See if these words sound familiar...

I run instructor’s training courses and I find that the vast majority of peope studying Taiji  do not understand their body alignments, the majority don’t know how to do the breathing work and that majority, in the West, do not know how to do the opening closing techniques which are essential to how Taiji is done. When I was living in Beijing, China in the early eighties, Men Hui Feng, who was the Head Instructor and teacher certifier at the Beijing Institute of Physical Education said, “Without opening and closing, there is no Taiji.”
~ Bruce Frantzis

With Taiji I don’t always insist that students learn fighting but I do encourage it so that they can understand where their intention is, and where their energy is going with the movements. They are not just waving their hands in the air. You don’t have to know that the energy is going along a particular meridian line but it is helpful to know that you’re pressing energy downward, or you’re making it go out to your hand, and that you’re pulling it back into you, because in all those movements of Taiji, this is an aspect that many people just aren’t aware of.

~ Bruce Frantzis