I’m constantly reviewing my training schedule and today I decided to get back into practicing Square Tai Chi in my form’s session.
For those not familiar with the term it’s a stop and start method of practicing Tai Chi, particularly suitable for beginners. Here’s a previous post of mine explaining it in more detail Square Tai Chi vs Round Tai Chi.
Praciticing square Tai Chi before I do the round form has the following benefits:
- it’s a great warm up
- it helps me avoid rushing through the round form
- I can adjust my postures correctly by pausing at each point
In today’s square form practice it took about 15 minutes but that varies by up to 24 minutes. It depends on how long I hold each point in the posture. Add another 15-20 minutes for the round form and that adds up to around the 30 minute mark for continous form practice.
It certainly makes a big difference in circulating the chi and feeling energized.
Why did I stop doing square form earlier?
Well, I decided to stop practicing the square form so I could include self defence applications for each posture. But after reviewing my schedule I found I was already doing this on a daily basis with my second session of Tai Chi during the day.
So to make the best use of my time I subsititued the square form for the self defence applications practice during my form’s session.
Square form is not only ideal for beginners but also for experienced Tai Chi players. Regardless of how long you have been practicing your form you still need to check to see if your postures are correctly performed.
And Square Tai Chi will do that for you.
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