TaiChiClasses.Net

Tai Chi can be a very intimidating art to start learning. With it’s graceful flowing patterns and seemingly complex and long forms, I have heard many potential students or even students trying a class remark that it is too difficult and frustrating to learn. When I hear that I always respond that the art is easy to learn if approached properly and very challenging to learn in the way they were introduced.

Tai Chi is a progressive art that integrates breathing with movements that promote flexibility and strength. It is a low impact aerobic form of exercise that needs to start with larger gross motor movements and over time progress to the finer more particular movements just as in any major sport form. Take tennis strokes or a gold swing. You start with the basic swings working on the large (gross) motor patterns and over time you refine the movements. Too often tai chi instructors try and get you to try and have the particular movements like a Serena Williams in tennis or a Tiger Woods in golf instead of just enjoying the process and the large motor movements that a beginner in those sports would have.

In learning Tai Chi, it is important to remember the terrible too’s. Avoid doing too much, avoid doing the movements too fast and avoid going too deep in your stances or holding postures for too long. Have fun! Enjoy each movement. It is best to start with chi gung/qi gung exercises that make up the basics of the forms you want to learn. Also be sure to affirm what your particular goals are for learning Tai Chi. Is it for better health, weight loss, increased flexibility, reduced stress, more centeredness and harmony in your life? You can use the art to achieve a variety of goals but it is important to understand the principles and concepts of Tai Chi that are taught in the Tai Chi Theories, Concepts and Principles DVD so you can be sure to know exactly what you are getting in to. Knowledge is Power!

Once you set your goals, I recommend starting with the 5 Organ/Element Set. It opens up the space around the core organs, promotes increased flexibility in the upper body, works right and left brain integration exercises, can be used for self defense, reduces stress, promotes a healthier immune system and promotes better digestion plus more. It is easy to learn and can be done daily until you feel comfortable enough to move on to the 5 Centering set which will start working your center of balance cultivating a stronger “root” and begin to workout your legs along with developing a few of the stances you will be using in the forms and even some of the core techniques. For instance, energy shuttle becomes “jade girl works at shuttles” in the tai chi forms. Gather and disperse becomes a key component to “single whip”.

Once you are comfortable with those two sets, you may wish to move on to a more challenging set in the 8 Verses of Brocade or if you want to start a form, begin with the 13 Integrated Form. The next progressive sets in order are the 8 Essentials of Tai Chi, and the 12 Tao Yin.

Tai Chi is an art that is just like the yin yang symbol; everything keeps interconnecting and integrating and flowing through cycles of hard and soft, fast and slow, simple and complex – balance and harmony arise from opposites being in balance and in sync with each other. You can start with the complex and work to the simple but it is wiser to start with the simple, work to the complex and return to the simple.

What is really great about my tai chi program is that you can also email me with any questions, set up private classes, and workshops to help you be successful but you can also be very successful working through the Distance Learning or Video Download Programs. Our dvd’s and downloads are taught with students in mind. I often hear from students that say things like, “Your dvd’s are so good that I don’t have any questions. You cover the exercises from the front and back, you talk about the proper breathing, you go at a pace that is comprehensive and easy to follow along. I feel so much better after doing these exercises. I wish I would have started your tai chi program years ago because I tried other programs and dvd’s that were too hard to follow or the instructor was trying to impress me rather than teach me.”

The thousand mile journey starts with one step or, in this case, one download. In this wonderful time and space you can stay at home and with a click of a mouse start your tai chi journey and save gas, save time and do the same lesson as many times as you want without having to pay for it every week or month.