I have often heard Tai Chi practitioners saying that they prefer to train Tai Chi on their own with minimal physical contact, believing that if they spend enough time on their own practice, they will be able to obtain the awesome power of Tai Chi Chuan. This is just an illusion. Individual practice is just only one aspect of the training. The other aspect is “gau sau” (in Cantonese) or translated to mean, “exchange hands”. Gau Sau practice will enable you to work with different people of different levels, to help you refine and enhance your Tai Chi Chuan ability. There are various aspects of Gau Sau training such as posture testing, push hands, sensitivity, ta lu, martial applications and many other.  What is often forgotten is that the path of Tai Chi Chuan can only be negotiated through experiential learning. Only by working with people will you begin to feel and discover the various aspects of Tai Chi talked about by masters, effervescent out at different levels of your training. Such feelings can only be felt and not possible to be adequately described in words. Only through this approach, will you be able to harmonise your mind, body and spirit.  Too often have practitioners over intellectualised Tai Chi and subsequently lost their way. By incorporating Gau Sau as part of your Tai Chi training, your standards in Tai Chi will no doubt improved substantially.

In this issue, we continue to focus on helping you with your Tai Chi Chuan training. In the posture testing article, we take a look at Shou Hui Pipa (or Hands strumming the Pipa) including a series of tests and basic self-defence applications associated with these movements to help you understand the posture better. Nick Cheang’s training tips look at the importance of 3 vital acupuncture points i.e. Yung Chun (Bubbling well), Dan Tien (Sea of Chi) and The Crown to help you improve your Tai Chi. We commence with Part one of Grandmaster Ip’s interpretation of Yang Cheng Fu’s ten principles of Tai Chi Chuan followed by an article on Tai Chi Chuan in daily life. It looks at how easily Tai Chi can be applied in our daily life. Finally, we have collect some comments from participants of workshops or retreats. It will provide you with a valuable insight as to how these sessions not only compliment your regular practice but also expand your understanding of the ancient art of Tai chi Chuan

Lastly but not least, we at TCAH would like to take this opportunity to wish you all an early Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. As for the Chinese folks “Kung Hei Fatt Choi” for the early Chinese New Year in January 2012 - the Year of the Dragon.

See you next year.