From the author: Please don't try to learn Tai Chi by rote memorization. That's the usual way, and it's a Confucian teaching device for a Confucian age. This book devotes over two hundred pages to fresh, original explanations of what Tai Chi is and how it works. As an educator, I've found that a principle-driven approach really softens the learning curve. Once we've absorbed the global principles of Tai Chi, the details more or less fall into place. Unfortunately, global information can be hard to come by in your usual Tai Chi class - which I'm not dissing. Really, there are some great teachers out there, and zillions of successful students. But modern Westerners need, uh, a little additional information. Confucians we are not. What we are is busy, and few of us are going to follow along obediently for three or four years in a program that's never been explained to us. You want my advice? Learn Tai Chi. Just however you can. It's that good. But do yourself a favor and read these pages first. You'll feel very empowered when you line up for that first lesson, and you'll stay loose and light all the way through the learning curve. That's important because you never reach the end of it. Tai Chi is all learning curve.