Learning your Tai Chi form can be frustrating at times. The main reason it’s frustrating because mentally we start to loose patience pretty quickly if we don’t get something right away.

In fact one of the ways Tai Chi helps you is by training your mind to stay focused on the task at hand. The beauty of Tai Chi doesn’t reveal itself to you fully until after you memorize your form. The reason for this is because you have to be able to effortlessly get through your form without having to think about what comes next. When you can do this, your mind is free to wander around feeling new sensations etc.. Until you have the form memorized, your mind is engaged in the act of learning the form.

While you are going through the memorization part of your Tai Chi training Sifu Phu has some advice on keeping your balance while you are doing your Single Whip.

I really didn’t the power of Tai Chi in my life until after I learned and memorized the Tai Chi form. Looking back on that learning experience I actually gave up a couple of times in the beginning because I couldn’t mentally get past the learning part. When I finally did memorize the form though all kinds of new and interesting things opened up to me. It made me wish that I would have memorized it earlier in my training. If I did I may be further ahead than I am today.