What to Expect from Our Classes......

Here is an article about John Dyson's first experiences of a Tai Chi Class published some years ago in reader's digest. I think it is very good and gives a beginner a good idea of what to expect.

Tune into T'ai Chi

This ancient Chinese discipline has never been more popular. Find out what it could do for you.

Skinny as a beanpole for all of my 60 years, I’ve never been a particularly sporty or muscular male. Arthritis had been seeping into my joints as well. Remedies such as fish oil and ginger – and less white wine – hadn’t helped. Yet over the past six months or so, nearly all my aches and pains have vanished. I can even swing my leg over my bike again. What accounts for this burst of strength and well being? I have touched heaven and earth. I have shaken my tail feathers and danced with rainbows. In short, like many fellow – Brits and millions around the world, I have discovered t’ai chi. Literally, t’ai means grand or limitless, and chi is your inner energy, the breath of life. Today, t’ai chi is explained as internal kung fu, or meditation in motion.

In cities from Hong Kong and San Francisco to Auckland and Copenhagen, I had seen people doing the strange looking, slow –motion exercises, always in a park or quiet place. And I’d heard about the benefits – according to an old saying, you attain the pliability of a child, the vitality of a lumberjack and the wisdom of a sage. I was sceptical. I have been tortured and bored by yoga and reduced to a knee –aching hobble by jigging; what could this Chinese stuff do? But my son, a fan of martial arts, pushed me into it. "You’ll find it soothing, Dad", he said. And so, in a church hall near our home in London, my wife and I stood barefoot in a big circle with about 25 others – students, grandmothers, businessmen, a top journalist and a teenage model. Instructor Kieran Hayes was a rugged – looking 31-year-old former rugby player. He didn’t say much, but just started some warm-up exercises and stretching, and we followed. "Now the eight pieces of the brocade", Hayes said, and we launched into a sequence developed by a Chinese general centuries ago to exercise his troops.The slow gliding movements with romantic names seemed weird and looked simple, but they were far from easy. For the next 90 minutes, as I parted the clouds and shot the golden eagle, my muscles trembled.

Surprisingly, though, there was no huff and puff. Flowing, dreamlike, from one position to the next, I could have been swimming in air. But there was much to think about….stand as if the head is suspended from the ceiling…bend the knees to lower the centre of gravity and stretch the spine…sink the shoulders…breath deep into the abdomen.

After a few twice- a- week classes and daily practises at home, I noticed something strange and wonderful. The juices were coming ack into my joints. My whole body was energised, my mental outlook ore calm and serene. "Have you been away?" friends asked. "You look so well", And it wasn’t just me. "My blood pressure is coming down and I feel so much better," Kate said. "I’m getting my spring back. "T’ai chi revolutionises the idea that exercise must be sweaty and painful to be effective. It’s not about force and strength, but flow. Sports and hard workouts tone the external muscles, but t’ai chi works on the whole body and even on the mind. Instead of leaving you ready to drop, it sets you up - ready for anything. According to Chinese folklore, t’ai chi was invented by a fourteenth century Taoist monk Zhang Sanfeng, who observed a crane fighting a snake in a pond. Struck by the ebb and flow of the action, both yielding to the other yet giving no ground, he adapted the movements into a martial art based on the Taoist principles of balance between negative and positive, give and take, push and pull. Followers discovered that doing the movements super slowly let them feel what was happening in their bodies. And so t’ai chi also became an exercise regimen.

John Dyson

April 04 Readers Digest.