It doesn’t take long to whip up instant mashed potatoes.

And it doesn’t take long to whip up some instant Tai Chi.

As mentioned in a previous post ‘every little bit helps’ – each weekday morning I go outside and walk down my driveway to pick up the newspaper. Before I get to the top of the driveway I make a detour to my garage and do about one minute of Tai Chi training on my punching bag.

I do about 20 light repititions of a defending and striking technique.

There’s no plan to my efforts as I do what I feel like working on. A welcome change from having a detailed schedule to follow.

So far so good.

I’ve been consistent and on the odd days where I haven’t time to do or complete my Tai Chi schedule I know that at least I have achieved some ‘instant Tai Chi’.

Which is better than nothing.

Quotes like ‘sinking the Chi’ can be obscure so the following is a a practical example to help you understand and feel the concept.

I regularly practice a Chi Kung technique which  I call ‘Shaky’.

I stand in the ‘embrace the tree’ posture.

Then I shake my entire body for 60 seconds.

This sounds easy but it is very demanding. After about 30 seconds it’s normal to breathe heavily and feel tension in the arms and the shoulders.

When I start to feel these sensations I ‘sink the chi’ so I can remain calm for the entire 60 seconds and get a proper work out.

Here’s how Ido it.

I focus on visualising, dissolving the chi down to my tan tien and keeping it there.

If the chi rises I repeat the process until I reach my target of 60 seconds.

This simple technique is important in any cardiovascula Tai Chi workouts such as weapons, self defence and general repetitive movements.

So if you are on shaky grounds, don’t forget to sink the chi.

I’ve trained with Western doctors who believed in Chi.

And I’ve read about a Tai Chi master who doesn’t believe in Chi.

Is Chi real?

Well, I can’t prove it exist. And it doesn’t matter if Chi exists, technically anyway.

To me the concept of Chi is more valuable rather than proving its existence.

And the way to understand the concept of Chi is to reflect on the philosophy of Tai Chi and practice the movements.

When this is done over a period of time you will then be able to ‘feel’ the Chi ‘regardless of whether it exists or not’.

One of the Chi Kung techniques I use occassionally to energise my body and calm my mind is what I call  ’360 degree breathing’.

You can do this skill either lying down, sitting or standing.

Here’s how it works;

• Take a deep breathe and imagine you are breathing in good Chi inside every cell of your body
• Breathe out slowly and imagine you are breathing out negative Chi (toxins or negative thoughts or feelings)
• Do at least 8 repetitions to start with and build to whatever is comfortable for you
• relax your breathing – make it natural – don’t force it

A very simple technique that with practice will give you a quick way of feeling good and staying focused when you need to.

Check out this bear performing a staff form.

I like his wrist flexibility and posture.

Not sure what style it’s practising. Probably some ancient Bear Style form.

Hmm, I must go outside and practice my form. Up to where he bites the staff.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Footnote: Discovered this clip on Al Simon’s ‘The Tai Chi and Qigong Blog’.

This evening I will be delivering a presentation to about thirty 15-19 year old footballers.

The theme is Best Performance – a Tai Chi perspective.

I know from experience that if I present it in the traditional way I will lose the audience in the first few seconds.

Teenagers need excitement, movement, fun to keep their attention otherwise they get bored quickly.

I intend to ramp up the excitement and get them focused by using humour demonstrations and challenges. I’ll bring in the teaching points at the end of the fun stuff.

The key to the success of the presentation will be the language I use in relation to Tai Chi.

I’ll need to keep it simple and relevant to their football skills. Having an esoteric approach will only bore them.

Now excuse me while I go and  practice my sabre form for the demonstration this evening.

And iron my Tai Chi shirt.

It’s a bit wrinkled. Just like me.

It’s difficult fitting in all my Tai Chi and Chi Kung training sessions each week.

I don’t train at a set time each day because of the nature of running a facilitation business. I can be working any day of the week, morning, afternoons or during the evenings.

So I have to fit my training in around my work.

While taking out the rubbish bin the other day I discovered a way of fitting in extra training time.

I ducked into my garage and spent a few seconds training a specific skill on the punching bag.

I now do this at least once a day whenever I step outside my backdoor.

It’s only a light workout lasting a few seconds but every little bit helps.

I was working with grade five and six students the other day in our ‘Pozitive Kidz are happy kidz’ workshops.

As I walked into the hall for the first session I noticed some workmen outside.

Once the kids came in and I introduced myself the ear-bursting screech began.

One of the workmen outside was using a grinding tool on a piece of metal.

I had to raise the level of my voice so the children could hear what I was saying.

The irritating and annoying sound threaten to disrupt the class as some of the children started to complain about the noise.

I had two choices – either complain about the noise which would have further highlighted the discomfort or use a Tai Chi  principle (yin/yang) to deal with it.

I chose the Tai Chi option because I was there to teach the children how to cope with stress.

This is how I did it.

I acknowledged the noise to the students without making too much of it.

I then reinforced the idea throughout the session that Tai Chi helps us to focus inside of ourselves rather than on external distractions we have no control of.

This worked reasonable well as we got through what could have been a disastrous session because of the noise.

This experience for me reinforced the lesson that as teachers we need to model the behaviour we desire our students to exhibit.

A choice we all need to make under pressure.

Stay calm or panic.

Two of my favourite martial artists are the late Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

I never met them but they do inspire me when I’m training.

When I’m jumping up and down with my sabre I visualise I’m Bruce Lee defending myself against numerous attackers.

I may look like a constipated Ninja Turtle but that doesn’t matter. I’m enjoying myself letting out the occasional Bruce Lee growl.

And when I get too carried away I bring myself back to earth with a dull thud by visualising the Jackie Chan movie out-takes. The ones where the stunts go wrong.

Yes, it’s important to remember that when you have your head up in the clouds – keep both feet on the ground.

When I practice I occasionaly get ‘lost in repetition’ which is a bad habit.

The quality of my training suffers because my mind wanders or I’m focused on getting a certain amount of repetitions completed.

It is important that each repetition of a skill is performed correctly otherwise bad habits occur.

This is what I do to reduce the ‘lost in repetition’ effect;

• Monitor what I am doing
• Slow down the pace of the repetitions so as to avoid the tendency to speed through the set
• Reduce the amount of repetitions if the quality is not there

It is the quality of the repetition of a skill not the quantity that will determine how much you improve.

Source: Tai Chi Tip #22