I agree with you about the “weird stuff”. I teach Tai Chi and I’m very careful about the words I use, especially when it comes to describing mechanical forces. I’ll often mention that I don’t mean some notion of “life force” but rather the physical Newtonian force that your body is subject to while performing the movements.
I find Tai Chi to be deceptively complicated with deep physical and psychological components. I have a hard time articulating what it is to others since it’s not really a martial art, and it’s not really meditation, and it’s not just a bunch of movements or calisthenics. But it does have very real effects and I love it!
It sounds like your experience is quite similar to mine and I’m happy you found a good teacher and are enjoying the practice! 😀
That video!! Yeah, I don’t believe it either. Sort of reminds me of doing Kung Fu as a kid. We’d do public demonstrations and would sometimes ham it up a bit for the audience. I wonder if that’s what’s going on.
Have you practiced push hands? There’s a neat effect I can only describe as sort of being able to bounce off the other person. You can get some decent air with it! I also wonder if there’s a bit of that going on with a lot of exaggeration.