How much does tai chi lessons cost?

Answer 1

In China you can learn it for free if you can wake up early enough. Actually, that also goes for any major U.S. city with a large Chinese community, if you can wake up early enough you can get free lessons. However if you are too lazy or "unsincere" to do it the hard way, you can purchase Terry Dunn's DVD "Tai Chi For Health" I believe its called. You can always Google Terry Dunn and look for his DVD; its only 20 bucks and very easy to find. If you have a Hastings or Barnes and Noble near you, and I BELIEVE Barnes and Noble MAY sell DVD's and movies now, then you should be able to find it. Been a while since I been to Barnes and Noble; the closest one is in Spokane Washington and that's like 3 hours away. There is the $20 DVD you can buy or, you can get on Tai Chi magazine's website, and look at DVD libraries with greedy Chinese turds wearing expensive silk Tai Chi uniforms offering low quality Tai Chi lessons for up to $400, the total cost of the DVD library. Remember, if you live in a major city with a large Chinese community, all you need to do is wake up ultra early, and go to a park. As they say "when the pupil is ready the teacher will appear" right? Whoever you encounter, that will be your teacher; remember, if a man or woman, regardless of their age, has the kind of discipline to wake up that early to do Tai Chi Chuan, if they have that kind of discipline, it probably means their skills are formidable. Remember that; one of the things that separates a high level expert from a wannabe, even a wannabe who receices instruction in a school, is the ability to get up to train at 5 a.m. Serious martial artists, all wake up early; never forget. Actually serious ANYTHING; Arnold Swarzennegger, back when he was a bodybuilder he was a real turd. He was cocky and overconfident in his younger years and he displayed this in the more or less autobiographical movie "stay hungry." He was at his very worst, when he was juicing up; steroids gave him a size of I think 240 lbs of solic muscle. Okay moving on to the point; "the governator" said, that he could tell "losers" from "champs" apart, by what time they went to the gym. The people who trained with him in the early hours of the morning, they all had a trophy in something; be it Mr. America, or Mr. Europe, or whatever. All other bodybuilders who did not train early in the day, they were all "loser wannabes," now, these are Arnold's own words, I'm not making this up hey if anything I think he used even more derogatory language, I'm actually being nice compared to the way he was. Myself personally the bodybuilder I look up to is Charles Atlas; not only did he stay in shape until the day he died, unlike Arnold, but in his prime and without steroids he was stronger than him too, and not nearly as massive. I am personally more impressed with all the "Superman" types of the world, than with the "Hulk" types. In the world of strength training, you are either the "Hulk," or you are "Superman." Those are the two breeds of strong men, the "Superman" type is becoming increasingly rare. A "Superman" bodybuilder is exactly as the nicname implies; someone who is disproportionately strong for their size, just like the famous comic book superhero. A "Hulk" type bodybuilder is someone who is strong because they are so freakin' huge. In modern day comics, Hulk is in fact stronger than Superman, at least the standard version, BUT, even at only his golden age of comics level of strength, Superman can still hit the Hulk hard enough to cause pain. If you do strength training you need to decide what manner of shape you want to be in; do you want to be "Superman," or do you want to "Hulk" out? You can't have both; its biologically impossible. In classical bodybuilding, the "Superman" bodybuilder was considered the greater achievement of fitness. Back to the "5 a.m." point, Atlas woke up every morning at 5 a.m. and if you were an early bird yourself, if you lived in or near Conney Island New York when Atlas was alive, people could see him working out on the beach. Residents of Conney Island who stayed near the area said "you can set your watch by that man." Just letting you know, Tai Chi Chuan is one of those things that requires a similar level of commitment; if you want a truly skilled and competent instructor, you will have to train yourself to wake up that early. When Arnold calmed down as he got older, the language he used in his Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding was "I can tell who is serious, and who will quit, by how early they get up to work out." Again, that pattern of thought is not unique to Tai Chi; all endeavors requiring high discipline, men who follow said endeavors, have the same mentality. Those who wake up early and last at least a month, will stick with it, those who don't will quit within a month. Famous Karate instructor Hidetaka Nishiyama awarded black belts faster, to people who trained with him in the early morning sessions; Nishiyama's Karate school in Los Angeles, I believe had 5 a.m. sessions. If you attended those, you could earn your black belt faster because Nishiyama sensei would "know you're serious." Even going to bed on time, even getting your 8 hours, being well rested, and heck, even having a girlfried or wife who gave you a good @$#%# the night before and you are REALLY well rested, etc, etc, even with all those benefits, one of the biggest hardships a human being can endure, is waking up at 5 a.m. Waking up at 5 a.m. is a difficult thing to do even if you are emotionally stable, well balanced, and healthy. Because it is a hardship in a way, many top people, Bodybuilders, Martial Artists, Yogis, people known for outstanding skill, they feel that a personw willing to endure THAT hardship, the hardship of waking up early, will endure ANY hardship to succeed at whatever discipline they choose. If you just up and quit, when all that is asked of you is that you get up early, then you won't have success. A famous Scottish merchant, I believe it was the man who wrote the treatise on free market capitalism of all people, once famously said "I can tell the size of a man's income, by how early he wakes up." Pointing to the fact that only men who learn to consistently wake up at 5 a.m. will see a large income, those who don't, won't. I know it was an overly long answer but, food for thought. Myself I am trying to train myself to wake up at 4:30 a.m., mostly without success. Haven't given up though; I think I have tried well over 1,500 times, each time ending in miserable failure. However I'm not giving up.