origami_itto wrote:You're all absolutely right. The only way to actually learn any of this is to accidentally stumble in the unmarked door of a kung fu master's private studio at the age of no later than ten and befriend his son, causing him to teach you the ancient secrets over the next 50 years until you don your white robe and cry on his tablet.
I don't know why everybody doesn't just do that. Why do they spend time looking for a teacher that is accessible, knowledgeable, ethical, personable, and an effective communicator while practicing the fundamental exercises to prepare their body for the best quality teaching when they can find it.
That just seems silly. The first person you meet who claims to teach Taijiquan is the only one you should get ANY information from on the subject, ever. That's the only wat to get good.
That is exactly the problem. Most people just catch the first person they find, they don't know how to search and they certainly don't know that they should look for a "
teacher that is accessible, knowledgeable, ethical, personable, and an effective communicator while practicing the fundamental exercises to prepare their body for the best quality teaching when they can find it"
You have references so you can make a good judgment, but most people haven't a clue that there are different schools within a style, about the various levels, differences of teaching methods etc, etc.
Sometimes you can find a teacher, very skilled or not, that is not publicly known, bit still teaches the goods. Sometimes you can find a public teacher that is skilled and is generous with his teaching. But if you take the first teacher you can find, and don't search, compare and make an effort to find the right teacher
for you, then you are not controlling your destiny, you are just leaving it to luck, like buying a lottery ticket.