How to Improve

After learning taiji for some time, the question comes up on how to continue to improve, how to break beyond the current level. How do you move beyond technicalities, and move into the realm of being able to show the true flavour of taiji?

I still have mistakes here and there with details, yet when I try to correct my details when practising my routines, I end up focusing too much on getting the details correct that I am unable to relax, and thus lose the true meaning of taiji. So how do you move on from here?

Instead of remaining in my current stage, where I practise routines, I need to change my training style. To change the mistakes in the little details, I need to practise each move by itself. Repeating each move over and over again, each time paying attention to the details, is the way to make sure that it is correct.

Then, when practising my routines, I should just relax, and let the movements flow into each other, without paying attention to the details. I need to trust that in my practice of each move, I have already gotten each move correct, so when I string them up into the routine, all I need to tell my body is what is the next move, and trust that it will perform the next move correctly. That way, my focus is on the overall rather than the minute details, allowing me to relax.