Solo practice

The foundation of the work is your own solo practice. My teacher always used to say that if you’ve done enough solo practice then when standing in front of another person you should be able to forget it all and concentrate fully on them; any techniques should naturally express themselves when necessary. A student who doesn’t practice is crippled by laziness. In the old days my teacher used to sometimes watch me in despair and shake his head. From that would come the vestige of a smile and the phrase, "What will save you is your willingness and ability to work hard." The student’s practice is like a tiny light: a beacon of hope that one day they may in fact learn and understand something of importance. Without it, no matter how well-intentioned and eager for partnerwork that student is, there will be an air of failure and decay about them: each time you see them they’ll be slightly older and their vitality slightly less. For a teacher that’s pretty depressing. Some people get it naturally right - there’s an element of the work that they practice in their daily life, without knowing it, and consequently there’s an aspect of their energy that continues to improve. Such people are rare but wonderful to behold. My teacher would call them natural masters. They have something important to teach. Whether they can teach it, other than by example, is doubtful – they’d have to spend years analysing and investigating precisely what it is they know in the hopes that they’d find and develop a means to instruction. If you come across one and they’re compassionate or stupid enough to agree to spend time in your company then lap it up: immerse yourself in their energy and vitality and try to suss what they’ve done to deserve it.

One of the tenets of Tai Chi is that although you can never guarantee to be stronger than an opponent, you can always choose to be weaker. The idea of partnerwork is not that you get a chance to practice techniques and compete but that you get the opportunity to practice listening, humility and compassion. Every person that stands in front of you is going to have something wonderful to offer – there will be some aspect of their energy or experience that is totally fascinating and worth emulating. If you have the heart you can locate and focus on this. Then not only will you learn but you’ll also be encouraging the best part of that person, which is probably the greatest favour you can do them. But to manage this you’ll need to have done your solo practice otherwise you just wont be quiet enough to hear what they have – you’ll end up projecting yourself on them instead. Can you imagine anything worse?