How to find a reputable Tai Chi Trainer?

I want to start learning Tai Chi for its health benefit and for self defense. I searched the internet for local schools that instruct Tai Chi. There are so many! I heard that you need to learn Tai Chi right from the begining because if you are not taught well, it's very hard to correct later on. How can I tell all those instructors apart form each other and find one that's really good?|||i've been a taijiquan practioner for years now and teach it as well.. and yes, i understand and empethize with your dilema.. i myself was lucky enough to find a sifu with an authentic lineage...





anyone who is affiliated with the guang ping yang taijiquan association is reputable... laoshir henry look is the founder of that association and my sifu is one of his closest students..





here's a list of certified instructors: http://www.guangpingyang.org/Teachers/Ce鈥?/a>





there are many that have learned and teach taiji for health benefits, and there are others who learned basically to bring more traffic into their schools..





and yes you are right in a lot of ways learning taiji wrong is hard to correct in the later years, that's why taiji is a good art, it allows you to live longer, so you have longer to perfect it..





now remember, if you're learning taiji as a martial art, you have to realize that it's 80% shuai chiao (chinese grappling/throwing), any knowledgable instructor can tell you that. and shuai chiao falls under the same concepts as chin na, you use leverage and folcrums instead of strength as bluto had mentioned. i know this because i'm 5ft 126lb woman, who with the mechanics and concepts behind the movements of taiji, can throw a 5'8 200lb man across the room, without using strength..





taiji is about using your leverage and gravity to execute movement.. if you use strength as suggested in the previous answer, you just end up wrestling with your opponent,





in taiji what you are looking for is your opponents point of instability. if you're opponents in a cat stance, which most japanese martial artists learn to perfect, you have to feel which angle and area of his body is unbalanced, then you capitalize on that by using gravity as your weapon..





it's like.. ok. everyone's had to move a fridgerator once in they're lifetime right.. well, do you just go up to the fridge and begin to push with all your might? no, you tip it on it's side, shifting its center of gravity and than you can easily manuever it wherever you wish.. that's the concept of taiji..





check out these websites to gain further information on taiji: http://www.guangpingyang.org/index.htm


http://www.lotusdragon.com/index.htm





and if you're in new mexico or near here, we're having the desert dragon 2007 chinese martial arts convention in albuquerque on jan. 12-14..





with martial arts greats like master henry look, master dave pickens, master kenny perez, laoshir jiang jian ye, master steven lee johnson, master christophe clarke, laoshir cheng jin cai and many many more.. check out the website for details on the desert dragon 2007: http://www.desertdragon2007.com/





hope this helps! if you have any further questions just email me, i'm happy to help!





~*good luck*~|||first off, tai chi is VERY difficult to find a good teacher that will train you realistically.





it is difficult to even find a tai chi teacher that will claim to teach you realistically even though they don't.





Most of them tout tai chi for health.





you want to find a school that takes sparring and resistance drills beyond pushing hands.





While people say that tai chi is not supposed to have resistance, that is a load of s hit. Tai chi uses power and stregth, just not against stregth. Most schools tell you to go "limp" and don't resist at all. this is not what "dont' resist stregth with stregth means", what it should mean, and what should be taught, it to use stregth not against stregth, but against a different direction but still maintaining structure.





(an easy explanation would be to be to deflect a forward pushing punch with a sideways application of force).





Finding a good chinese martial arts school is hard, finding a good tai chi school can be near impossible depending on the area.





Don't believe any bs claims about "building up your chi, will make you stronger- technique does". An 8 month student from our school was playing with a 20 year tai chi guy and the rest of his school and slapped him around like a red-headed step child. Not that this guy had any power or great technique, just that the tai chi guys didn't. be carefull of that- it is a common story among schools that tai chi guys are weak- this is why. Because they believe a line of bs from thier teacher that if they keep doing certain "dances" they will get power never realizing the flaw is actually in what thier teacher is actually teaching them.