2018 World Tai Chi Day Event at Blandy Experimental Farms in VA.
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Programs
In this section we will give you a brief idea of the various programs that are available that can help beginners, physically challenged, active Tai Chi practitioners gain greater health and wellness as well as experience the many benefits of the martial art known as Tai Chi.
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Adjusting to our Students Needs
We take into account both the physical capabilities of our students as well as the long or short term course of study that they wish to pursue. For the student who wishes to learn as much as possible about Tai Chi, we offer courses starting with Tai Chi principles and philosophy, proper postures and techniques, Yang 37 posture Short Form, Push Hands, Dalu and the overall health and wellness tenets of Tai Chi. For those physically challenged or only interested in specific health and wellness aspects of Tai Chi, we offer the AVK 9 Posture Form, Chair Tai Chi, Qiging (Chi Kung) Breathing and Standing Meditation. These last courses are meant to make the student self-sufficient in their practice outside the Tai Chi school and generally enable completion in 6 - 12 weeks.
Our Programs Are Tailored to Optimize Your Health and Wellness
Chair Tai Chi
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Seated Tai Chi isn’t easier Tai Chi, she says, but it is a way to lower the impact the exercise has on the body. Tai Chi has a lot in common with yoga, though the two practices diverge when it comes to stretching and relaxation. While you stretch to relax during a yoga class, you relax to stretch while practicing Tai Chi.Even seated, you’ll still work your core and move your arms and hands. You can even move part of your legs and feet for movements that require you to do so.When you choose a chair to use during your Tai Chi practice, forget ergonomics. You’ll unlikely sit with your back against a support, let alone lean, during your practice. You want a chair that won’t interfere with your full range of motion. Tai Chi is already an exercise that minimally affects your joints and muscles, says the Mayo Clinic, but using a chair makes Tai Chi an essentially zero-impact exercise.
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Standing Meditation
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Standing meditation has many of the same health benefits of sitting meditation as far as reducing stress and regulating mood, increasing oxygen to the body, reducing blood pressure, and stimulating the production of necessary chemical compounds in the brain. When practicing standing meditation, the health benefits are multiplied. Bones are strengthened, as are muscles and tendons. The nervous system is regulated, and over-all inflammation in the body is reduced. Flexibility and stamina are built. Some suggest that only the very elderly or ill should meditate while sitting down, because the health benefits of standing meditation far outweigh those of sitting meditation. T'ai Chi IS moving meditation, and some postures are used for standing meditation. As with all T'ai Chi postures, in order to do standing meditation, you must be connected to the Earth and grounded. You must relax your body into the postures to open the meridians and allow the chi to flow unrestricted.
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Yang 37 Posture Short Form
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An early practitioner of tàijíquán to openly teach in the United States was Zheng Manqing/Cheng Man-ch'ing, who opened his school Shr Jung t‘ai-chi after he moved to New York from Taiwan in year 1964. Unlike the older generation of practitioners, Zheng was cultured and educated in American ways,[ and thus he was able to transcribe Yang's dictation into a written manuscript that became the de facto manual for Yang style. Zheng felt Yang's traditional 108-movement long form was unnecessarily long and repetitive, which makes it difficult to learn and make progress. He thus created a shortened 37-movement version and taught that in his schools. Zheng's form became very popular and was the dominant form in the eastern United States until other teachers started to emigrate to the United States in larger numbers in the 90's. He taught until his death in 1975. He is the most noted and emulated Tai Chi Grandmaster.
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Tai Chi Application - Push Hands & Da-lu
Push Hands -Pushing hands is said to be the gateway for students to experientially understand the martial aspects of the internal martial arts : leverage, reflex, sensitivity, timing, coordination and positioning. Pushing hands works to undo a person's natural instinct to resist force with force, teaching the body to yield to force and redirect it. Push hands allows students to learn how to respond to external stimuli using techniques from their forms practice. Among other things, training with a partner allows a student to develop ting jing (listening power), the sensitivity to feel the direction and strength of a partner's intention.
Da-Lu -Da-Lu is one of the great training methods from the internal fighting arts of China. It is a kind of push hands method that has been hidden in the shadows of push hands since it was invented. However, this training method is one of the best at teaching footwork and the use of the four corner directions ever invented. Da-Lu sticks to the basic principles of Taijiquan in that we never step backwards, always coming in from an angle in attack and our defense is also our attack. Da-Lu teaches us the most economical way of moving the body in order to gain the most power from our attacks while at the same time using the least possible amount of energy.
Da-Lu -Da-Lu is one of the great training methods from the internal fighting arts of China. It is a kind of push hands method that has been hidden in the shadows of push hands since it was invented. However, this training method is one of the best at teaching footwork and the use of the four corner directions ever invented. Da-Lu sticks to the basic principles of Taijiquan in that we never step backwards, always coming in from an angle in attack and our defense is also our attack. Da-Lu teaches us the most economical way of moving the body in order to gain the most power from our attacks while at the same time using the least possible amount of energy.
