One of the things we discussed today was ‘secret teachings’ and ‘lineage’ emanating from some of the silly posts that crop up on social media. Who has ‘the secrets’ and who doesn’t is an incredibly childish argument and understanding by narrow minded people.

Firstly there’s good and bad teachers and they can come from all sources, some with family lineage and some without. There’s also good and bad students taught by the good teachers.

How can you tell who is who?
Simple.
Get hands on with them and feel for yourself.
Look at their character, track record and development.
Look at their senior students, because the teacher might be good, but can they teach?

A master musician/ballet teacher/ gymnast/ carpenter/ philosopher or whatever skill you can think of, cannot just give you their ‘secrets’.

You have to start at the beginning, learn the basics, and then layer in the skills one layer at a time. 3 years of practice and 3 lessons a week will give you the basic standard, just like a university degree, and then it’s a lifetime of study.

It’s the same with Tai Chi. Good teacher, faith in their teaching, consistent practice, question, challenge, validate and internalise over the right period of time.

But you already knew this didn’t you?

No ‘magic’, no ‘secrets’ – unless of course you believe that 7 days of Tai Chi walking will give you great abs and huge biceps….

If you do, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.