I truly love practicing Chen Tai Chi. The more I learn, the more complex it becomes, though. It's like a giant puzzle, there are many component pieces that need to be learned, and then, the pieces are put together in order to create this final picture, and the picture is not just an image, but rather it is a volume of information about how to generate power, how to strike, how to deceive, how to throw, how to kick, etc, etc.
The cool thing about a puzzle like this, or any other puzzle is the doing of it. We can watch someone peforming the form, but then as Shifu would say, "your eyes may understand, but... unless you do it, your body does NOT understand."
By steady, ongoing practice with patience, it is guaranteed that you will improve on the component pieces. Growth and progress is evident. Rest assured that if you try to do too much at one time, when you don't have the component pieces ready, and you may get confused.
But don't lose sight of the goal.
I am so grateful that Shifu is my teacher. He explains so much to me, that my head sometimes feels like it is going to explode. But I would rather have that, than an instructor who doesn't say anything, or keeps the information to him/herself, or may not have that deep an understanding of the art!
Keep the faith and keep practicing, take small steps and watch and listen carefully to Shifu's teaching and your progress will be there. You have to believe!
J
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