’s what he and we were there for. But the night it took 2 1/2 hours to go through the form, it felt like we weren’t doing anything right! I went home that night with my ego in the soles of my feet. But it wasn’t all like that. There were times of humor and fun and, best of all, times when I knew I was “doing it right.” There was even a moment, practicing a move at home “after hours,” when I felt the way Steve looks when he does that move–a real high.

Maybe I went into it with the wrong attitude. Being a person of scientific bent, I wanted to know why we do T’ai Chi the way we do: why hold our hands just so, why move them just that way, why not do it this way–it looks nicer. I had heard of Justin Stone’s non-answers to such questions and was prepared for the same from Steve. And that’s mostly what I got when I asked. However, in the middle of the week, a realization dawned–my “Why” questions were being answered: in re-teaching and “teaching us to teach” each movement, Steve was explaining it in terms of controlling, holding on to, moving and absorbing the chi. Every part of every movement reflected that concept. Maybe this had been obvious to everyone else all along–I’m sometimes slow on the uptake, especially when my mind is already made up! At any rate, it made all the difference in the world to me. Thank you, Steve!

And thanks, too, to all my classmates for your presentations. Getting mine out of the way early on, left me free to enjoy and appreciate yours. Your creativity, sincerity and insight were nothing short of inspiring. I hadn’t realized what awesome company I was in! I know I’ll do a better job of presenting T’ai Chi Chih after having seen you do it.

Last, but far from least, are the new friendships formed this week. Our shared experience creates a network that includes our little core group of teachers here in Montana and extends all the way to Ojai, California and Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada and, of course, to Denver and our “Fearless Leader.” The memories of late-night coffee and “sinful dietary indulgences,” early morning breakfast and assorted ethnic dinners, all spiced with conversation light and heavy, will be some of the most vivid and lasting from this week.

All in all, it was a yin/yang experience: exhilarating and depressing, encouraging and frustrating, energizing and wearying, not to mention, in the purely physical sense–sweating and shivering. (This is a purely personal perspective–most of my classmates were “up” all week–or so they said.) It went by far too quickly–just when it was getting good, it was over. But for me it ended on a high note and that is the perspective from which I view it now. I’m glad I was there. I’ll never forget it.