QA问答：如何在家里免费自学太极？

Rick Hamilton, studied Practical Self Defense at Martial Arts
Not very well, I'm afraid.
To a casual observer, taiji looks like a slow dance, easy to emulate, but upon examination it is much, much, more. If you watch a skilled practitioner closely you will notice a unique quality of movement.
Taiji movements are based on Taoist principles, and they require excellent balance, precise skeletal alignment, and coordinated sequencing of muscle activation, creating and expressing true internal power.

在家自学太极恐怕不是很好。
对于一个不经意的观察者来说，太极就像一种慢舞，很容易模仿，但仔细一看，它门道很多。如果你仔细观察一个熟练的练习者，你会注意到太极独特的动作质量。
太极运动以道家原理为基础，它们需要良好的平衡，精确的骨骼排列，协调的肌肉激活顺序，创造和表达真正的内在力量。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

I have been teaching Taiji for 20 years, and have never read a book or seen a video which could properly transmit those skills. Learning them requires hard work under the guidance of a knowledgeable teacher.
Even finding that special teacher is difficult. I have met many over the years who “learned" their taiji from videos and books. Those “teachers" are dance instructors, not taiji teachers.

我已经教太极20年了，从来没有读过一本书或看到一个视频可以适当地传播这些技能。学习太极需要在知识渊博的老师的指导下努力练习。
就连找到这样的老师都很困难。多年来，我见过许多人通过录像和书本“学习”太极。那些“老师”是舞蹈老师，不是太极老师。

There are many people, especially seniors, who take taiji lessons to improve their balance or maintain range of motion in lieu of more strenuous exercise.
If that is their goal, books and videos teaching “the dance” will probably suffice.
But if you wish to learn “the art” of taiji, do yourself a favor and find a good teacher.

有很多人，尤其是老年人，他们通过学习太极来提高他们的平衡能力或保持运动范围，而不是进行更剧烈的运动。
如果这是他们的目标，那么教授“舞蹈”的书籍和视频可能就足够了。
但是如果你想学习太极的“艺术”，那你得帮你自己找个好老师。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

Erik Ceunen, Teacher of Qi Gong and T'ai Chi Ch'uan, studied it in China
That depends:
Are you a proficient dancer?
Are you a skilled martial artist?
Do you have invested yourself obsessively in any other skillset requiring mind-body coordination and detailed motor coordination?
In other words: how in touch are you with your body?

在家免费自学太极，这取决于:
你跳舞熟练吗?
你是武术高手吗?
你是否在其他需要身心协调和精细运动协调的技能上投入过精力?
换句话说: 你和你的身体有多少接触?

If your body coordination is not on point, better seek out an instructor face to face.
If you have good body coordination to a reasonable extent, and a reasonable obsessive urge to learn, then you can probably teach yourself a whole lot with the help of instructional movies.
The more instructional material, the better.

如果你的身体协调性不好，最好找老师面对面地练习。
如果你有良好的身体协调能力，并且有合理的强迫学习的冲动，那么你很可能在教学视频的帮助下自学很多东西。
教学材料越多越好。

If you do so, do first try to learn the same routine from one instructor from start to finish. You can do this by splitting up taolus, routines, choreographies or whatever you wish to call them, into two or three moves per time max.
Repeat those first three moves till you can do them properly without guidance, and only then move on to the next three movements. Repeat those till you can do them properly too. Then rehearse the first six moves, and only then move on to the next three, and so on.

如果你在家自学太极，首先试着从一个老师那里从头到尾学习相同的动作。你可以把套路，常规动作，编舞或不管你想怎么称呼它们，分成每次最多两到三个动作。
重复前三个动作，直到你可以在没有指导的情况下正确地完成它们，然后再继续接下来的三个动作。重复这些，直到你也能正确地完成它们。然后排练前六个动作，然后再继续接下来的三个动作，依此类推。

Only once you learned a whole taolu from one instructor, try to watch instructional videos of the same taolu made by other instructors. This will help make things click that you skipped over previously.
Obviously it’s important to be aware of the different styles of tai chi chuan if you wish to learn from multiple different instructors. Chen tai chi, Zhaobao tai chi, Yang tai chi, modernized Yang Tai chi, Northern Wu tai chi, Souther Wu tai chi, Sun tai chi, modernized and traditional forms all have different ‘choreographies’. There’s nothing wrong in putting it all together, as long as you are aware which taolus are supposed to be the same, and which aren’t.

只有当你从一个老师那里学了完整的套路之后，试着去看其他老师制作的同一套套路的教学视频。这将帮助你注意到你之前忽略的东西。
显然，如果你想从不同的老师那里学习，那么了解不同的太极风格是很重要的。陈式太极、赵堡太极、扬式太极、现代杨式太极、北方武式太极、南方武式太极、孙式太极，现代和传统的太极体式都有不同的“套路”。把它们放在一起没有什么错，只要你知道哪些套路应该是相同的，哪些是不一样的。

To all the naysayers and people who tell you you shouldn’t or cannot properly learn without direct instructions, take a look at the history of tai chi chuan. Yang Luchan, a martial artist with the last name Yang, secretly observed people from the Chen village practice tai chi chuan and taught himself.
He then went back to Beijing and competed in multiple one on one fight challeges, came out victorious, and from there on out Tai Chi Chuan gained its popularity. Now the whole world has seen or heard of tai chi chuan at least once, eventhough people may not be aware of its history or what it is practiced for other than for health effects.

对于所有反对者和那些告诉你在没有直接指导下不应该或不能正确学习的人，看看太极的历史。 杨禄禅是一名姓杨的武术家，他偷偷观察陈村的人练习太极，并自学成才。
然后他回到北京，参加了很多一对一的比赛，并取得了胜利，从那时起，太极开始流行起来。现在全世界至少看过或听说过一次太极，尽管人们可能不知道太极的历史，也不知道太极除了对健康的影响之外还有什么作用。

Trevor Hill, Trained in several styles. 1st dan Chang Hon & Kukkiwon TKD
You can to a certain extent, if you are just on about moves. The problem is that you might miss subtle things. You might also risk knee problems if you get the foot position wrong: if it hurts, change it.

在一定程度上你可以在家自学，如果你只是练习太极的动作的话。问题是你可能会忽略一些微妙的东西。如果你脚的姿势不对，你也可能会有膝盖问题的风险: 如果你感到疼痛，就改变姿势。

Nic Harvard, Avid amateur
You could teach yourself the general form, but it would really be like thinking you could unlock artistic talent by doing paint-by-numbers
You could teach yourself moving meditation, internal exercise and several other tai chi benefits by yourself in a cave in the mountains on a rice bowl a day.
Just don’t call it taichi

你可以自学一般体式，但这就像你认为你可以通过画数字来释放艺术天赋一样。
你可以在山上的山洞里，每天吃一碗饭，自学移动冥想、内在锻炼和和其他一些太极运动。
只是别叫它太极。

Jan Stittleburg, Tai Chi - Qigong Instructor (2006-present)
How can you teach yourself something you do not know? You can follow Youtube videos, but most do not give detailed explanations of why you are doing what you are doing, or the best way to do it. And you definitely do not get the feedback that saves you from hurting yourself. Doing a move wrong can wrench your back, hurt your knees, or worse. If you don’t have access to a teacher near you, at least reach out to see if any can do a Facetime or other live video teaching, to give you the help you need to do the forms right.

你怎么能自学你不知道的东西呢? 你可以关注油管视频，但大多数视频都没有详细解释为什么要这么做，或者最好的方法是什么。你肯定得不到让你免于伤害自己的反馈。做一个错误的动作可能会扭伤你的背部，伤到你的膝盖，或者更糟。如果你身边没有老师，你至少要联系一下看看是否有老师可以进行Facetime或其他视频教学，以帮助你学习正确的太极姿势。

Roger Jahnke, Many forms of Chinese Kungfu-Gongfu - not for combat, mostly to inform Tai Chi.
There are lot of ways to learn Tai Chi. At home for free is a great one.
You Tube is an immense resource.
The main problem is that there are many versions. If you can convince yourself that it doesn’t matter if you are accurate to certain form, you could potentially settle in to an excellent fusion of diverse forms.
Many will declare that this is a bad idea.

学习太极有很多方法。在家免费学习是一个很好的选择。
油管是一个巨大的资源。
主要的问题是有很多版本。如果你能够说服自己，你对某种体式是否准确并不重要，你就有可能适应不同体式的完美融合。
许多人会说这是个坏主意。

I have been to China 10 times to study Qigong and Tai Chi. There are many, many variables. I have met several amazing practitioners who have sworn the the best Tai Chi is “Spontaneous Tai Chi”, meaning innovative rather than based on specific form.
Another challenge is that learning on your own may leave you with a lack of adherence to key principles about posture, breath, pace and more. You may want to check in with a teacher led class occasionally to get some refinement.
This all assumes you are doing Tai Chi for health, stress mastery and meditation. If your goal is to master the martial arts or prepare for competition, you will want a teacher or a coach.

我曾10次到中国学习气功和太极。太极有很多很多的变量。我见过几个了不起的太极练习者，他们发誓说最好的太极是“自发太极”，意思是创新而不是基于特定的体式。
另一个挑战是，自学可能会让你缺乏对姿势、呼吸、节奏等关键原则的坚持。你可能想偶尔去参加一个由老师领导的班级，以获得一些改进。
这一切都假设你为了健康，控制压力和冥想而练习太极。如果你的目标是掌握武术或准备比赛，你会需要一个老师或教练。

Marlon Bishop, designer, entrepreneur, backseat economist
You could watch videos and read books to learn Taiji but in my experience the dropout rate is near 100% with this particular martial art and health activity. Most people do not stick with Taiji long enough to realize health benefits anyway, even attending in person. Put another way, in 20 years I have never met anyone who learned Taiji in any demonstrable capacity on their own by solo learning. It’s like expecting to learn a difficult piece of music like Rachmaninov, by yourself for free without even know piano yet. Part of the complexity of learning comes from not knowing how or when to listen, that requires someone to show us. It also requires well-structured source material in both text and video - this is the second reason you can’t really learn Taiji at home for free. At least not at yet. The institutional structure is beginning to come to life in the form of official sanctioning for Taiji forms and competitions, along with instructor certification.

你可以通过观看视频和阅读书籍来学习太极，但根据我的经验，这种特殊的武术和健康活动的辍学率接近100%。无论如何，大多数人坚持太极的时间都不够长，没有意识到太极对健康的好处，甚至不能亲自参加太极练习。换句话说，在过去的20年里，我从未见过任何人通过单独学习来学习太极。这就像期待着自己在还不懂钢琴的情况下免费学习拉赫玛尼诺夫的曲子一样。学习的复杂性部分来自于不知道如何或何时倾听，这需要有人向我们展示。它还需要结构良好的文本和视频素材——这是你不能在家里免费学习太极的第二个原因。至少现在还没有体制结构开始以官方批准太极形式和比赛以及教练认证的形式出现。

The third reason is many of the benefits of Taiji come from literally being in a classroom, struggling and improving with others. Acquiring the attitude of discipline comes from being inspired by a teacher, which is again reinforced by classroom culture. Reading books or watching videos to learn in isolation would defeat this point, and becoming proficient would take ever more discipline, time and research than the benefits of Taiji actually provide. You will find it tedious, ambiguous, and quickly start to ask yourself why this and not something else.

第三个原因是太极的许多好处来自于在课堂上，与他人一起努力和提高。纪律态度的形成源于老师的激励，而课堂文化又强化了这种激励。通过阅读书籍或观看视频来单独学习就会挫败这一点，而要精通太极需要更多的纪律、时间和研究，而不是太极实际提供的好处。 你会发现它乏味、模棱两可，并很快开始问自己为什么会这样，而不是其他样子。

Mike Fiorella, 20+ years practicing TaiChi, other martial arts & Zen
While the Internet can help you get started, and is a great reference for learning other styles once you’ve mastered one, you are going to miss out on a lot if you’re not studying directly with someone who has mastered a style and is experienced teaching it. Tai Chi is subtle, and little things like the precise angles of your feet, legs, arms, hands and head will not be obvious. You may “think” that you’re doing what is being shown in the video, but a real instructor is going to walk up to you and make minor adjustments that will prevent you from learning bad habits. If they’re a really good teacher, they’re also going to *explain* why the posture you’ve taken is undesirable and why the thing they’re teaching you is better.

虽然互联网可以帮助你入门学习太极，一旦你掌握了一种风格，互联网是你学习其他风格的重要参考。如果你不是直接与掌握了一种风格并有丰富教学经验的人一起学习太极，那么你将错过很多东西。
太极是微妙的，像你的脚、腿、手臂、手和头的精确角度这样的小东西是不明显的。你可能“认为”你自己正在做视频中显示的内容，但真正的教练会走到你面前并进行细微调整，以防止你养成坏习惯。如果他们真的是个好老师，他们也会解释为什么你的姿势不受欢迎，为什么他们教你的东西更好。

Look, you can learn a foreign language using wonderful apps like DuoLingo. The app works really hard to give you useful exercises and explanations, and there’s artificial intelligence built in to tell you when you’re making errors in pronunciation. But this is no substitute for studying—at least some of the time—with a real native speaker of the language. Why? An in-person teacher is going to catch your little mistakes, drill you over and over on the correct way, and, in the end, prevent you from acquiring the language with bad pronunciation and lots of little grammatical mistakes.

你可以通过DuoLingo这样的应用程序学习一门外语。这款应用程序非常努力地为你提供有用的练习和解释，内置的人工智能会在你发音出现错误时告诉你，但这并不能替代与真正的母语人士学习——至少有些时候是这样。为什么？一个面对面的老师会发现你的小错误，用正确的方法一遍又一遍地训练你，最后，防止你通过糟糕的发音和许多小语法错误来学习语言。

Walter Segall, studied at Baruch College
You may be able to learn Tai Chi from various YouTube videos. The persons who posted them seem to think you can learn Tai Chi from videos, and they are all free. I learned Tai Chi from various teachers over the past few decades. I am singularly untalented at it, but I seem able to teach persons th Beijing Form of 24 postures along with a few postures and movements from other forms within the Yang style.

你可以从各种油管视频中学习太极。发布这些视频的人似乎认为你可以从视频中学习太极，而且它们都是免费的。在过去的几十年里，我从不同的老师那里学习了太极。我在这方面特别没有天赋，但我似乎能够教人们24个北京体式以及一些杨氏太极中的体式。