The third time is a charm! The following day after our second session, he wanted to tag along again. This time, I wanted to formalize the session a bit as I think he my stick around for a while. My goal is to get him through the Yang long form up to the first white crane.  For this, I will do the following general format:

1. Zhan Zhuang Centering (10-15 breaths per posture, 2-3 postures)
2. Like stationary qigong
3. Follow along Hotel Taiji (Beginning of Yang long form)
4. Question and Answer of things covered in last session
5. Detailed breakdown of 2-3 postures in Yang long form
6. Practice detailed posture breakdown
7. Maybe 1-2 foundational stepping exercises
8. Follow along Hotel Taiji

For the third session, I spent a bit more time doing some stationary qigong exercises. Exercises included “rolling the ball” while shifting weight to the left/right leg as well as some Sun style open/close type hand posturing.  At the end of the qigong session, I asked my coworker how he felt and he said good and relaxed. I then asked him how his hands felt, and he noted there was a tingling sensation as well as some warmth.  I then covered a bit about the qi can flow to the extremities of our bodies when we’re relaxed and linked the sensation to blood circulation and oxygenation. I didn’t want to get too deep into the esoteric stuff, so kept it light and easy

After the third session, my coworker commented that he enjoyed the new format.  Additionally, he noted that his thigh no longer hurt like they did in the first session. This is good as lunch time taiji is all about getting outside, enjoying the weather and doing some relaxing taiji

Surprisingly, my coworker wanted to tag along on my next taiji outing.  This is great because I have been thinking about some different approaches to presenting taiji material.  I wanted to focus a bit more on foundational training as opposed to giving him a bunch of little test tastes to wet one’s appetite.

This time, after the zhan zhuang centering, I had him get in a bow stance.  Next, we just shifted the weight from front leg to rear leg.  After a couple of repetitions, I introduced him to the double ward off hand posture during the forward weight shift. After a couple more repetitions, I incorporated the roll back hand postures on the rear weight shift.  Next, the squeeze (ji) was introduced.  Finally, the hand positions for the taiji press were brought into the mix.

Little by little, I was building up the gross patterns required for the grasp bird’s tail sequence.  In my opinion, it’s better to teach people high level choreography and relaxation.  Doing so, gives a feeling of accomplishment.  This activity actually felt quite good and something I think I will incorporate more into my own training.  There’s something relaxing about rocking back and forth, I’m not exactly sure what, but I’m assuming it’s related to the whole taiji ruler exercise, but I’ll save that linking connection for another time  

Next, I had my coworker follow in the Yang long form up to the first white crane spreads wings. I like this sequence and this is something I often practice in my own training.  After four repetitions, you end up making a nice little box. The sequence is compact, easy to learn and contains lots of material to work on.

Since my coworker had not done any taiji before, I wanted to see his affinity towards Chen style, so I introduced the Chen Village single handed silk reeling.  For this, I broke the movement down into 4 counts and highlighted the weight shifts, waist turns and hand placements.  Next, I briefly showed him the Chen Practical Method positive circle and had time try to follow along. During this instruction, I felt a bit unease as I was still working on this material and don’t feel confident nor have I received the permission to teach the material. 

After he mentioned some soreness in his thighs, I told him to just relax and I did a small demo of the Chen Practical Method Yilu for him.  This felt good as I have been working on the Practical Method form and was glad to have an opportunity to practice it a bit in an open space.

Noting his vibe at the end of the session, I have a feeling he will continue to tag along and do some taiji over lunch with me. As such, I am planning a more formalized curriculum to cover.  Right now, my plans are to start off with some zhan zhuang, then have him follow me in the Yang long form up to the first white crane spreads wings (dubbed hotel taiji). After which, I will give some detailed instruction on the movements, perhaps 1-2 movements per session.  The session will end with another round of the "hotel" Yang long form.  I think this will be enough to give a good primer on taiji and will give me some foundational material to work on. I still do my own training in the evenings, so I guess the lunch time activities is just bonus

A coworker of mine has expressed some interest in learning taiji, so I have invited him to join me during my lunch time sessions. The first "class" was last week when the temperature was roughly 50F.  It has been a while since I have taught someone, so I felt a bit rusty and unsure about what to cover.  Generally, I tell people that if they want to tag along and just follow what I do, then by all means go for it. This is my own way of not formally teaching, but just letting someone follow.

Personally, I have some reservations about teaching as I don’t really like to formalize the event (curriculum, time frame, warm ups, etc).  However, I have received permissions from my former instructors to teach.  In fact, back in the day, I used to help teach class all the time and even taught a class or 2 when my instructor could not attend.  From a styles perspective, I have gotten permission to teach some Yang style and Chen style silk reeling and basics.  I mostly will stick to the basic foundational training and may cover the first section of a form. Beyond that, I tended to refer the student to my instructor at the time if they wanted more instruction. This methodology has worked out well for me, but things are a bit different now since I am not receiving any type of formal instruction on a regular basis.  On the other hand, I have tons of material to work on that I have recieved formal instruction on.  In other words, there is some time before I reach the end of my comfort level of what I feel I am able to teach.

Furthermore, one of my own worries about teaching is that I will not have time to work on my progress. However, I do feel there are some basics and foundations that I could use more work on, so might as well teach and do, eh?  Plus, teaching is a way of fleshing out my own understanding, so it does have it’s plusses.

The first session was basically a mish mash of things. I always start my own training session with a bit of zhan zhuang for centering.  I taught the 3 basic postures of zhan zhuang (wuji, hands at dantien, hands at heart) with some minor alignment corrections (chin tucked, ear centerline with hip and foot, etc).  Not wanting to scare my coworker away, I kept the postures relatively short in duration.  Next, I covered the bow stance and did some taiji walking drills.  The first walking drill was done with hands at sides, followed by hands at heart height zhan zhuang, followed by parting horses mane hand positions.  I did a similar sequence for the footwork used in repulse monkey. 

Then, we did some basic foundation exercises with feet shoulder width apart and knees slightly bent. In this posture, I covered the hand positions for open/close taiji, part horse’s mane, brush knee, repluse monkey, cloud hands.  Finally, we ended the session with him following me through the standardized 24 form up to the white crane spreads wings.  Overall, it was a good session and he was surprised how sore his thighs felt, even when everything was done in a really high stance.