Zhan Zhuang

The first thing we teach to a new student is Zhan Zhuang standing pole Chi Kung. It does not matter if you are a seasoned martial artist from another discipline or simply a new student, Zhan Zhuang Chi Kung will be taught first. The most important aspects of this training is strength and stillness, cultivated through the standing postures called Zhan Zhuang. Translated, Zhan Zhuang means, “stand like a tree”; trees have great roots that bury underground and support the vast trunk and branches. Practitioners for health purposes will be able to realign the body posture releasing blockages or tension and connect to the ground and develop good rooting system through the feet promoting an improved circulation through deep relaxation sate. Rooting is developed through the process of Zhan Zhuang, these six unique standing exercises are trained with no outward movement; the real movement is on the inside. The Zhan Zhuang practice activates the body’s natural healing capability and builds a strong core and structure, Zhan Zhuang practice is rooted in stillness in motion.  Standing still in the Zhan Zhuang postures letting go of muscular tension, whilst developing good rooting is part of the goal; the other is calming and focusing the mind. Tai Chi is sometimes referred to as the “stillness in movement”. Only when stillness is fully mastered and understood can movement begin; this develops a profound understanding of what stillness and movement realy is.  Zhan Zhuang is the most important part of your Tai Chi development; without this training your Tai Chi form will merely have an outward appearance with no real substance.
Zhan Zhuang has been practiced in secret in China for 27 centuries and has only been taught openly since around 1940; up until then this was regarded as the most secretive of all training methods.

Dao Yin Chi Kung

Known as moving Chi Kung exercises, these exercises train and also develop the body’s natural power lines through moving alignment corrections. These Chi Kung training methods are most profound and once again are very important in the development of Tai Chi internal principles, these are the loosing excercises through the eight gates of the body and develops the engine which in turns powers the body.  There are 5 major exercises, each developing a different connection through the body’s central core and eight gates strung together using “song” (relaxtion) and these exercises are the core movers in Tai Chi motion.

These movements tune the inside (internal) to the outside (external) and refine the basic rotations, spirals and coiling within the body thus amalgamating eight gates of the body. This has to be felt to be really understood; when one part moves all parts move perfectly, the whole body is strung together perfectly harmonised through rooting, stretching, contracting coupled with centripetal and centrifugal forces.