To my Taiji brothers and sisters who study from books/video

[Ralteria]

a.k.a I'm going to need a bigger cup...

So after around 5 years of studying Taijiquan from books and videos (Dr. Yang's among them) and the same amount of time looking for a Sifu, I have finally come to the end of one phase in my life and into the next. I've finally found an instructor. I'm pretty excited and I've already just begun to truly get my feet wet. I'm posting this as the experience I've had lend a lot of validation for my own self-training as well as lend solidity to a lot of other people's point of view on self-training. So if you are learning soley from books and videos, I implore you to read on as my own personal experience may be of use to you.

Training by myself, I have encountered many pitfalls. Self correction can be an *explitive* but it is necessary. I spent much of my time reading, watching, re-reading, re-watching, forever cross referencing from different teachers and authors. Of course practicing over and over and over is included in this. All I can say is that no video or book can recreate the FEELING of a teachers touch, push, or form correction. A simple slight increase in pressure from an experience 2nd party makes an entire WORLD OF DIFFERENCE. As I've heard before (and I'm paraphrasing); "off an inch, off by a mile". But, for those of you reading who train soley by books and videos...do not despair.

What those 5 years of training by myself did was give me a great foundation to work on. It "bridged the gap". It made my sense of intent stronger. It made my Sifu's corrections easy to digest. It gave creedence to everything I've sweated and toiled over for a long time now. It let me know what to look for in a Sifu. It let me know what I wanted to get out of my traning. It let me know what to look for in myself and several lines of reinterpreted text and classics all "click". Your self training is NOT in vain.

Don't stop self training. Don't stop reading and watching videos. Don't stop self correcting, testing, re-evalutating. Approach it with the sense of experimentation. Take from it self knowledge. Don't assume that you can learn Taijiquan from a book or video though. It can give you a base to work on, test, and yes, even improve. I do think you can make a lot of progress from them, but it is limited. Just don't stop or you are short changing yourself from a great time in your life with some great lessons about confidence, sensitivity, perseverance and understanding(both mentally and physicaly. Be intelligent with your practice. Be safe, but still push yourself.

It took me giving up completely on finding a Sifu before I found one. An interesting lesson in accepting in loss. And through this entire experience, when you finally find a Sifu you may find that emptying your cup is not the best idea...keep what you have already learned but leave it open to your Sifu's interpetation and correction. Don't empty your cup. Get a bigger cup.

R.Alteria

[Elemental]

Nice post, R. Alteria. Until reading your post, I had been merely a "lurker" on this forum. But your post inspired me to register and post a reply. So this is my first post ever!

I know the feelings you describe. As a teenager I wanted nothing more than to learn martial arts (Taekwondo at the time), but my parents did not permit me. So instead I taught myself from books and videos and practiced alone in the basement. This went on for several years until I went to college and joined the Taekwondo club there. The instructor didn’t believe me at first when I told him I had no formal training. Thanks to those years I spent learning on my own, I was able to advance much quicker than I would have otherwise. But, more importantly, those years of training alone made my "sense of intent stronger," just as they did for you. Having wanted to do it for so long, when the opportunity finally came for me to begin formal training I knew it was something I would continue, in one capacity or another, for the rest of my life. Fast forward almost twenty years and I now run a program of my own and have seen two students of my own promoted to black belt.

As my Taekwondo injuries mounted and the spriteness of youth began to wane, last year I began studying Taijiquan. I fell in love with it immediately. While obviously a very different style than Taekwondo, I consider Taijiquan to be another chapter in that same journey I started alone in my parents' basement...only these days I can be found practicing Taijiquan alone in my own basement! Fortunately, I found a quality school/Sifu a mere three miles from my home, so I'm not going at it totally alone this time. I’m happy for you that you never gave up on your practice and now have a quality Sifu to study with yourself. All the best in your training.