03/09/2025
Practicing tai chi slowly can be a challenge. Here’s why it’s so important.
Moving slowly is not the goal of Taijiquan, it is the foundation of learning Taijiquan well. As an early writer of Taijiquan Chen Xin wrote: "From beginning to end, one must move slowly. If you can be slow, then be as slow as possible. When slowness is practiced to the highest degree, agility will also be achieved to the highest degree…This is what people usually find astonishing, yet they do not realise it is the result of the arduous work done beforehand.”
The slow practice of Taijiquan helps to standardise one's movements and allows for a deeper appreciation of the rich nuances and essence within the forms. Slow practice is detailed practice; detailed practice enables complete relaxation of different parts of the body; and complete relaxation allows one to adapt to the myriad changes, achieving a state of unified body and mind. If movements are practised too quickly, many subtle aspects—such as the nuances of posture, transitions, and connections between movements—may be glossed over, leading to incomplete or inaccurate ex*****on.
Slowly learn to feel how one movement seamlessly and continuously connects to the next. This connecting process links what comes before to what follows. Without smooth connections, transitions between movements cannot be fluid, the folding and changing actions cannot be realised, and the continuous, unbroken flow of silk-reeling energy cannot be developed.
During slow practice, it is essential to achieve “slow but not dispersed, slow but not broken, slow but not stiff and, slow but not dull”. Slow practise is ultimately for the purpose of speed, but this speed can only emerge gradually on the solid foundation of slow practice.
