Personal transmission

I'm learning taiji sanshou (not the form) from a teacher in the Chen Pan-ling lineage. The format is private lessons and after class this morning, I was thinking about just how much of this stuff depends on personal, private transmission from teacher to student. This simply isn't the kind of stuff that can be taught effectively in a group class format, much less in video format on DVD, etc.

Learning how to use peng, lu, ji, etc. in a fighting context depends at this level on a lot of small corrections that must be made on an individual basis. A small angle or the lack of enough pressure in a certain small area is enough to prevent the technique from being as effective as it could be. The feedback required to attain these skills is immense. I need constant correction on small details to find the holes in the opponents' defense while hiding my own. Only a teacher can really address these problems.

I remember fighting with my choy lay fut teacher during my four years of training with him. He fought with me and used that medium to train my body. I have never lost those skills because his corrections were thorough and painful.

Getting push hands and sanshou from a teacher is really the only way to acquire these parts of the art. They are more personal IMO than forms work because each person has their own strengths and weaknesses that a teacher must help a student develop. Without that hands on experience, I doubt that students will get this material.

Many teachers say they expect a student to develop this themselves, but that is a copout. What is really being said is "don't bother me with this." Using taiji and other IMA at this level is NOT something that can just be figured out by a hardworking student. I work hard but there's no way I could EVER figure out the type of stuff I'm being shown. There's just no way. It's too complex and far too subtle to grasp the power by yourself. At best, a hardworking student would wind up with something crude but perhaps effective if left to their own devices.

So this brings up the necessity of private lessons at a certain point. My Chen style teacher told me once that taiji eventually becomes very personal and it must be transmitted personally from a teacher to student in a private format. But then that means that the teacher MUST be willing to teach private lessons and the student must be willing and able to take them. That doesn't always happen in my experience.

I have asked other teachers in the past for private lessons and was given ridiculous prices. I remember asking one teacher here in Taiwan about fees and he said group class was free. What about privates, I asked. He said private lessons were $3000 NT ($100 US) per hour. I got the hint real quick: take the group class, I don't have time for privates. Other teachers I know won't teach private lessons at all, even to people that have studied with them for years. Teachers do this for a variety of reasons. Maybe the art is something commercial to them (this is VERY common) or they feel tired of putting in the time to train people privately. Private lessons tend to be very intense for teachers and students.

So if you're learning from someone who refuses to teach private lessons, even to advanced students, be very careful. You may be getting a not-so-subtle hint that higher skills are not on the menu. It may be time to go teacher shopping.