Preparing Serious Students For Teacher Training

Many articles have been written about how T’ai Chi Chih teachers can best help their students prepare for teacher accreditation. Of course the student can only move as well as his or her teacher, so there are programs to assist in this process. Retreats and intensives are essential elements in preparing the teacher candidate. Justin always says, it is not what you move, but how you move that is important. In his writings he has also given us the “how” through what we have come to know as the “Six Principles of Movement” that helps the practitioner to more fully understand the elements important in each of the 19 movements and one posture that make up the T’ai Chi Chih form.

When working with a serious student, it is important for the teacher to observe how the individual is moving, and this can only be evaluated on an individual basis. Having the student attend a regular class may only deepen misconceptions as many imagine themselves moving exactly as the teacher moves. Meeting for a couple hours over a period of time allows the teacher candidate time to integrate particular suggestions into his or her practice and thereby begin to increase his or her understanding. Understanding is then embodied according to the principles of movement: (1) flowing from the center – the tan t’ien; (2) focusing the soles of the feet – the “bubbling spring”; (3) yinning and yanging – full weight shift; (4) softness and continuity – “the essence of TCC” in moving the body as one integrated whole; (5) polarity – in those movements where the palms are facing each other; (6) circularity “which is the fundamental” energy moving in circles.  Since TCC practice must be done with “awareness, which is the root,” “is essentially inner oriented.“

Encouraging the student to “feel” the form will allow for this embodiment to take place. The form will then move from an outer experience to a deeper, interior experience that will enable the student to be more grounded, more soft, flow more gently from the center, transform their understanding to the feeling level, freely open waist and wrists and experience a deeper awareness.

In the process of this kind of preparation, the teacher’s own understanding of the form will transform as his or her communication of ideas broadens. Students will arrive at intensives and accreditation on a higher level, and the entire community will benefit.

Many teachers tell me how impressed they are at the quality of movement that is displayed at our annual conferences, right from the first practice session. Any one who has attended in the past ten years or so knows what I am referring to. This gives us great joy knowing that the TCC form is in alignment with Justin’s teachings and directives. Our community has a bright future. This “quality of movement” is the result of so many serious teachers who embody teh – inner sincerity. They are in alignment with Justin’s teachings with a desire to continue their own interior growth and transformation, which is due, in great part, to their regular practice.

In going over the movements with those preparing for a training, it is also good to ask the teacher candidate, “What are the three most important points that are unique to each movement?” In becoming familiar with the unique parts of each movement, new teachers will be better equipped to communicate each movement in their classes.

It is also a good practice to invite the teacher candidate to lead a few movements in front of the class, just to get the feel of it. They may actually lead a full practice as the teacher circulates around the room to give some individual help and refinement. A teacher candidate, however, is not a “substitute teacher” or someone who can teach when a teacher is not present. I say this because Justin has asked that TCC be taught only by accredited teachers.

All of this is written with a desire for us to deepen our “inner sincerity” in preparing our best students for teacher training, and for honoring Justin’s desire and his legacy in the teacher accreditation process. The bar has been raised many times, and all of you have stepped up to the plate. Let’s continue to be all we are called to be. Blessings with peace and all good.