Expectations & Outcomes

What can a teacher candidate expect when, after preparing for months, you finally arrive at your T’ai Chi Chih teacher training course? The terms teacher training and accreditation course are used interchangeably, and both are used to refer to the six-day course to receive accreditation to teach TCC. When you arrive at your accreditation course, you are likely to discover quickly that all the work you have done up to that point has just gotten you in the door, and that before you lies a whole new level of TCC experience.

Softness means letting go, and you will be asked to let go more than ever before … to let go of tension, muscular effort, ego, of trying to do it perfectly, of what you know with your intellect, and of attachment to an outcome. Even those who think they are coming with an empty cup soon find that their cup is really quite full. When it is truly empty, then learning can begin, and the Chi can teach you.

No matter how well prepared you may be, there will still be changes to make in how you move. Being open and receptive to receiving feedback on how you are moving from the trainer and auditing teachers, who are there to support your transformation, will serve you well. Refining your TCC movements is a lifelong practice. Just as when you travel east, there is always farther east that you can go, so there is always more softness and flow to experience in your TCC practice. As you let go of old understandings and old ways of moving that actually inhibit the flow of the Chi, and experience the power of the Chi flowing thru you, both your movements and you are transformed.

Along the way, wonderful connections occur with your fellow aspiring teachers. Sharing this amazing experience brings you together in special ways, and you may make lifelong friends among the people there. A deeper feeling of community is developed. During this entire six-day process, you will be enfolded in loving support, not only by the TCC teachers (including the trainer) present, but also by Antonia and many other teachers around the world who are thinking of you. Over the course of the six days, any tension gives way to Joy thru Movement, and “love energy” is the sweet fruit to savor long after you depart.