Contrary to popular opinion Tai Chi Chuan is not complicated. It can be broken down into eight basic energies, eight directions, five elements contained therein and thirteen postures to express all this. A key component of how you choose to express your Tai Chi is speed of movement. So what is the correct speed for Tai Chi form?...well the short answer is that there isn't one!
The mind and body are constantly changing. One day there may be a need for grounding, and another may bring the need to move faster or to direct the energy outward.
Most people think Tai Chi is habitually slow. This slowness became popularised in the sixties primarily influenced by the Californian counter culture movement with a greater emphasis on Tai Chi's meditative qualities. There's nothing wrong with this (I rather like it!) But originally slow form work was only five percent of overall Tai Chi training. It was found slowness has many benefits for greater martial skill and health.
It was the health aspect that Master Yang Chen Fu focused on in the early twentieth century when Tai Chi entered the public domain and became popular.
Tai Chi's original martial masters were renowned for being demonically swift and while slow form work aids with this it's not the whole story, you have to practice at speed.
Old styles of Yang and Chen vary in speed mimicking the ebb and flow of jissen (actual combat) and contain fa-jing (which negates yin sickness).
Some forms were specifically designed to improve your speed eg Tungs fast form (actually any form can be done at speed).
Old school weapons forms are always fast by nature (their modern equivalents have been slowed).
Cannon fist forms in all styles are designed for accelerated speed.
Yang style's 'Hands Not Moving Way' for the 'body spirit flow' naturally speeds up in the middle and slows down again (there are many different ways to energetically explore forms and they all alter the speed).
So as you can see there is no universally accepted speed, timing, rhythm or cadence. Speed is entirely subjective and down to the individual.
Chinese martial arts were normally practised at ones own pace, with the training based on the tempo set either by the nature of the movements themselves or by the individuals own internal rhythms. The Chinese express this idea by saying that the training rate is set by "the body's chi and blood rising and falling" in other words at your own pace, whatever feels right.
So find your own Tai Chi, move with awareness. If you want to move fast or slow you simply will it (practice must contain intent 'yi').
Tai Chi is an energetically based physical method of personal development, slow or fast the best way to tap into this is via the concept of Wei Wu Wei 'do without doing, act without action'. Taoists believe that great creativity and power would flow through all of us if we would only let it. We inhibit ourselves because we try too hard, think too much, and do not believe. Just relax and everything becomes effortless - on autopilot, this state is natural, desirable and something to 'work' towards.
A gathering of practitioners attuned to Wei Wu Wei can produce one of the most magical things you can experience in Tai Chi, Jenchi - the energy of a group of people acting harmoniously together creating a positive vibration and generating an atmosphere of smiles all round (a great assist in the healing aspect of the training). By its very nature this can't be contrived, it happens spontaneously. Don't confuse this with the group choreographed coordination you see in demonstrations, yes it looks very pretty but it contains little substance.
As the Chinese proverb runs :
"The reflection on a pool of water does not reveal its true depth".
Take it slow (or not)
Mathew
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