Classical Tai Chi spanning generations. Grandmaster and 6th generation student.. After a seminar on Sports and Classical Tai Chi. Seminar at Ciminelli Recital Hall, Buffalo State College. Thank you Tai Chi Master Stephen Hwa Ph.D.Doing the Lions share of repairing the hole where logical reasoning disappeared, "righting the ship" and saving Tai Chi.

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Righting the ship

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You have to practice every day. There is also a media disservice misperception that Tai Chi is a once-a-week, somebody leads you, " sweating to the oldies". Otherwise, you are only fooling yourself, and doing that is seldom obvious. This was an unpaid commercial to continue repairing the hole where logical reasoning disappeared, "righting the ship" and saving Tai Chi.

R.F. revs up for momentum by turning pelvis and swinging the arm BUT just before hitting the ball he stabilizes the pelvis and engaged "upper body turning move" a Hallmark of Classical Tai Chi internal discipline. https://youtu.be/fuu881kl0OsDoing the Lions share of repairing the hole where logical reasoning disappeared, "righting the ship" and saving Tai Chi.

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Play tennis like "grasping a peacock's tail" 

Stephen Hwa:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuu881kl0Os

"I was a tennis player from a very young age. My game

started going downhill when I was approaching forty

years of age. That was when I started to learn Tai Chi.

As I was beginning to master the Internal Discipline in

my Tai Chi Form practice in my fifties, my tennis game

started to improve rapidly. It eventually reached a level

way beyond my younger years. Take some specific

moves as examples: I did not learn the proper technique

to volley at the net when I was young. Later, I found my

upper quarter-body push move is exactly the correct

move for a volley, described by tennis pros as a "punch"

move. The body turning move in "Grasp Peacock's Tail"

greatly improved my two-handed backhand. Overall,

my moves were much more natural, powerful and I had

a faster response on the court, as if I had rebuilt myself

from ground up into an entirely different person with

physical and mental abilities beyond my youthful years."

Did you know that "Fajin" (a spike of power) in Classical Tai Chi does not violate Newton's 3rd law? Want to ask and find out why? You will have to visit with Tai Chi Master Stephen Hwa Ph.D. on October 20, @ 10 A.M. We are in Ciminelli Recital Hall, 3rd floor, Rockwell Hall @ Buffalo State College.Doing the Lions share of repairing the hole where logical reasoning disappeared, "righting the ship" and saving Tai Chi.

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Seeing your practice objectively

Round Form & Square Form

Jim D: Master Hwa, I appreciated your encouragement regarding my training regimen. Some questions and experiences I have are as follows:
1) Your insight "l...sometimes what we think is real is only an illusion..." concerned me at first because I am not able to see myself objectively, and I do not know what your experience is subjectively. How does one know that we are continuing to maintain/attain the correct form when we do not have the benefit of a watchful eye of a Master?
Master Hwa's reply: I use two approaches:
The external approach: From time to time, take a video of Form playing and reviewing and critique the video. If one understands what is required, this method can reveal certain deficiencies in the movements. From your comments below, you have already considering doing this.

The internal approach: Develop one's internal eye; see the movements from inside. This is to develop a keen sense of feeling of your body and remember what you should feel when you do a movement correctly. The beauty of this method is that, since there are many duplicate or nearly identical movements, if you know one of them, you can apply to the others also. In fact, when you start on the journey of learning tai chi, you have to develop better sense of feeling with your movements in the first place. Otherwise, you will not be able to learn the subtle internal movements. Furthermore, when you have mastered the Form, the sense of feeling of the circulating internal energy and the feeling of stretching and coiling in the body constitute the flowing of qi in the body. Sense of feeling is the heart of Tai Chi Form practice. Notable examples are: the feeling of stretching down the tailbone; the feeling of stretching in the back and energizing in the tan tien when you keep the elbow-in, instead of the spread chicken-wing style. Again, from your question, you are already mindful of this.