Book: Tai Chi Dynamics by Robert Chuckrow

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Tai Chi Dynamics is intended for intermediate and advanced Taiji players. The author has been a Taiji practitioner for thirty-seven years and with a Ph.D. in experimental physics. He applies logic and basic scientific principles of anatomy, physiology, and physics to muscular action, breathing, and alignment in Taiji movement and push-hands. He clarifies, in depth, many perplexing concepts such as “correct force” by utilizing detailed explanations, illustrations, and photographs. Sayings from the Taiji Classics are quoted throughout, and exercises are provided to give readers a chance to confirm their understanding.

Over a dozen self-defense applications of the basic Taiji movements are illustrated, and the effectiveness and completeness of Taiji as a martial art today is candidly analyzed. Suggestions for many aspects of teaching Taiji are provided, which stem from over three decades of practical experience. A chapter on Zheng Manqing (Cheng Man-ch’ing), with whom the author studied for five years in the early 1970s, sheds light on Zheng and his students.

One chapter deals extensively with aspects of self development from a personal perspective, discusses how doing Taiji correctly is a precursor to spiritual growth, and compares religion, science, and spiritual teachings. A detailed chapter on health, self-massage, and healing discusses fasting (including the author’s own experience with a twenty-eight-day fast), differences between Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine, and provides exercises and methods of self-massage for head, legs, feet, and back. There is even a section on how to make your own footwear suitable for practicing Taiji. The book includes personal anecdotes and stories and has over one hundred photographs and illustrations drawn by the author.

AUTHOR(S)

Robert Chuckrow has been a Taiji practitioner since 1970 and has studied Taiji under the late Cheng Man-ch’ing, William C. C. Chen, and Harvey I. Sober. He has taught Taiji extensively and has written four other books. He currently teaches Taiji in Westchester, NY.

REVIEWS

Grandmaster William C.C. Chen

… thoughtful, perceptive, open-minded. Robert’s book provides Tai Chi practitioners with many fascinating avenues of practical exploration as a way to discover for themselves the truth Robert writes about.

Lawrence Galante, Ph.D., author of Tai Chi, The Supreme Ultimate

It is with great pleasure that I recommend this notable work … This book is an important contribution to the body of Tai Chi literature.

Nancy Rosanoff, author of Knowing When It’s Right

Using simple tools of physics … to explain Tai Chi movements makes the healing and martial value of Tai Chi more understandable to the modern mind …