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Special Report

Using Kinesthetic Details to Get
The "Right Feeling" for Tai Chi, Qigong, and Chi Development

Hi. Welcome back to the ChiFusion Tai Chi and Qigong program. I'm Al Simon, and I'm glad you've decided to join us for this follow-up lesson.

As we mentioned last time, when it comes to improving your health, relieving stress, and developing chi, it's not about how your Tai Chi movements "look". It's about how your Tai Chi movements "feel".

And the way to develop the right feeling in your Tai Chi movements is to learn the "kinesthetic details" behind these movements.

So today, I'm going to show you some of those details with a sample lesson from our advanced training. But first, let me tell you how I learned all of this myself.

Back in about 1995, I had been practicing Tai Chi for a decade. I had literally learned just about everything my current teacher had learned from his master. I practiced an hour or two each day. I was also teaching five classes with over 100 students in several studios here in Portland, Oregon. I was also attending quite a few workshops. I had begun meeting and studying with a number of well-known masters from China and Asia, and around the world.

Now, of course, this was all what I now call "monkey-see, monkey-do" Tai Chi, where you learn a bunch of choreographed movements by copying your instuctor and practicing them over and over. Yes, there were a few masters I met who went slightly beyond "monkey-see, monkey-do". They often emphasized learning what was called "Tai Chi principles". These are like "rules" or "rules of thumb" for your practice. But I now think of that as sort of like "monkey-think, monkey-do". So even learning principles from these master wasn't all that different from what I was used to over the previous decade.

But in 1995, I accidentally stumbled upon two kinesthetic masters of Tai Chi at various workshops. These were the first masters I had ever met that taught neither "monkey-see, monkey-do" nor "monkey-think, monkey-do". Instead they taught kinesthetically.

I spent a few hours with these masters, and I was shocked to learn about how ineffective my Tai Chi practice had been up to that point. One of the masters watched me practice, and said to me, "You don't know how to use your body." And then the other master watched me practicing a certain exercise, looked me right in the eye, and said, "You're not doing Tai Chi."

Well, I was not only shocked, I was outraged. I thought, "Of course I'm doing Tai Chi. I know what I'mdoing, I've been doing it for 10 years! I'm a teacher after all."

But after working even for just a short time with these masters, I learned exactly what had been holding me back from high-level Chi development.

Working with Kinesthetic Masters

So what did these masters do that was so different? Well, we didn't spend any time following along with these masters. We also didn't learn a bunch of movements either. Actually, in one workshop, which was a 15 hour weekend workshop, we worked on learning just ONE movement. While I was used to learning 20 or 30 movements in a weekend workshop, we learned just one single movement.

And these teachers also didn't try to fill our heads with a bunch of rules or principles. Instead, these two masters spent nearly the entire time on kinesthetic details in just a few simple movements. Instead of spending time working on forms and choreography, or on rules and principles, these two masters made me look at the individual parts of my body, made me pay attention to what these parts were doing, and had me work on feeling these parts from the inside.

Now back in 1995, this was an entirely new approach to me. And actually, even today, it's still new to most students and instructors who join our community. This kinesthetic approach is an extremely detailed approach to Tai Chi. It isn't learning movements or principles, it's learning about yourself – about your body, about your mind, and about your energy system – to give you the exact health, stress relief, and chi benefits that YOU need.

And I tell you – for me, discovering this approach not only changed my Tai Chi, it changed my life. When people ask me, "How did you become a Tai Chi master, making your living from teaching Tai Chi?", I tell them – it started with understanding this one simple concept. And the concept is that it's not how many Tai Chi or Qigong movements or forms you know, and it's not about what styles you practice, and it's not even about what principles you follow.

It's learning about your body, mind, and energy system, by focusing intently and intensely on the kinesthetic details in just a few movements.

Once I understood that, and once I really got it, I never looked back. It's the one secret that has really made me both a successful student and a successful instructor, and got me to where I am today.

And right now, you are about to put those kinesthetic details to work for you. On the next page, I have another sample lesson for you, from the advanced training in our ChiFusion Complete Course. If you are beginner, don't be concerned about us calling this "advanced training". It's advanced in the sense that it's something most Tai Chi or Qigong students don't experience. But whether you are a beginner or someone who has been practicing a decade, this lesson helps you begin to build the foundation for learning kinesthetically.

In this sample lesson, you'll learn a movement called Hold the Sky. But what's more important is the section in the lesson with what we call the "ChiFusion details". These are the kinesthetic focal points, places where you should pay special attention to how the movement feels. Learn the basic movement first, then start working on these details to make sure you get the full health, stress relief, and chi benefits from your practice.

So when you are ready, just click on the big, orange lesson button below this video. I hope you enjoy this lesson.

You are viewing a page from our online Tai Chi and Qigong course.
To get access to the entire course, just click here.