Teaching tai chi | ||
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Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach...
A tai chi teacher can and does.
If you cannot perform tai chi to a high level, then you have absolutely nothing to share, nothing to teach.
Please note that personal aptitude with
tai chi is certainly not the same as knowing how to teach the art skilfully.
Coaching?
A sports coach offers learning guidance and support; gearing the practice
towards the acquisition of defined competences. This is quite different from being a tai chi
teacher.
In tai chi, you cannot retire from active practice and share your
knowledge
as a coach.
A master of tai chi or
qigong does not enjoy the luxury of many coaches in modern sports like
football and athletics who often cannot dribble a ball or run a race half as
well as the students they teach. As mediocre instructors are so common
nowadays - some even start to teach after having attended only a few weekend
seminars - finding a great master is like finding a gem in a hay stack.
(Wong Kiew Kit)
Fit to
teach?
In order to teach any subject, an
instructor needs certain requirements:
Subject knowledge
- the information the instructor plans to impart
Experience
- a good instructor should have at least 10,000
hours of deliberate, mindful practice behind them
-
10,000 hours of continued
improvement, insight and development
- at least 100 private lessons with the instructor
- the instructor should be practicing (by themselves) more than 2 hours
a day
Teaching
skills
- the ability to explain things logically and thoroughly
- metacognition
- reasoning
- articulate
- engaging
- awareness
- compassion
- humour
- patience
- differentiation
- time management
A goal
- aim, objective
- purpose of the lesson
A
syllabus
- defining the components that will enable a student to achieve the
objective
- a path leading to the knowledge
- a scheme of work
- how the student will proceed
Topics
- breakdown of the syllabus into modules of information
- logical building blocks
- small steps along the path
- teach according to the students ability to learn
Discrete lessons
- a lesson is an opportunity to explore a given skill
- examples must be provided
- thought-provoking
- stimulating
- encourage enthusiasm and participation
- engage the student
- allow for different ability levels
Proof
- examinations, tests, grading
- pressure-testing
- an increasing scale of hardship
A good teacher offers the student an opportunity to work through the defined
curriculum at their own pace.
They provide assistance (and occasionally obstacles) in order to foster growth
and continual development.
Although much has been written about the deeds and idiosyncrasies of famous
tai chi masters and how to learn tai chi, it is a remarkable fact that
very little has been written about teaching the art.
Tai chi teachers have teaching methodologies which would quickly earn them
the sack from an academic institution. A typical example is the practice of
many teachers to rely upon students merely copying their movements, and then
moving on once the student can do the technique more or less correctly.
There is seldom any explanation or correction, the emphasis being on
monotonous repetition.
(Dan Docherty)
Tai chi teacher
The most common type of tai chi teacher is the
health teacher.
They are usually skilled with
qigong,
tai chi form &
pushing hands and have at least 5 years experience.
Kung fu instructor (Sifu)
Tai chi chuan (dynamic balancing boxing)
instructors must be very skilled with
tai chi and have
at least 10 years experience.
There are usually 3 levels of instructor:
Instructor
Expert (at least 10,000 hours of practice)
Master
All
kung fu (Chinese boxing) instructors should possess rigorous internal
martial arts
skill.
Teaching tai chi as a
martial art
If you watch wing chun applied in combat, it looks distinctly like wing chun.
The same could be said of judo, aikido, ju jitsu, pencat silat etc.
By the same reasoning, the martial art of tai chi must look like
tai chi. What does tai chi look like in combat? Tai chi looks like
tai chi. The form, pushing hands, you know... tai chi.
If the martial expression of tai chi does not look like tai chi, it is
probably not tai chi.
More...
13 adult learning amateurs assistants authenticity fit to teach? levels syllabus teacher training course teaching tai chi
Page created 2 August 1995
Last updated
16 June 2023