How Do You Check a Taiji teacher???

[MaartenSFS]

Lately I've been running into a lot of Taiji teachers, many from different camps. Most say that the others don't have the "true Taijiquan" and most are quite skilled. By being the only foreigner in the mix it's a very complicated situation. What do you gentlemen think that one should look for in a Taijiquan teacher as far as skills are concerned. For me, there are several things that come to mind:

1) Is the teacher a good person? Is he an arse-bandit that will piss me off all the time? How does he treat others? Does he bad-mouth everyone else?

2) Is he skilled? Being better than me isn't that great of an accomplishment (hehe...). How good is he compared to other teachers? How deep is his understanding?

3) Can he teach/explain it?

4) Is he a responsible teacher? Does he dedicate his time and energy to teach you well? Other skilled students is a good indication of a teacher's teaching ability.

5) Will he fight with me? If I don't get fighting experience with either the teacher or senior students, what's the point?

For my current teacher I feel like I'm quite clear on every point except #2. He definitely has skill, but I haven't been all around China to compare, so it's hard to say just how good he is.

I have met another teacher that will teach me for free, but I don't really know him and think that I am satisfied with my current teacher. I was told by this teacher that my current teacher, although decent, is far from the highest level (Yesterday my teacher stomped a really solid brick in half with very little effort). This gentleman has been studying various forms of Taijiquan and even Baguazhang, Yongchunquan, for over thirty years. He's 55 and still fights all the time. Free is a good price. That said, he said I could continue to learn from my current teacher for now, so I will.

Then there's another Wu style teacher nearby that is supposed to (according to him and one of this other teacher's students (biased!) ) be better as well. I feel like they are an egotistical crowd (The Wu teacher), though I haven't officially met them.

For those of you with more experience than I, what are some ways to check how high their level of Taiji is? I have my own ideas, but more heads are better than one and I'd love to get some advice here. My head is spinning!

[Bao]

You can learn something valuable from any teacher who has some kind of skill and knowledge. Even a less skilled teacher who just can offer you another way of thinking and does things differently than you are used to can be a real eye opener. For all kind of CMA, IMHO, it's extremely important to learn from and study with as many people as possible. Don't judge too much, just try to learn as much as possible.

[MaartenSFS]

I agree, but another huge problem is the politics. I won't study from two teachers at the same time, though.

[XiaoXiong]

You should empty your mind and ask yourself these questions. Wait a while after and keep neutral,the answer should become clearer.
Jess

[MaartenSFS]

It's already become a little clearer since this morning.. I'm satisfied with my current teacher and I also heard a story from another teacher friend of mine whose opinion I respect. There's a reason that I listed the first most important thing as #1. It is a very complicated situation I'm in, though. I had mentioned another incident involving the Guilin "Jianghu" in another thread... By the time I leave China I will be an absolute expert on Chinese society..

Regardless of my predicament, I'd still be interested to know what members of this forum think are attributes to look for in a skilled Taijiquan practitioner.

[chenyaolong]

I think an important point in China, is a teachers attitude towards foreigners. Some are very open and prefer foreign students to Chinese, others are racists who think "kung fu is only for Chinese" and no matter how sincere you are, will just regard you as nothing more than a laowai, withholding all kinds of "secrets", so you end up missing out on the fundamentals.

Training with lots of different teachers in one area runs the risk of getting you a very bad reputation. I dont know how it is in Guilin, but in Shandong it is like this. A lot of politics and rivalries, which is a shame, as more open discussion could help everyone develop.

[chenyaolong]

It's already become a little clearer since this morning.. I'm satisfied with my current teacher and I also heard a story from another teacher friend of mine whose opinion I respect. There's a reason that I listed the first most important thing as #1. It is a very complicated situation I'm in, though. I had mentioned another incident involving the Guilin "Jianghu" in another thread... By the time I leave China I will be an absolute expert on Chinese society.. .

Maybe you should write a book "The Chinese Jianghu" haha

[MaartenSFS]

I haven't run into anyone over here that refuses to teach foreigners yet. I think that before this area opened up to tourism there were VERY few foreigners that ever came here. They probably got some missionaries and some soldiers during WWII and that's about it. You are right about studying from too many teachers. If nothing changes, I plan to stay with my current teacher for some years.

I realised that Taiji has politics even beyond the politics of normal Gongfu and that I should be thankful for what I have. Plus, my teacher's reaction when I told him that several teachers had come up to me and talked shop was very mature. He said all sorts of teachers stopped by all the time. Every day that I learn from him I am getting gold. So, my situation is resolved.

[grzegorz]

To be honest I don't believe number 2 is really that important. I've trained with lots of different people and some were incredibly high level I found that the ones I learned the most from were from those I had the best relationships with probably because they actually cared about my progress.

[MaartenSFS]

I think that a good teacher needs all five, but that, in a pie graph, the elements of my list will be divided differently.

[suckinlhbf]

I would pick one who never say others suck.

[Dmitri]

The only true test of a Tai chi teacher is to shoot him with a sniper rifle from a rooftop across the street. Real master would sense the disturbance in the force beforehand and deplete your qi remotely so that you would be unable to pull the trigger.

[nicklinjm]

Agree with chenyaolong, my experience in China (Shanghai) has been that the teacher's willingness to teach you is very important. Very few teachers here will refuse you to your face, but many teachers will just teach the external moves to keep you happy without teaching the internal details, supplementary exercises + usage that turn it into a functional martial art.

[grzegorz]

I think that a good teacher needs all five, but that, in a pie graph, the elements of my list will be divided differently.

That's fair enough. Again I've trained with some of the best but if you train with the best and all they care about is the money or in the case of China how much face you can give them as a foreigner then you'd be better off with someone half as good who actually wants you to be better than them.

In BJJ my current coach wants his students to be better than he is and it's no surprise to me that he has the best students out of all the places I trained at with only one exception and that's because the other place trains a lot more.

[grzegorz]

This was also my experience training the Wu in Shanghai although my teacher's TJQ is world class what makes him a great teacher is that he wants his students to be better than he is unfortunately this is a rare quality in the martial arts world.