Tai Chi Chuan & Chi Gung

Tai Chi Chuan is an ancient Chinese art of self-defence, conceived as a series of soft, slow, and flowing sequences of movement specifically designed to cultivate and direct the internal power that circulates through one's system, which improves the practitioners' health, and provides a source of energy for self defence. This internal power, the foundation to all life is termed Chi and is unlike external or physical energy. Chi is formless, limitless, and most importantly for self defense, can be applied in a much more focused, and concentrated manner than physical energy.

The twofold aim of the practice of Tai Chi is to increase one's Chi and to learn how to harness it. Tai Chi Chuan is rooted in the Taoist philosophy which dates back to the fourth century AD. "Yin and Yang in succession:, the Tao te Ching says, or a flow from passive to active or vice versa, "is called the Tao". To this, Fu Yu Lan later added that, "if one understands these laws, (the Tao), and regulates one's actions in conformity with them, one can turn everything to one's advantage."

To generate great power you must first totally relax and gather your strength, and then concentrate your mind and all your strength on hitting your target. By harnessing all the energy available, and delivering it in a focused and concentrated manner, one is able to propel a much larger and weightier opponent through the air, with a blow that commenced only one inch away from the opponent's body. This "one inch punch" is a fine example of the power of Chi, and this is why Tai Chi Chuan was called the Grand Ultimate Fist. The styles of Tai Chi Chuan we teach are Chen, the oldest style in existence and the Beiging short form which is the set that is most practiced throughout