Tai Chi- Grand Ultimate

Chuan - Fist

Tai Chi Chuan - "Grand Ultimate Fist"

Easily recognizable for its slow graceful movements, Tai Chi Chuan has become famous for its health benefits, particularly for seniors and health challenged individuals, but understanding the history and theory can give one a full appreciation for this rich, multifaceted art form.

The art of Tai Chi Chuan traces its origins back to its founder, The Great Master Chan San-feng, who taught and promoted the art form in an area known as Wutang Shan approximately 700 years ago. He started a lineage wherein the art was transmitted from teacher to student until the art finally came to be held in the hands of a family known as the Chen family. The Chen family, in turn taught the Yang family, who in turn taught the Wu family, the Sun family and the Hao family. As a result, in the last 300 years the art form has come to be recognized in five major styles, each style handed on by the family that created them and each style named for the family of teachers promoting the style. Of the five family styles, our Institute teaches the Wu family style.

Tai Chi Chuan is a soft style of martial art...In the world of martial arts, there are two basic categories of training: hard-style or 'external' systems, and soft-style or 'internal' systems. In the hard-style forms of training one trains speed, strength and technique so that if one is confronted with an incoming force such as a punch or a kick, one can apply a counterforce to block the incoming force and take advantage of the opening thus created. In other words, one meets an incoming force with a counterforce. In the soft-style form of training, one trains softness, sensitivity and coordination, so that if one is confronted with an incoming force one can ‘stick’ and follow it in softness until the incoming force exhausts itself. In other words, one meets an incoming force with softness.

If one considers the concept of overcoming hardness with softness, one has to consider the reality of dealing with an incoming force. If one is to use softness and sensitivity to overcome an opponent in a combative situation, one would have to have a strong background in concentration and relaxation training. Without the ability to stay focused and relaxed under pressure, one's sensitivity and technique would ‘go out the window’.It is the training that Tai Chi Chuan practitioners utilize to improve their concentration and relaxation skills under a combative situation that caused Tai Chi Chuan to become famous upon its introduction to the West in the 1970s as a method of stress management. If the art form’s training could assist in overcoming stress in such a circumstance, then the same training should surely help with overcoming daily stress in one's life.

There are three major categories and study in Tai Chi Chuan: health, meditation and martial arts. In the health aspect, the slow gentle movements of the postures serve to improve circulation, enhance flexibility, improve balance, joint mobility and respiration. The health aspect also includes the training of acupressure technique and massage technique to assist in overcoming health challenges.

The meditation aspect of Tai Chi Chuan involves training to improve focus and relaxation under stress. The combination of health improvement and meditation training in Tai Chi Chuan helps to overcome the physical symptoms of stress related damage, helping the practitioner to renew themselves physically and mentally daily, with the end goal of improving quality of life. The martial aspect of Tai Chi Chuan, for those who wish to pursue this training, provides a medium for assessing one's level of improvement in coordination, focus and all other aspects of the training.