“You’re ‘bending’ not ‘softening’! You lean down into your strike which is poking your chin forwards and sticking your arse out!” Sifu clarified as he mimicked my posture…which looked a little like Groucho Marx probably would’ve done if he’d done taiji!

Head erect, concentrating on ‘softening’ and not poking out parts of my body unnecessarily I tried again.

“You’re sticking you’re bloody arse out! ‘Soften’ down. You’re rushing it and missing out on the process. Remember, ‘Feel every inch of the movement’!” Sifu giggled patiently.

With a huff I tried again.

There are many contagious things in life, some are nasty things like Chicken pox and measles and some are slightly more pleasant, like laughter, harmony, happiness and even yawning if you particularly enjoy it. If you’d indulge me, I’d like add Tai Chi to the list, once you’ve contracted it, and I mean really contracted it, it’ll bury its way to the deepest recesses of your existence.

Recently I’ve had a few of conversations where people have asked for video clips showing what makes Tai Chi so special in my eyes and there have been more than a few frustrated responses when I’ve declined saying that there really isn’t any point. My reason for saying it’s pointless is that with Tai Chi it’s not what you see that’s important, it’s what you feel. I used to find this stance to be purposefully elusive and secretive, but it’s not, it’s just the truth. To ‘catch’ and understand it, you need to be ‘touched’ by it – and more importantly touched by someone who really has it. You can’t get it from a video clip, nor a webpage and most definitely not by reading a simple magazine article. Anything other than direct contact is like trying to catch Measles whilst watching it on T.V; it just isn’t going to happen. The other side to the story is that in order to ‘get it’ you have to be willing and open to actually ‘catch’ it in the first place.

“Good, good… now you’re eating ‘bitter’!” Sifu goaded as my legs started shaking and my spine felt like it was going to snap during Yang style ‘dynamic pushing’. It seems pain and suffering are the only contexts in which my darling Sifu will ever use the word ‘good’.

“Now when you’re ready you can now start pushing!” he laughed as I tried to ‘start’ pushing despite the fact I was already ‘pushing’ with every ounce of might I could muster.

We were doing a drill Sifu calls ‘pushing to exhaustion’ which is always a crowd pleaser when he visits my classes and my students have the opportunity to see me suffer. In this drill you assume a posture from the form and take it into a push hands environment. At a certain point in the proceedings Sifu will resist your push and you then have to start pushing harder, and harder, and harder… until you eventually collapse. It’s isometric training from hell and one that always dispels the myth that Tai Chi is only a ‘soft’ art and it also gives Sifu the opportunity to explain the importance of ‘eating bitter’.