What's It Like Coming To Your First Class

Coming to Your First Class

New students turning up to their first taiji class often don't know exactly what to expect. So, if you decide to come to one of our classes, then the following might give you some insights.

What is important?

Taijiquan is called an 'internal' martial art for good reason, because it is primarily about what is happening on the inside of the body. Our aim is not to perfect the external manifestation of a taijiquan form, but rather to perfect the necessary internal structure and movements in manifesting any and all of our external movements. We use taijiquan form as a means of studying and practicing this. 

Taijiquan form is important, but there are some even more important fundamentals that need to be covered before and during our study of taijiquan form. 

Expansion

Taiji is all about expansion, rather than relaxation. Expansion is fundamental to taiji. For example, we endeavour to expand our joints, creating space between them. 

We begin our studies by focusing on expanding the biggest joints - our hips, shoulders, and spines. It might be debatable whether our spines are joints, but for our purposes we can think of them as a string of joints running from the coccyx to the base of the skull. We find that muscles around these joints are prone to a lot of physical tension, due to lifestyle habits, negative emotions, and other forms of stress, which in turn cause the joints to contract. 

Many of the exercises that we do are intended to work on these joints; firstly to loosen them, and then to gently expand them. Taijiwuxigong exercises are particularly helpful in achieving this. Each week we spend time doing these exercises, gradually improving our understanding of how we make expansion happen and how it feels. We also apply this fundamental knowledge each week in a step-by-step study of the taijiquan form known as Taiji37 form. 

Benefits

The upshot of this is that studying and practicing taiji provides relief from the physical effects of long term stress. Come along and find out for yourself - the more you do it, the better it works.