Martial Arts

Combat Shuai-Chiao | Yang Style Tai-Chi | Sil Lum Fut Ga | From Our Students

Sifu Mark Cheng performing Yang style Tai-Chi at Little Tokyo Children's Day 1995

For TAI-CHI or CHI KUNG PRIVATE TRAINING in the Los Angeles area, please e-mail Sifu Mark Cheng

Tai-Chi is one of the most popular martial arts and fitness routines in the world today. It is sometimes referred to as Chinese shadowboxing, or slow-motion Kung-Fu. On any given morning, you can find groups of Tai-Chi players practicing in parks around the world, especially in areas with a Chinese population. The slow, smooth motions and considerable benefits of Tai-Chi practice have made it the "newest" innovation in health improvement and rehabilitation.

Among the many sub-styles of Tai-Chi (also spelled as T'ai Chi Ch'uan, Taijiquan, or Taiji), the Yang style is the most widely practiced and proliferated. However, the traditional Yang style Tai-Chi is quickly becoming extinct as more and more generations of new-agers propagate the legacy of a toothless tiger.

The benefits reaped through Tai-Chi training are often hard to quantify, and sometimes the subject of debate. But there is little argument that the Tai-Chi training routines offer students and practitioners a form of exercise unlike any other.
Some of the many documented benefits include:

• Lower stress levels
  
• Lower blood pressure
  
• Decreased incidence of fall-related injuries
  
• Improved balance & posture
  
• Increased lower body muscle tone

The mental and strategic benefits of Tai-Chi training have a great deal to do with the Taoist philosophy from which the art was born. The wu-wei concept of "yielding" and meeting force with emptiness makes the psychological side of Tai-Chi so rich and powerful.

For example, instead of reacting to a co-worker's comments with hostility and/or anger, a well-trained Tai-Chi practitioner might simply choose to listen to the comments and answer calmly and rationally, instead of letting the situation escalate out of control. Many short-tempered individuals who undertake Tai-Chi training report that their attitudes change greatly after a few months of regular training.

Traditional Tai-Chi, or Tai-Chi boxing, is not unlike other traditional systems of Chinese martial art training, including stancework, footwork, basic hand and foot techniques, breathing (Chi Kung - Qigong), sensitivity drills, and powerful martial art application. An instructor with a full understanding of the intent and spirit behind Tai-Chi's true martial applications can offer his students the fullest understanding of its numerous health benefits.

True Tai-Chi is like a well-cut diamond. No matter how many times you look at it or examine it, it never holds the light in the same way twice. Each facet gives you a different perspective, a new and fresh way to enjoy the art.
Please click on one of the topics below to learn more about Tai-Chi and Chi-Kung.

History | Combat Tai-Chi | Tai-Chi Principles | Yang style Tai-Chi Postures | Chi Kung