Page 86 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

cripples growth and makes Tai Chi look like an extension of rus h hour in Times
Square. In those early Tai Chi years, my mission was to be wide ope n to every

bit of information. I tried my best to learn from each error, whet he r it was my
own or that of a training partner. Each Pus h Hands class was a revelation, and
after a few months I could handle most pl ayers who had been study ing for a
few years.

This was an exciting time. As I internal ized Tai Chi ’s techni cal founda tion, I
began to see my chess understandi ng manifesting itself in the Pus h Hands
game. I was intimate with competition, so offbeat strategic dy nam ics were in
my blood. I would notice structural flaws in someone’s postur e, jus t as I might

pick apart a chess position, or I’d play with combi nat ions in a manne r pe opl e
were not familiar with. Pattern recogni tion was a strengt h of mine as well, and
I quickly picked up on people’s tells.
As the months turned into years, my training becam e more and more

vigorous and I learned how to dissolve away from attacks whi le staying rooted
to the ground. It is a sublime feeling when your root kicks in, as if you are no t
standing on the ground but anchored many feet deep into the earth. The ke y is
relaxed hip joints and spring-like bo dy mechan ics, so you can easily receive

force by coiling it down through your struct ur e. Worki ng on my root, I be ga n
to feel like a tree, swaying in the wind up top, but deepl y pl anted do wn low. In
time, I was also able to make my Tai Chi meditation pr actice manifest in Pus h
Hands play. Techniques that are hi dden withi n the form started to come out of

me spontaneously in martial exchan ges , and sometimes par tner s woul d go
flying away from me without my cons cious ly doing much at all. Thi s was
trippy, b ut a natural consequence of systematic training.
I have mentioned how a large part of Tai Chi is releasing tension from your

body through the practice of the meditative form. Thi s is effectively a clearing
of interference. Now, add in the coordi nat ion of breathi ng with the movement s
of the form, and what you have is bo dy and mind ener gizing into action out of
stillness. With practice, the stillness is increasingl y profound and the trans ition

into motion can be quite explosive—thi s is wher e the dynam ic pus hi ng or
striking power of Tai Chi emerges: the radical chan ge from empt ine ss int o
fullness. When delivering force, the feeling inside the bo dy is of the gr ound
connecting to your finger tips, with nothing blocking this communi cation.

Highly skilled Tai Chi practitioners are incredibl y fast, fl d, respo ns ive—i n a