Diary of a New Tai Chi Instructor Part 3: One Year In

It's been almost a year since I started teaching Tai Chi. It's spring now. Summer is just around the corner. I can do classes in the park again. The best place to do Tai Chi really is in a park on a sunny day with the birds chirping and children shouting in the background while they play their ball games. No more dance studios till autumn for now.

I now teach in community centres, fancy gyms (with wine bars! Who drinks wine at the gym!?), people's homes, and adult education centres. I even got asked to teach at a corporate office but had to turn them down since I was too busy. Imagine me six months ago turning down gigs! It's pretty surreal to see how far I've come in a relatively short space of time.

My first class was on June 9th 2025. It was a Monday and I rented the cheapest dance studio I could find. Five people came to that class and out of those five, none are still attending. It's quite normal for people to come and go. Heck, I've started and stopped many hobbies. It's just how it is. It has made me more appreciative of students that stick around for more than one class, that's for sure.

Every week I teach about 10 classes, around 40 a month. The current record is 43 in March 2026. At first it was daunting. How could I teach that many classes? Won't I get tired? What if I burn out? I had my doubts. How did I deal with it? I just did it. I took it one day at a time and the opposite turned out to be true. It invigorated me. I'm not burning out, I'm burning in. It's a dream come true that I can do this as a vocation.

What have I learned since last time I wrote one of these, six months ago? So much that I don't even know where to begin, but also so little, since I still have a long way to go. I still attend three classes a week, long classes averaging more than three hours that need a tea break or else the kind old men turn into grumpy old men. I still do my qigong every day. I still remember what it's like to walk into a Tai Chi class for the first time and have no idea what's happening. In some ways I'm still learning that feeling myself, just from the other side of the room.

There's a revolving door of students that come and go in the gym classes. I don't know who will leave and who will stay, so of course I treat them all the same. I've become less sensitive to people coming and going. It's out of my control, I tell myself. I can only teach a good class. I can't make them stay. I can only do the teaching. They must do the staying.

I've noticed that younger people seem to get bored easily during the standing meditation at the start. They can't stand still, they look around, they fidget their hands, they giggle with their friends. The older students are a different story. They sink right in, eyes focused, barely moving. They tell me how relaxing it is after class. Whereas the younger ones can't stand still, the older ones could stand there all day.

The older students do tend to worry about remembering the sequence of the form though. I'm always quick to reassure them that it's part of the process, not to worry, keep practising and the body will remember. People learn at different rates. Tai Chi is an embodied practice. I can only guide them, give corrections when necessary, and encourage. They are the ones doing the work.

I try to make classes fun and throw in jokes all the time. Some land but a lot don't! I do this because if the class is enjoyable people will come back, and if they come back they'll keep benefitting. I've heard horror stories of teachers forcing students to get it perfect from the first try. Tai Chi is precise, yes, but pointing out every flaw a new student makes would only put them off coming back. I'm a big believer in positive reinforcement. It's how I would have liked to learn.

I get asked good questions too. "Why do we bend our knees in Tai Chi?" came up twice and at first I thought it was a silly question, but the more I thought about it the funnier it got. "Is it to pounce on someone? To be more ready to take action?" Yes and yes, I chuckle. And also because it brings your centre of gravity lower, which makes you more stable. This is my real answer btw. My Sifu always says "if you want to teach you must know your stuff, don't teach what you don't know." I think about that a lot. It's why I still attend so many classes. If a question really messes me up I can always fall back on "I don't know, let me find out." There's no shame in that.

I've taught 10+ students the short form now, I've kind of lost count. Two of my students have recently finished the second part of the long form as well, which is quite amazing. I know they'll finish the whole thing soon. That will be another milestone.

I'm currently the manager of six Tai Chi group chats. I have to cut and send videos of me narrating and doing the form so my students will remember the sequence and remember to practise. I take notes every single class. It gets tedious managing the digital side of teaching but every time I slack on my duties I think about the kindly grandmother who gives me a lift to the station after class and I know it's all worth it.

Me teaching Tai Chi classes: haha fuck yeah!!! yes!!

Me managing six WhatsApp group chats at 11pm before bed: well this fucking sucks. what the fuck

Since I travel around London teaching, I spend a lot of time on the tube. Occasionally if my legs are feeling like jelly I sit down and read a book but most of the time I just stand there as still as I can, hands dangling by my sides, while the carriage sways back and forth. It's good practice. I spend hours doing this every day.

I spend a lot of that time thinking about the next Tai Chi dream. I know I'm being greedy, having just achieved one dream and already reaching for another. But this one is different, bigger, and I can't really talk about it since I believe saying it out loud is bad luck. Anyone who talks to me about Tai Chi can probably guess what it is.

The truth is, even if I never reach it, and it's a real moonshot, at least I know I tried. And even if I do succeed, the funny thing is I'll just be doing the exact same thing I'm doing right now: living, breathing, and sleeping Tai Chi.

Written 4th May 2026