Tai Chi Chuan for Everyone, A Complete Course in the Sun Style teaches you martial moves on the path of peace so you can live healthier longer in a whole-minded spiritually complete way. I teach just as if you’re in one of my live classes, with lots of detail and lots of repetition. Whether you’re an advanced student, or you’re interested in Tai Chi for beginners, this course will help you achieve your goals.
Each class begins with deep breathing and a relaxed standing posture – so you’re in meditation right away. We then do gentle head to toe warm up exercises where I talk about the principles, practices and background of Tai Chi. Then it’s time to learn new moves in the Sun style of Tai Chi. I usually teach two moves in a class and guide you through performing the move with an emphasis on slow, gentle coordinated movement.
Tai Chi Chuan emphasizes making the moves at your own comfort level. It emphasizes safe movement over reaching for a strenuous goal. My teaching emphasizes your safety, literally, every step of the way. I often demonstrate the move with large movements and then show it again with a smaller step or arm circle. My goal is to make sure you enjoy your learning practice and that your Tai Chi playing becomes a joy in your life.
This is more than an adaptation to a particular audience. Adjusting the movements to suit your own capability is inherent in the practice and philosophy of the highest realization of Tai Chi. As the physical manifestation of Taoist philosophy, Tai Chi embodies Wu Wei – going with the flow. This flow has many iterations. One of them is finding and following your own natural flow. This means understanding the reality of your body. Where have you been injured? Do you balance easier on your left foot than on your right? Do you have greater mobility with your right arm than with your left? Can you turn easier one direction than another? All of this body awareness means that the whole point of Tai Chi practice is to move within yourself.
The Sun style is unique amongst the major Tai Chi forms because it was designed to be performed with a very slight knee flex while retaining the integrity of a complete philosophical and martial system. The slight knee flex means it’s suitable for seniors and others who may have limited strength and flexibility. The complete form means you get immersed in the whole minded approach to living that characterizes the Yin/Yang of the Chinese way of being.
By being divided into 9 sections, the Sun style also lets you enjoy both a learning and a meditative practice experience soon after you begin your lessons. Tai Chi requires discipline and commitment. It usually takes a year to learn the basics of the complete form. Since there are 9 sections, you can start the meditative aspect of Tai Chi practice much sooner, usually within a month. That’s about how long it takes to learn Section 1.
While it is important to integrate and practice the principles, the range of movement and the size of movements does not influence the effectiveness of Tai Chi practice.