I have often come across the suggestion ( originally in Karate ) that ” you should train with only one teacher” – but have found that actually all the teachers I have trained with have had many teachers themselves, indeed the really good ones have actively sought out other teachers and I have come to the conclusion that it is actually quite simple – train with one teacher consistently until you have enough experience and insight to understand what you are going to look for – then find other teachers and other styles. This may be part time – say for a few seminars, or it may be in parallel with your existing Tai Chi or other martial arts classes, perhaps you may travel to other countries occasionally and learn there.
The point is you have to have sufficient ability first – then you can go out and get a different perspective. If you only ever train with one person then you only get one perspective – martial arts is such a huge area that one perspective is not enough to understand this multi-dimensional subject. This is true, I would suggest, in other areas as well – such as my hobby of golf – at least two perspectives on a subject at allows stereo depth vision – a triangulation as it were.
If you come to the conclusion that your original teacher – or one of the others particularly suits you then you have learned something about yourself and are in a position to make an informed choice about your way forward.
