太極拳要怎麼練習才會進步 How to improve our skill when we practice Taichiquan?

有人說：「瘋子，是不斷地重複做著同樣的事情，卻期待有不同的結果。」雖然這是大家都能理解的事，但有太多太多的人，卻是身陷其中而不自知，有多少人日復一日、年復一年的在公園裡打著太極拳套路，雖然在學會套路後一直沒有武術、防身的進一步訓練，卻期望能在多年的學習之後，自然產生神奇的功夫可以防身、技擊，我們可以大聲的說，這是不可能的，面對經過訓練的對手，沒有充足的訓練，是不可能獲勝的。

就如同要學游泳，有很多教練會教學員在岸上學習手腳的動作，但在一段時間的訓練後，一定要進入水中做游泳的練習，在岸上的練習雖然也可以強身健體使身體健康，但學員是沒法子從岸上的練習學會水中的游泳的，雖然，看起來動作幾乎是一樣的。

要讓太極拳進步，很重要的一點是要實踐，在有限度的範圍內，了解拳術的使用法並加以練習，不然，就如同在岸上學游泳一樣，下水還是會溺水的。

實踐什麼，首先要先知道自己要學什麼樣的太極拳，先知道自己要什麼，才能判斷自己是否在正確的方向上前進，是趨近目標呢？還是在遠離目標？如果學的拳是要能養身、防身，另外還要能有機會示範一些不懂太極拳的人會覺得驚奇的技巧，那就要謹慎選擇老師及學習的方法。選對老師就能較他人進步快得多，之後，我會有專文討論怎麼選擇老師。



Someone told me that “Only the mad people will try to get different results from doing the same thing.” Although it’s so easy to understand, but a lot of people do this kind of things without realizing that.

So many people practice Taichiquan (Taijiquan) form in the park day after day, year after year. They never practice how to do self-defense and how to fight, but they believe they can have an insight of fight after long time practice of the form. That’s impossible. When people meet the opponent who has been trained for fight, the winner will be the one who has been trained for fight, not the one who has been trained for “Form”.

Just like learning swimming, some coaches teach the movement on land and request people to practice that on land. After a period of time, the coaches always ask people to practice that in water. Although the practice on land can also help people healthily, people can’t learn swimming on land even the movement looks the same.

The way to improve our Taichiquan skill is to practice. We need to know the way to use Taichiquan and then practice it. People who learn Taichiquan without knowing the method to use can’t use the Taichiquan to fight in fight. That is the same that people who practice swimming on land will be drowned in water.

We need to know which kind of Taichiquan (Taijiquan) we want. For fight only, for healthily only, or combined everything together. After we set our goal, we can measure if we got closer to our goal or not. Normally, we need to find a master to learn any kind of body skill, no mater it’s Taichiquan (Taijiquan) or Yoga. I will discussed how to pick a good master in next discussion.