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Interview
Finally I Made It to Tai Chi
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interviewed by Instructor Lis
Catherine’s interest in Tai Chi goes back to the early 1980’s when, as a
school teacher, she organised classes for some of her students. “They
fizzled out after a while. I can’t remember why but it wasn’t very
successful.”
Her next Tai Chi experience was in 1995, travelling in China. “My
friends and I joined in with a group in the park — me with my patchy
knowledge from the lessons at school eleven years before. It was
embarrassing. The instructor came and moved us into the positions
because we were so bad at it.” Catherine is laughing when she tells me
this.
Many years later, when she retired from the public service, having moved
there from teaching, she retrained as an English Second Language (ESL)
teacher and spent the first half of 2005 in Hang Zhou, teaching medical
English to specialist doctors. More laughter and some very funny
anecdotes unrelated to Tai Chi. “That was an experience! But every day
on the way to work,
I’d walk past groups of people practising Tai Chi. Mostly old ladies.
It looked beautiful. When I returned to Canberra,
I
started classes with the Academy.”
“I’d practised yoga but I often went to sleep lying on the floor in the
meditation and the teacher would have to wake me up to continue the
class. I was surprised by the emphasis on the meditation in the Tai Chi
lessons. I hadn’t realised Tai Chi had that element so strongly but it
wasn’t the reason I started, or even why I continue.”
Catherine has no physical problems and is slim and active in her mid
sixties, but as she ages she knows her joints are stiffening and that
arthritis could be creeping into her fingers. “I haven’t done any of
the extra workshops or courses because I’ve never had the time,
but I think the Tai Chi Bang would be a good one in the future. My
partner has done a couple of terms of Tai Chi in the past,
but he should continue because he has a bad back.”
“I don’t practise but I think about Tai Chi. I visualise the movements
when I’m in bed,
and it really helps me get back to sleep if I wake in the middle of the
night. I don’t think I’ve ever thought my way through the whole form
before I’m asleep again. I have a really strong left/right confusion,
so the visualisation helps a lot when I actually come to do the
movements.”
“I found Tai Chi incredibly challenging because of my lack of
co-ordination and I think I did Level 2 about five times! It’s made me
aware of my lack of gracefulness. Sometimes I wonder why I keep coming
to classes but one reason is,
I think,
it’s a huge achievement for me to have finished the form. And I enjoy
it. There is always so much to learn although as a teacher, I often
think we must be very frustrating for the instructors when there isn’t
much progress and they say the same things over and over again.”
Like many students, Catherine is disorientated when the Refinement class
focuses on separate movements. “I can never work out quickly where we
are in the form and the context of the particular sequence. The other
thing I find hard is to stay in synch with the group when we do the
form. It seems to me a paradox that we need to get the movements right
without relying on following others but to stay together as a group. I
often think I’m going along really well and then discover someone is
ahead or behind me which is confusing. I also often feel I’m like a
bridge between two halves moving at different paces, though am not
confident in my own ability.”
Catherine now works as an electorate officer for a Member of Parliament
– a job which can be very stressful and demanding. “Sometimes I just
get up from my desk and do some calming breaths. My co-workers don’t
join me even though I suggest they do. But they don’t laugh at me
either. Knowing those relaxation techniques is a really good anchor.”
(This is an actual
interview, but the name
has
been changed for reasons of
privacy.)
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