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Tai Chi Connections: Advancing Your Tai Chi Experience - Paperback | Diverse Reads

Tai Chi Connections: Advancing Your Tai Chi Experience

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Tai Chi offers you the prospects of better health and vitality, peace of mind, and increased stores of personal energy. To realize this potential you must delve into the world of Tai Chi minutia, which is exactly where the essence of Tai Chi lays in wait for those ascribing to its regular and correct practice.

This book looks deeply into Tai Chi's technical intricacies and nuances, offering guidance and practice tips, replete with step-by-step directions, on how to bring your Tai Chi to a higher level of correct execution. Seasoned Tai Chi teacher and author John Loupos offers wise and helpful guidance in a personable tone to help you recognize connections, feel connections and keep connections. Tai Chi Connections will help you to narrow the gap between where your practice is now and where you'd like it to go.

Some of the subjects included:

  • Opportunities within slowness
  • Attention/Intention as dynamic ingredients
  • Tai Chi as a path to congruence
  • Tapping into earth force
  • Putting the brakes on momentum
  • Unspoken nuances of Tai Chi stepping
  • Training tips to optimize your Tai Chi experience
  • Moral / ethical mandates of being a teacher

ISBN-13: 9781594390326

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: YMAA Publication Center

Publication Date: 05-01-2005

Pages: 210

Product Dimensions: 7.25(w) x 9.38(h) x (d)

Sifu John Loupos, M.S., C.H.S.E., began studying martial arts in 1966. As a young teen, John inherited a school of his own and has been teaching martial arts ever since. His studies include Okinawan Karate, Chinese Kung Fu, Yang style Tai Chi Chuan, Liu He Ba Fa, Xingyi, and Bagua, and various Chi Kung and energy oriented meditation disciplines.He holds a M.S. in Psychology and has a background in Classical Homeopathy. In additional to his teaching duties, John also maintains an active clinical practice in Hanna Somatics. John specializes in Tai Chi Chuan as an inter- and intra-personal communication modality, and enjoys traveling to conduct seminars for educational institutions and corporate entities, as well as for other schools.He currently lives at the shore in Hull, Massachusetts and divides his time between writing, conducting his clinic, and teaching at his main school, Jade Forest Kung Fu/Tai Chi/Internal Arts in Cohasset, MA plus two branch facilities.

Table of Contents

Preface vii
Acknowledgements ix
Romanization of Chinese Words x
Prelude xi
Part 1 Points to Ponder
Chapter 1 Opportunities in Slowness 3
Balance 3
Proprioception 4
Rooting 5
Stress 6
Chi 7
Momentum 7
Breathing 8
Fitness 8
Critical Thinking 9
Chapter 2 The Benefits of Group vs. Individual Practice 11
Chapter 3 Loose Ends 15
Be Fluid, Be Resolved 15
Three Reasons to Get Loose 16
Keep Your Mind Loose Too 17
Loose Ends Beget Loose Ends 18
Chapter 4 T'ai Chi as a Path to Congruence & Congruence as a Path to T'ai Chi 21
What Does It Mean to Be Congruent? 21
Let's Get Congruent 22
Why is Congruence So Elusive? 23
More Impediments to Congruence 23
Why is Congruence Important to T'ai Chi? 25
The Connection Between Process and Congruence 26
What Steps Can you Take to Become More Congruent? 27
Part 2 Arranging your Body in a Tai Chi Way: Miscellaneous Connections
Chapter 5 Transitions & Connections 33
There Are No Transitions in T'ai Chi 34
Stylistic Differences Aside 37
Your Initial Connection 40
Your Guy Wire Connection 44
Follow the Money 48
Wave Hands Like Clouds, But You Still Gotta Step Right 53
Your Knee: Turn It or Torque It? 61
A Shortcut That Makes Sense: The T'ai Chi Punch 65
Feeling Your Ward Off Connection 72
How to Develop Spiraling Force-or The World is Our Screwdriver 78
Chapter 6 Moving Force from Your Earth Root 83
Rootedness as a Foundation for Issuing Force 83
Getting Started: Part 1 85
The Return Trip: Part 2 90
Putting It All Together 94
Possible Problems 96
Chapter 7 The Role of Momentum in T'ai Chi 103
Momentum is Unavoidable 103
Momentum in Lieu of ... 104
Rid Your Form of Momentum 106
Momentum in Class 109
Momentum in Your Mind 110
Chapter 8 The Three-Treasures Guide to Proper Stepping in T'ai Chi 113
Turn Your Foot to Open the Door 114
Aligning Your Knee 116
Opening Your Kua to Pass through the Door 117
Your Most Elusive Kua Connection 118
Part 3 Other Topics and Lectures
Chapter 9 Optimizing Your T'ai Chi Practice 127
Size Counts 127
Move Slow, Move Fast 128
Be Soft 129
Bring Your Power to the Surface 129
Shake to Your Root 132
External Variables 133
Chapter 10 Other Lectures 135
Integrating T'ai Chi Into Other Martial Arts Programs 135
Discernment 138
Trick or Skill? 139
Extend, but Don't Reach 141
Sink Back and Relax While We Discuss Sung 143
Forget Yourself 146
Quantitative vs. Qualitative 147
Auxiliary Practice 150
Cross Associations 151
Mining Your T'ai Chi for Gold 152
Affecting the Mastery You Fancy 153
The T'ai Chi Learning Curve 155
What Might You Be a Champion Of? 157
Simple Ordinary Learning or "Transmission"? 159
The Value of T'ai Chi Weapons Practice 161
Pregnancy, Low Back Pain, and T'ai Chi 164
The Nature of Intention 169
Chapter 11 Thoughts and Musings on Being a Teacher 173
To Do or Not to Do 174
Guiding, Providing for, and Educating Students 178
A Survey 179
In Summation 184
References 185
Resources 185
Glossary 187
Index 191