General

Taiji is the most popular of the Internal Chinese martial arts. It is called "internal" because the emphasis is on the development of one's "internal" energy or "chi". This is important because one's internal energy flow affects all aspects of one's physical as well as emotional health. The student will learn the importance of the connection of the breath, the physical body including muscles, tendons, ligaments, organ function, blood flow; etc., and the emotions and mental processes. The key to one's physical and emotional health is the balance of these emotions and mental processes. This course will also teach the concept of "prevention" as it pertains to the avoidance of physical illness and emotional stress, which in turns affects the physical body condition. We get stressed because we "allow" it to happen just as often times when we become ill, it's because we "allow" it to happen. Taiji practice trains the whole body system such that the student will be able to reduce the risk of getting stressed or even physically ill.

Although there are several styles, they all are based on the same principles and all follow the Classics. The particular style taught here is the Yang Style. Even then, there are many slight variations of Yang Style and there are variations of the other styles as well. The student will learn a 108 movement form over a period of 1 year (1 day per week) or 6 months (2 days per week). The focus is on teaching the physical movements, and very gradually emphasizing the fine details as progress is made. This includes proper breathing methods and body movement coordination. As one's energy flow and blood circulation increases, one's physical and emotional health improves.

Push Hands is a 2-person exercise that involves the practice of redirecting each others' forces by way of manipulating the opponent's hands, arms and shoulders. Although Push Hands is part of the taijii curriculum, it is separated out into its own course. Physically, as a martial art, Push Hands teaches the ability to redirect physical forces by first "rooting" that force into the ground. Through sensitivity training, the force is "sensed" at such an early time, that the redirection process begins when the slightest amount of force is recognized. Once the force is redirected, an opponent is vulnerable to counter attacking and/or control. The taiji form also helps in this training in that the chi circulation is improved upon which also allows one to "connect" to the energy of an opponent.

Another benefit of Push Hands is that, on an emotional level, it trains how to "redirect" emotional forces acting upon us from an outside source. Emotional forces can come from personal verbal situations, social situations, environmental conditions, etc., all of which cause stress. Push hands trains one how to "root" the situation by NOT allowing the situation to control one's emotion but rather treat that situation as something happening outside of us rather than happening "to" us.  Self confidence and self esteem are developed and increased with Push Hands practice. The "physical" pushing in push hands also represents emotional forces acting upon us, so this training has much benefit in the concept in "emotional rooting".

Stationary Push Hands is available to all beginner students, and moving Push Hands is available to all students who have completed at least 2 credit hours of stationary Push Hands. In moving Push Hands, the same principles of rooting and force redirection apply, but in addition, proper stepping training is emphasized to allow a wider variety of options, both in martial applications and in emotional situations.

This course is open to all students who have completed the taiji long form OR who have had taiji experience before and now wish to learn the sword form. Very popular around the world, this class consists of learning a Yang Style taiji Sword routine. This routine is similar in practice to the bare hand form but, of course, using a narrow bladed sword. The same principles apply as the bare hand form in that chi circulation is promoted. By learning the martial applications of the sword, students also learn how to project their energies outside their own bodies, in this case, the sword itself and thereby automatically learn how to project emotional energies outward to everyday life situations.

This course teaches a choreographed taiji sparring routine which also follows the principles taught in the barehand taiji form as well as the Push Hands courses. This routine gives a wide variety of applications which utilize the same movements that are practiced in the taiji bare hand routine. The practice of this routine trains the student in building proper reactions to a given opponent as well as distancing, flow, sensitivity, timing and smoothness.