Declining standards

Long time no blog - so I thought I would ease myself back into it by posting a link to this really interesting article about the decline of standards in Tai Chi by Master K.Y. Wong.

What really caught my eye was the following quote, that seemed to chime with what I hope to achieve by applying science to tai chi.

"There are also many new generation practitioners that train very hard to improve the art and are scientific enough to apply the old methods or techniques to "modern ways" to suit the present social structures and environment. This may help to elevate Tai Chi standards in the future."

So if I might paraphrose with my own spin - "Western influence" is both good and bad for tai chi. Good, because scientific principles and research can help to improve it, bad because capitalist and marketing influences downplay the tremendous amount of effort that is required to actually learn it.