Tai Chi for Life and Health does not stream students. Nor do we attribute ranks to students, such as belts or levels such as duan, or dan, used in martial arts.
While each of the classes has its own complete syllabus, it builds on your previous tai chi learning. Therefore, we encourage students to gain competence in the learning in one class before progressing to the next.
The choice of classes attended, however, remains entirely up to the student.
Why is that?
Our tai chi is a mind and body self-development exercise regime. You choose why you do tai chi and what you want to get out of it. For many students, it is complementary to other exercise they enjoy, while for others it is a core mind and body fitness regime.
We’re all beginners
Regardless of age, experience or expertise because we never stop learning or deepening our appreciation of our art. As such, we do not bow when we greet each other with the tai chi salute. In Chinese culture, bowing is akin to kowtowing, being a sign of submission and not respect.
Is there any formal recognition of achievement?
Some styles, such as the Yang Family style, and the International Health Qigong Federation have adopted ranking, but we see it as a commercial alignment to tai chi as a competitive sport. Whereas, our focus is providing an environment where each student can decide what level they wish to achieve on the classical “threefold training” of learning, reflecting, and meditating.
How does a student address their instructor?
The terms master and grandmaster are modern constructions which, while they may be intended to indicate respect, mistakenly indicate a hierarchy based on competition. Tai chi is non-competitive so such titles are inappropriate. The traditional ways to address an instructor is laoshi, meaning teacher, or shifu in Mandarin (sifu in Cantonese), meaning skilled person.
Our classes are less formal than traditional ones, so students are encouraged to address their instructor or class tutor by their first name.