Performed the tai chi form twice today, after a reasonably successful pair of qi gong routines. Why twice? Well, as I said to myself this morning, “once for completion and twice for errata.”

I was aware that I’d made a number of mistakes in the first performance. I went too quickly is always the big one, the monster in the room. The reality is that the tai chi form sometimes takes me only five minutes to perform. I have to be really deliberate to go slower than that. And yet the recommended length of time is 24 minutes: nearly five times as long.

In the version of the form I do, there are twenty-four official postures. I’ve tried counting them, and there are considerably more than twenty-four, even when I eliminate repeated names performed twice or more….

1. Opening
2. Ward-off Left
3. Ward-off Right
4. Roll Back
5. Press
6. Push
7. Single Whip
8. Stand Like Tree
9. White Crane Spreads Wings
10. Playing Pipah
11. Brush Knee with Twist Step
12. Grab Needle at Sea Bottom
13. Spread Hands Like Fan
14. Throat Strike
15. False Close
16. Retreat to the Mountain Camp
17. Roll Back
18. Press
19. Push
20. Single Whip
21. Snake Creeps Down
22. Golden Pheasants – Left and Right
23. Kicks – Left and Right
24. Half Turn
25. Bounce the Baby
26. Box Ears With Fists
27. Ear Strike
28. Roll Back
29. Press
30. Push
31. Single Whip
32. Step Back to Drive the Monkey Away
33. Cloud Hands
34. Diagonal Single Whip
35. Elbow Rolls
36. Fair Lady Works Shuttles — 1, 2, 3 and 4
37. Ward-off Left
38. Ward-off Right
39. Roll Back
40. Press
41. Push
42. Single Whip
43. Step to the Seven Stars
44. Ride the Tiger
45. Windmill Kick
46. Full Close

So today I performed the tai chi form twice. The first time was for completion. The second time was for picking up errata, and deliberate slowness. I didn’t time myself either time, but I began the work at about 5:38, and I finished the qi gong and tai chi by 6:00 am, and then I finished the second run-through at 6:15 am.

So I speed-chi. And that’s no good. Must slow down, and go more deliberately. Which is why I performed it a second time. On the second run-through, I tried pausing and breathing in the given posture. My body wants to rush. I can feel the fascia want to spring back, and bull me into a ball. I have to be very deliberate about moving in this sequence, so at I stay stretched for a longer periodi, and increase my capacity to move.

So I count today as a partial success. I think that I can perform the tai chi form multiple times in a day, and practice moving more slowly. But really, I want to get to the point where I perform it once at the correct speed, and not worry about it any more.

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