Frequently Asked Questions About Tai Chi, Nei Kung and Eternal Spring Classes
Q: How can new students get started?
A: The good thing about the school’s set-up is that students can start any time, any day. We have classes 7 days a week. All you have to do is check Class Schedule in this web site. Those classes are ongoing and there is no prerequisite. When you are ready, come about 15 minutes before the class so that you can register and start right away. For class fees, call our office: 212-221-6110. Wear something comfortable and loose: regular workout clothes will do. No outside shoes are allowed in the studio: cotton sole kung-fu slippers are recommended (sold at the school for $7 a pair), or barefoot or socks are fine.
Q: What is the structure of the class?
A: Every Tai Chi class varies on the number of students in attendance. It can be 8 or 10 or 15. When students first start, they will receive individual instruction by Master Chu. And then they have to try to practice the movements and remember them. Then an instructor will come back again to go over the latest movements learned. Besides Master Chu, there are usually between one to three student teachers available to work with students. In general, Master Chu is here every day except Sunday. The student will learn a series of movements called the Tai Chi short form first. Each time they come they will learn one or two movements and just practice that particular movement. Even if a student takes one or two classes, if they try to do those few movements correctly, they will get an appreciable health benefit. The only way to not get a benefit is to not practice. It’s recommended that beginning students practice 15 to 20 minutes in the morning, and more later on. The more you practice the better it is for your health. Most people say they feel energized in one or two classes -- that fast. Students learn the Tai Chi form individually and proceed at their own rate. They can come once or twice or three times a week.
The emphasis on Tai Chi in the beginning is less on theory and more on practice, that is, how to do the movement correctly: don’t arch your back, so that you knee should be in the right place. As time goes by people can learn more about theory of Tai Chi. The beginner should emphasize practice more, correct alignment and movement, and that will benefit your health and generate chi, which is the vital force for life.
Q: I’m a beginner interested in Tai Chi and Nei Kung. Which should I take first, Tai Chi or Nei Kung?
A: In general, we suggest you take Tai Chi first. Although there is no pre-requisite for taking the Nei Kung workshop, the exercise is quite difficult for the average beginner without experience of the correct body alignment. We recommend not forcing your body to do something it is not quite ready for. After a few Tai Chi classes, your muscles will be stronger and you will become more familiar with the basic body alignment required for Nei Kung. And when you take the Nei Kung workshop with some foundation of Tai Chi, with the correct alignment and body posture, you will get more out of it. If you take Tai Chi first, the teacher can evaluate when you are ready for the workshop.
After taking the Nei Kung workshop, you can take one Tai Chi class per week or two, depending on your schedule. The more classes you take per month, the price will be discounted accordingly. You can join regular Nei Kung classes the following week. The workshop is offered once every two months on a Sunday, starting at 1 pm.
Q. I’m a beginner who wants to learn Tai Chi. Should I start by learning Eternal Spring Chi Kung?
A. One of the best classes to take first is Eternal Spring Chi Kung. We just added this new series of exercises in the last two years. It’s good for beginners of all ages, since it’s designed for people that have no background in Tai Chi, or are physically weak or recuperating from something or undergoing physical therapy. However, like Tai Chi, it’s not easy. The routine is similar to Nei Kung, emphasizing deep breathing, opening the joints, and developing internal energy, or chi. It’s highly effective and very healing. It’s beneficial to beginners as well as advanced students, who can gain a more subtle understanding of Tai Chi principles, such as alignment.
Eternal Spring Chi Kung will teach you some deep diaphrammatic breathing, hip-knee-toe connection and also some horse stance to strengthen you -- all the building blocks for performing Tai Chi correctly. You ease into it. The exercises are good for daily practice for students of all levels. Do it as a warm-up routine and your Tai Chi will be much better. In terms of daily routine for every student, they should do Eternal Spring Chi Kung first, then Nei Kung, followed by Tai Chi. And then if they know weapons they can do that too, in that order.
This is the program that we also teach at senior centers through the Tai Chi Chuan Center. For the past two years, we have sent volunteers to centers around the city to teach beginners and have had great results. So anybody interested in joining this program and becoming a teacher can get started by taking an Eternal Spring class. This is the first outreach program that we’ve done, and the program has been running two years already. We’ve been getting more demand for instructors than we can handle, so we encourage anyone interested to sign up. It’s a service to help others get better at Tai Chi and Nei Kung. At the same time, it will get you involved in teaching Tai Chi so that you’ll be thinking about and analyzing Tai Chi at all times, and you’ll deepen your understanding.
Q: Can I take Fighting 1 and Push Hands right away?
A: Fighting 1 & Push Hands are advanced practice and can be taken only after completing the Tai Chi short form. For an average student, it usually takes about 6 months to complete the short form if he takes two classes a week.
Q: What is the structure of the Fighting 1 class?
A: In Fighting 1 class we drill on a few techniques. During each class, we do two kicking techniques, and one- or two-hand techniques. Tai Chi Chuan is a martial art that also improves health, since one needs to have a healthy body to be a good fighter. Each Tai Chi movement is designed for a self-defense application. Some are attacking, some are neutralizing, some are controlling, seizing. In Fighting 1, we try to deliver ging, to maximize striking power from the Tai Chi posture -- for example, through rooting, balance and the connection of the body. We practice how to get rooted and maximize the power; how to use the tan tien, etc. Fighting 1 is the application of the solo exercise of Tai Chi, and it is also a solo practice. After completing the Tai Chi short form, you can take Fighting 1 to learn how the moves are applied in fighting situations. In Fighting 2, you practice these moves with a partner in sparring and other 2-person exercises. Fighting 2 is a two-person workout using Tai Chi and related techniques: how to advance, attacking, how to get away form an opponent, working on coordinating your opponents attack, how to respond. We use different hand and foot techniques, etc. Fighting 3 is the beginning of sparring, and also the correct application to free sparring. And many times we use mouthpieces and gloves to emphasize that we don’t hold back punches.
Q: What is Push Hands?
A: Push Hands is a two-person training that makes Tai Chi unique from other styles of kung fu. It is a practice based on the principle of four ounces deflecting a thousand pounds. The exercise shows you how to neutralize an opponent’s attacking force and position yourself for a counter-attack if necessary. The emphasis here is on sticking to the opponent’s attacking arm/hand, while using shifting and twisting techniques, flowing with the opponent’s movement without resisting his force. It is a great exercise for training to fight, as it helps you develop the body’s coordination, sensitivity, and responding power. There is no other exercise quite like this.
It’s an exercise to also train your body awareness, sharpen your nervous system, sharpen your feeling, and later on you’ll sharpen your sensitivity of your opponent’s chi and his strength and weakness just by touching his hand. It’s a training that enables a weaker or slower person to overcome a much stronger, faster opponent, by emphasizing on yielding and feeling. It’s very good for overall development of health. It uses the whole body: your mind, nervous system, as human beings are supposed to do.
Q: What Special Classes are offered?
A: Special classes, such as weapons forms, Tai Chi form improvement, meditation and Taoist philosophy, are offered periodically. Some, including weapons classes, require completion of the Tai Chi short form, while others, such as meditation or Taoist philosophy, are open to students at all levels, including beginners. Classes vary in length as well: 10 weeks for a form improvement class, 18 weeks for double-edge sword, 16 week for broad sword. These classes are typically taught when there is an interest and demand among the students. Look out for announcements of upcoming new classes on the Web site or inquire in the office. Advance registration is requested for these classes.
Q: Tai Chi is called an internal style. What are differences between internal and external martial arts?
A: To be precise, Tai Chi is categorized as an internal soft-style kung-fu. “Internal” means that the emphasis is on strengthening the internal body, the muscles, tendons, bones, internal organs, and it follows a quiet, meditative training that lets the body do the job without forcing it.
While external training, such as in gym exercises and weight lifting, works on certain groups of muscles separately, internal training works on the whole body and the mind as one. The mind needs to be empty, clear and calm. The internal system takes longer to achieve, but it is very powerful -- and deceptively so, with no obvious or flashy moves like high jumps and kicks. It offers a more practical and economical approach to fighting. At the same time, Tai Chi has a greater healing effect on the body than other systems. Nei Kung also strengthens the body from within and is important for the development of internal martial arts. High-level Nei Kung training is called “iron vest” or “golden bell,” because it develops the ability to withstand a strong force.
“Soft” means yielding, pliable, responding. The characteristics of Tai Chi are deep breathing, circular movements, smoothness, and the capacity to be slow-yet-fast, with the nervous system completely attentive. The practitioner of Tai Chi doesn’t try to use force against force, as in other styles. Shing-Yi, for example, is a popular internal style kung-fu that is harder rather than soft. With the sensitivity training of Push Hands, a Tai Chi practitioner learns to yield to an opponent’s force while keeping in contact with his body and seeking an opportunity to strike, instead of matching force against force. This best illustrates the Tai Chi principle of four ounces deflecting a 1,000 pounds, and is the essence of Tai Chi’s power.
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