Learn Tai Chi for free The Chen Pan Ling Simplified Style
We are currently offering Simple Chen Pan Ling Style tai chi course for free. Contains everything you need. Less pain more flow. Try it out.
The three main aspects of Tai Chi
Tai Chi is known for
- Slow graceful movements
- Calming meditative focus
- Health benefits
Tai Chi is also a martial art, but most people know it and practice it for the health benefits these include
- Better balance and easier movement
- Leg strength and bone density
- Blood pressure regulation
- Emotional and mental wellbeing
You can join a free Tai Chi course with the link below.
Is Tai Chi an effective martial art?
The short answer is yes. The real answer is only if you train it correctly. What does it mean to train it correctly? Here are three ingredients.
The first ingredient is attention to how you move so you can have more power and less effort. This means you align the body and sequence the movements in very specific ways. Most schools work on this, but it’s very easy to go wrong.
The second ingredient is conditioning – to make the movement consistent and reliable, then build the tissues that add to power.
The third ingredient is working on the tactics, strategies and techniques through fixed drills and increasing resistance from a variety of different people/opponents. Very few schools approach the third ingredient realistically or intelligently.
Our free course covers the first ingredients in some depth.
Why is Tai Chi hard to learn? Three challenges and three solutions.
Tai chi does present certain challenges which you can read below. Does it make it hard to learn though? Judge for yourself.
Challenge one – learning a long sequence of movements
For some people, it is not easy to remember what comes next in form/movement sequences. This kind of memory is a learned skill, it gets easier with practice. But you don’t need to hurry to learn the form sequence.
For each movement, I teach several ways that you can practice it on its own. This way you can be very clear before moving on while benefiting from deep focus on the movement. There are other benefits to this approach that I outline in the courses. It is in fact more ‘traditional’ to train this way than to jump in with long sequences.
Challenge two – changing how you move
This one is trickier because it is less obvious. People often mistake Tai Chi for the postures, but it’s how you organize your movement that creates 95% of the magic, the good feeling, the flow and the power.
It is not enough to ‘relax and feel the qi’. In the courses here you will get very clear instructions on how to move along with specific exercises to get feedback on if you are getting it right.
Challenge three – it takes many years to use Tai Chi martially
Most people are not interested in developing their Tai Chi as a martial art, which is fine. If you do not train the right way though, it won’t take years, you’ll never get there.
With a good method you can develop skill as fast as other martial arts.
The errors many schools make arise from not having clear instructions to develop good movement, having unrealistic expectations of what applied technique looks like and only training with fixed drills and compliance.
Taught well martial training can be fun, safe and bring steady results.
What kinds of Tai Chi are there? What can I learn with you?
There are many different styles of Tai Chi. You can get into deep geekery and historic studies to find out about their origins and how they are related. That kind of thing is fun, but not for everybody. So here is a very short summary. The names of the styles come from Chinese family surnames. In the 19th and early 20th century people were less finicky, they just said they practiced Tai Chi and that was enough.
Main styles of Tai Chi
- Chen historically the oldest of the styles, characterized by deep stances with fast/explosive movements as well as slow ones. It used to be a family style from a small village, but is now widespread with promotion from the mainland Chinese government
- Yang – probably the most widespread style. Characterized by even movements in the early 20th century it began to be taught widely for health
- Wu – similar to Yang and derivative of it
- Wu – another Wu? Different Chinese character but the same spelling. This is very upright and uses small movements
- Sun – this came from the second Wu style and includes some aspects of Xingyi and Bagua
What Tai Chi you can learn here? The amazing Chen Panling 99 form!
Chen Panling was well-educated as a hydraulic engineer and had a passion for martial arts. He sought and trained with some of the best teachers of his time.
This was an era where the government was keen to develop martial arts for the good of the nation. Chen Panling was made the head of a committee to bring the best of the different Tai Chi schools together. He was in the privileged position to call upon the most renowned teachers to share their knowledge. He was skilled, respected and diplomatic enough to receive excellent material from which the 99 movement Chen Panling form was created.
The 99 movement form is a combination of Chen, Yang and Wu with influence from Xingyi and Bagua. It has an extremely elegant and sophisticated use of circles which contain a wealth of martial material.
It is the first several movements of this fascinating form along with key concepts that you ca learn in the free Tai Chi course.
What does Tai Chi mean?
The full name is Tai Chi Chuan, or spelled in a more standard way Taijiquan 太極拳. I use Tai Chi because more people recognise it.
Tai Chi 太極 refers to the interplay of the complementary opposites, yin and yang. Tai 太 translates as extreme. Ji 極 means pole, like the North or South pole – the furthest you can go without beginning to come back.
The two characters refer also to the symbol you are probably familiar with – the Taijitu 太極圖 or Taiji diagram.
Chuan/quan 拳. means fist and in this context, it refers to a martial art or fighting method.
So Taijiquan means martial art that uses the extremes of yin and yang.
Some people mistake the Chi 極 in Tai Chi for the 氣 Qi which is breath/energy. It’s an issue of transliteration between Chinese and English, but it has lead to some errors in how people conceive of Tai Chi.
This is not the time to talk about Qi though. I explain more in the courses.
