Jim K. said: I fluctuate from wanting to be a Tai Chi fighter to just being happy mastering the 108 forms. This dilemma comes from my age. When I hear you learning push hands, and sticking to your opponent takes a long time, it seems that in my late 60's, I may not have enough time to accomplish my first love - martial application. So the question is: Should I take on a lesser goal of mastering the form or should I when the time comes to push on to do push hands, sticking and sparring?
Master Stephen Hwa's reply Hi Jim: Practice of Tai Chi form is to develop power, especially explosive power such as fa jin. Practicing the form cultivates the internal power and the ability to maintain a relaxed body with the flow of internal power. This enables one to develop explosive power and the ability to deliver it. All these are best accomplished by practicing Form only, not depending on practicing push hands or sparring. Push hands and sparring are important to develop the "Timing" - when to use the power, the "Strategy" - how to take a position of advantage and put the opponent in an inferior position and the "Sensing" - knowing what the opponent is trying to do. When one reaches the stage that internal discipline becomes second nature, then one could concentrate more on push hands and sparring. Otherwise one might develop bad habits of using external move during sparring. The problem is that people try to study and learn the 13 Movements: "peng, lu, etc." without first developing the internal energy for fa jin. It is like putting the cart before the horse.
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