Below are our posts on the beautiful and beneficial art of tai chi. There are also posts on tai chi’s sister art baguazhang and on the practices of qigong, meditation, postural exercises and so forth.
More are being added all the time. Keep checking back.
If you’re new to tai chi begin here.
To learn the form see our tai chi form pathway.
What Is Tai Chi? – A great exercise for all ages
Tai chi, or to give it the full name tai chi chuan (also spelled taijiquan) is not an easy art to quickly define. So what is tai chi? The Chinese term tai chi (taiji) refers to the universal balance of the forces of yin and yang. This is seen as…
Qigong – How to boost your health and longevity the Chinese way
Qigong (pronounced chee-gong) is a key element of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). It has been practiced for thousands of years albeit under different names. The word literally means exercises that boost your natural energy. Qi – life giving energy and gong literally mean work or exercise. Qigong consists of various…
Descending Single Whip to Bend the Bow, Shoot the Tiger
These are the as yet undescribed movements of the final section of the form. Some of the pics below also feature the great master Professor Cheng Man Ching who developed this form and is widely recognised as one of the greatest tai chi masters of the twentieth century From single…
Fair Lady Weaves at the Shuttle – 4 diagonals
This is the longest single movement in the tai chi form and takes up most of the fifth section. The practitioner steps out to all 4 diagonals, blocks up and pushes outwards then draws his energy back in. The arms The arms are fairly easy to understand. From a ‘holding…
Brush Knee Left and Right and Low Punch
We already looked at the brush knee in Module 4. In this section it comes up again but includes a step forward and doing it on the other side. It’s followed by a low punch and then we go straight into Ward Off East and carry on as we did…
Snake Creeps Down
Snake creeps down (also known as descending single whip) is a move that develops leg strength, co-ordination, relaxation and awareness of your body weight. Your leading hand is the snake that retracts then slivers down the leg before turning upside down and extending forward. In the meantime your body moves…
Cloud Hands
Cloud hands is a beautiful movement that mimics the soft movement of clouds floating through the sky. It is a lovely movement to practice over and over again. Partly because it feels good to do and partly because there is so much it can teach you when it comes to…
Diagonal Flying
Diagonal flying is a short move that involves a circling, stepping out and opening movement. It ends with probably the only position where your yin arm is higher than your yang arm. How to do it This gives a lovely stretch to the front of your body and the slightly…
Repulse Monkey
This move involves both your arms doing a yin circle, one going forward while the other pulls backward, and at the same time you’re stepping backwards in the cat step. It’s best to learn the arm movements and footwork separately then you can combine them later. The footwork The arms…
Fist Under Elbow
This is the first move in the third section. it moves you from the single whip posture into a guard position via a strong twist to the left. There is an ancient Taoist symbol for peace and balance which has one hand with the fingers pointing up and the other…
Withdraw to Embrace Tiger Return to Mountain
Some of the movements in tai chi have very poetic names. This one is called embrace tiger, return to mountain. Like all the other movements I teach it can be expressed in many different ways. The way shown in the video below is, perhaps, the most popular with the two…
Parry and Punch
Tai chi developed as a martial art and most of the moves still have the potential to be used in combat if you know how to use them. Most teachers don’t but I’ve trained in the Chinese martial arts for 40 years so I know them well. None of the…
Brush Knee Step
It has been said many times that the best way to practice tai chi is to select one movement and repeat it over and over again. Don’t do this mindlessly but focus on relaxing down, finding the connections between the parts of your body, focus on your balance, breathing and…
Sink Weight and Crane Spreads Wings
There is no fixed way of doing any movement in tai chi. Different schools teach different variations of them and this move is a good example. In many schools that teach this form the move we call sink weight is known as shoulder barge or shoulder strike. The body is…
Squeeze and Pull Down
Squeeze and pull down is a surprisingly challenging move. This is because all your weight needs to be on your back leg throughout. From a defensive perspective it is most commonly used to seize your opponent’s arms and pull them down onto your unweighted right knee. .From an energy perspective…