April 25, 2022
Tai chi is one of the most practiced martial arts in the world today. Countless practitioners recite these time-honored movements for health, self-defense, and peace of mind all around the world. However, as tai chi continues to spread globally, how to spell it is absurdly frustrating.
November 8, 2021
Renowned tai chi advocate David-Dorian Ross brings his innovative Tai Chi Fit program to help veterans cope with common issues like depression, PTSD, addiction, and chronic pain. Through this program, veterans can receive free tai chi instruction and certified instructors can be compensated by the VA. This elevates tai chi instructors, officially recognizing them amongst other health and wellness professions
October 16, 2021
As Master Chenhan Yang releases his fifth instructional Tai Chi video with YMAA, Staff Writer Gene Ching looks at what his latest offering brings to Tai Chi enthusiasts who might be unfamiliar with Wu Tai Chi.
September 2, 2021
Gene Ching, YMAA Staff Writer, takes a look at Master Chenhan Yang's Sun Tai Chi DVD from the perspective of a Sun Tai Chi practitioner. Gene studied under Grandmaster Sun Jianyun, the daughter of the founder of Sun Tai Chi, Sun Lutang. Master Yang propounds a modern form of Sun Tai Chi while Gene practices the traditional form.
July 19, 2021
To be good at Wu-style tai chi, it takes a lot of practice. Make sure every hand movement, body movement and footwork is precise. The absolute precision of every movement is the ultimate goal for practitioners. Throughout the form all movements and energies should be smoothly and fluidly connected without any pauses or stops.
Sun-style tai chi is characterized by a very unique flavor. Its agile footwork and emphasis on the circulation of qi and health benefits make it a very popular style of tai chi among all ages of tai chi practitioners. It usually takes about 10 months to learn the Sun tai chi 73 routine in our school. And it takes years of practice to be good at it. To master it, it will take a lifetime of training.
If you’re new to tai chi and qigong, WTCQDay is about expanding awareness for these venerated arts. It is an opportunity for practitioners around the world to gather and celebrate their practice. Schools and clubs host practice sessions and mass demonstrations to showcase and promote tai chi and qigong. YMAA has always participated in some manner and there are even a few reports in the archives that give snapshots of activities held in 2010, 2011, and 2014.
YMAA is proud to release Dr. Robert Chuckrow's fourth Tai Chi book, Tai Chi Concepts and Experiments: Hidden Strength, Natural Movement, and Timing. An award-winning author and an instructor of experimental physics, Dr. Chuckrow tackles the age-old conundrum of East meets West in his latest work, presenting his unique insights on Tai Chi and physics in this new work. It's filled with plenty of pragmatic methods, drills and exercises that you or anyone can do to experience his theories directly for yourself.
Online teaching has been trending throughout the pandemic. YMAA instructors Jonathan Chang and Michelle Lin share their experiences providing virtual teaching pre-pandemic until now, as well as hosting a global Martial Arts Virtual Camp. I sat down with them recently (virtually of course) to discuss all this and what they are planning for the future.
"Our relationship is not just teacher and student, but also as good friends," says Dr. Yang. "He has been with me for more than 20 years. We know each other very well so we can collaborate with each other without problems. David is committed, qualified, willing, and capable." After writing so many books on his own, Dr. Yang is now grooming some of his talented pupils to carry on his literate legacy. What's more, he adds with a grin, "His English is better than my 'Chinglish.'"
In Push Hands, two partners work together to improve each other's balance. These exercises are applicative expressions of the various postures within the Tai Chi form. The foundation of Tai Chi lies within martial arts, so self-defense principles are interwoven throughout the routines. Even though many Tai Chi enthusiasts aren't looking to use it in a fight, proper alignment is critical to good Tai Chi practice. It's all based on balance. And nothing informs you that you are off balance better than a good push.
Chen Style Lao Jia Er Lu is a more complex and advanced level routine that is characterized with burst of power emission movements and more martial applications. Understanding how to utilize softness, gentleness, coiling and silk reeling into a burst of power emission and martial application would be the main focus in learning this form.
The Chen-style traditional forms offer progressive training. The first form focuses on Peng, Lu, Ji, An, or Ward Off, Rollback, Press and Push, as primary techniques and Cai, Lei, Zhou, Kao as assisting techniques. This builds our foundation physically and mentally, and is a common focus in many tai chi styles. But, in Cannon Fist, Cai, Lie, Zhou, Kao or Pull Down, Split, Elbow Strike, and Body Leaning Strike are used as the primary techniques and Peng, Lu, Ji, An are used as assisting techniques, which deepens the skill and nuance of your practice.
I’m fond of telling my martial arts students that the First Rule of Self-Defense is “Don’t get hit.” After all, how can you be defeated if no one hits you? This rule makes perfect strategic sense from a pugilistic perspective. However, there is a better and more broadly applicable rule that I prefer to stand by: “Protect your best interests.” What is self-defense, really, if not protecting, or defending, your best interests? The advice “Don’t get hit” is simple and unambiguous, and therefore easy to understand.
Tai chi is a personal development discipline deeply rooted in ancient Chinese culture. One of the most basic tenets of Asian philosophy and of its many traditional mind/body disciplines is that neither the mind nor the body can ever be regarded as entirely separate from the other. This is a belief that I share.
Your ability to move in a differentiated manner is truly a measure of how freely you can live in your own body. Differentiated movement is a foundational concern to all tai chi and martial arts practitioners and is important, as well, to many other sports and movement disciplines.
Ordinarily the word "economics" conjures up thoughts of money, governments, budgets and expenditures – pretty boring stuff if you're not an economist. However, the word "economy" simply refers to the effects, as measured by the relative advantages or disadvantages, of any causal behavior within any system. The most important and immediate economy in your life has to do not with what's in your wallet, but in how you choose to organize and live in your own body.
Tai chi has become more and more popular as a mainstream exercise, usually practiced in slow motion to improve health. Research has shown that tai chi practice can improve our body coordination, improve balance, and reduce risks for falls, especially for seniors. Tai chi practice can also help to reduce anxiety, depression, and stress.
Live In the Moment, Not For the Moment. One of the great benefits of martial arts practice, and especially internal arts such as tai chi, is the underlying theme of being present to oneself –of being in the moment.
This article will share thoughts on both spectrums – approaches for personalized individual direction, and for social strategies, i.e. codes of conduct if you will. Hopefully, you may find something here worthy of your review and consideration.
"Trust" is a fascinating concept. Its presence, its absence, or its antithesis have shaped human history on its grandest scales as well as at every increment of human interaction.
Balance, by which I mean physical balance when upright, is a concern often expressed by potential students prior to taking up their studies at Tai Chi. They want to know: can Tai Chi help them improve their balance? While I'm generally hopeful and upbeat about how Tai Chi can serve students in this regard, there are multiple factors and considerations that come into play where balance is concerned. I feel it is prudent to have a basic understanding of these different factors in order to fashion a reasonable and realistic approach to helping students improve their balance through Tai Chi.
To successfully learn taijiquan (tai chi chuan), you will need to understand some of the principles and guidelines that have accumulated over the centuries by masters of this ancient art. These principles and guidelines are the foundation of taijiquan.
Tai Chi Chuan is a martial art that combines martial arts movements with Qi energy circulation, breathing, and stretching techniques. It utilizes the ancient philosophy of Yin / Yang and the Five Element theories for its foundation and to establish its training principles.
If someone were to engage me in one of those word association games-“Say the first thing that comes to your mind when I say...Tai Chi”