I was a little surprised at the number of attendees at the first class of the new term on Tuesday; it was a quiet, intimate affair with a number of missing faces. But when I thought back I was able to recall sketchy memories of people telling me that, for one reason or another, that they weren't going to be able to make it.

My problem is, I can't remember who it was who said what.

It seems more than a little ironic that I should forget things that I've been told by my students when I spend so much of my time trying to encourage you all to remember all the things I tell you.

I know that, in the past, I have encouraged you all to "learn the words", that is to say, to learn the names of the forms and the order in which they are played. I stand by this advice. If you learn to associate a name with what it feels like to perform that particular form and how it feels to more from it in to the next form in the sequence you will find it easier to play the sequence through.

I've said to many of my students in the past, if it were just a case of learning the sequence, I could get a new student all the way through Part I in no time. But if that's the case, why does it actually take so long? The answer is that you aren't just learning the sequence. 

By mastering the gross choreography for the form you can afford to expend much more of your concentration of those things that make playing the form different from Line Dancing, things like intent, the generation and direction of power as well as the more prosaic things like breathing and balance. Learning how to do all of these things along with moving the correct arm at the correct time and in the correct way is what makes Tai Chi what it is and it is that that I'm aiming to share with you.

So, I guess that this is another of those "do as I say, and not as I do" moment. Yes, I'm prolly going to continue to forget when student X says that they're going to miss a class or 2 and I'll them paint 'em as MIA. You, on the other hand, should try and remember some of the rantings of the guy at the front and if you find yourself getting stuck in your practice, try learning the words.