To kick higher you should do exercises that open up your hips. Such exercises are scissors and just working on your splits.

Taekwondo is predominantly a kicking art, thus the stretching you should be taught are sufficient to gain flexibility. What is required (and often lacking in students) is dedicated, and consistent stretching on a daily basis. You should go through every position for stretching the legs and hips, and hold each position for at least 30 seconds. Don't bounce, or move too quickly as the muscles will automatically contract in defense, and you might injure yourself. Stretching has "discomfort" which must be tolerated for brief periods, and relaxing your muscles helps. However, you should never feel "pain" or a "burning" sensation. This indicates tearing and injury.

Muscles should be warmed up with calisthenics before beginning, and basic stretching before going through a half-hour of full stretching every day. Every fourth day, do an hour of stretching by going through every position twice, and holding for longer periods of time.

Remember that it is not absolutely required to kick high to be an expert at Taekwondo. As long as you can kick quickly, accurately, and with enough force to do damage to the knee, groin, or even the abdomen, you will be effective with Taekwondo. If you are pushing yourself to be the best, flexibility for kicks are more for reach than height. However, if you want to kick head level, stand on one leg, and put your other leg on a sturdy, stable object high enough to feel the stretch to a slight discomfort. Each week, you will be able to rest the foot at a higher level while standing on one leg. Do both front hip, and side hip stretches.

The human body has a total of 27 weapons if you count the body parts that come in pairs and their potential uses, in addition to the human brain itself. Given this, no martial arts style has any real limits; take 27 weapons, and only 30 techniques, for an even number make it 33, for a total of 60 weapons, both the weapons that exist anatomically, and 33 ways they could be used. If from the alphabet you get the myriad of combinations that result in the English language and the other western dialects, martial arts also, are similarly limitless. Its not the styles that have limits, its the people who practice them. Ahem; "the infinite applications of a martial arts style, can only be unlocked unless a person trains hard enough, so that in time, the techniques become as much a part of them, as thinking, feeling, walking and breathing, that is why therefore the optimal age to begin martial arts training, is the age of 5." Indeed, take into consideration, people who learn their non-native language in adulthood, as opposed to people who learn their native and one other language in childhood; people who have spoken a language since early childhood, will speak it naturally, without effort or problems of any sort. However people who learn it in adulthood will speak the "broken" version of it, likely for the rest of their lives. Because it is a complete system, as complex, with as many rules, and rules that support rules, as any language, a martial art can be thought of as a "language." Again, learn a language in adulthood, and you will speak a broken, accented version of it, likely for the rest of your life unless you make an obsessive effort, to correct even the TINIEST mistakes, even then, even if you eliminate all accents, the language will STILL not be as much a part of you, as the language you have spoken and used since childhood. With martial arts its the same thing; you can not completely and totally master them, unless you have been doing them your entire life. The only way, to master a martial art completely, make it a part of you, if you are an adult, is to engage in extensive meditation. You have to "take out the garbage." See its easy to learn things as a child because your brain is still growing, and actively seeking data, by which it can interpret other data, the brain's hardware, is hardwired genetically to communicate with other brains, that is why it will readily pick up on language. Because in effect, language affects how the brain grows, it becomes a part of the person. Again, in adulthood, you will never speak a language, as effortlessly and naturally as a native speaker, if you did not grow up with it. Even if you work and study so hard, you eliminate all accents and imperfections, some degree of effort, a concentrated effort of translation will take place, it will not be as totally effortless as it is with a native speaker. Long before the Chinese were exposed to languages other than east asian, the ancients observed this, and they reasoned that the only way martial arts could be a part of the person, is if training began early. If you began martial arts training as an adult, regarding becoming a master, give up, let it go, its hopeless, if you are planning to do it through practice. You will alway speak a "broken" version of Kung Fu, the way an adult speaks broken English or whatever, if you did not start as a child. If you wish to be a master, you will have to emphasize spiritual purification because physical training is hopeless. Okay its necessary, but you will not achieve mastery that way. A native speaker, is able to tap the limitless potential of a language, write stories, essays, research papers, poems, movie scripts etc, because the language is a part of them. A master of Kung Fu who has practiced his whole entire life, can readily tap the limitless potential of his style, because its a part of him, as much a part of him as his own skin. Let me put this into perspective; you have a man, who takes up martial arts at the age of 21. He just got out of the Marines by the way, he's ripped to shreds, fit, flexible and STRONG as an ox. Said man takes up Shaolin Kung Fu, under the instruction of a Shaolin monk, who has practiced since he was 4. An MMA turd shows up, challenging Kung Fu to a fight. The Marine, now 27 years old, has practiced Shaolin Kung Fu, trained hard for 6 hours a day, dedicating all free time (no T.V., no video games, and even no girlfriend) to Kung Fu training. He easily defeats the MMA turd, however NOT without some effort, mentally speaking. He had to combine relfexive reaction, with logical thinking, although his technique was perfect, his form was flawless, there were occassions where the moves did not flow flawlessly one into the other, he had to actually think and anticipate his opponent's attacks on occassion. Dejected and pissed off, the MMA turd leaves saying "I'll be back with my coach!" Next day, Fedor Emanialenko shows up, along with the MMA turd who fought the Marine. Fedor Emanialenko says "alright Marine lets see what you got!" and, the Marine holds his own, but in the end Emanialenko mops the floor with him. He hesitated too much, although mostly flawless, there was occasional sloppiness and lack of precision, enough mistakes with executing certain crucial moves that WOULD have won him the fight, that cost him the match. He just could not stay calm and focused enough. See that's the kicker; the only way you can stay perfectly calm, and perfectly focused in a fight, is if the moves are a part of you. With tongue in cheek let me use a video game example; when I use Ryu, because I've used the character since I was a kid, most of the time, I simply react. I don't even think about it, and all the "ingenious" stuff I pull off, using "ingenuity" while playing as him, it all occurs naturally. I use other characters though and I waste precious seconds thinking "alright, how do I do this, how can apply that....." Both with Ryu, and with other characters, I'm calm, but see, focus and calm are pretty useless, if you can not use them with techniques that naturally flow. With real life martial arts, the stakes are much higher. Because of this, our Marine lost the fight against Fedor. However, now its the Shaolin monk's turn. Thinking it will be an easy fight, Fedor Emanialenko half-assedly gets his guard up. Fedor gets sent flying about 10 feet, and, it happened so fast, no one could see what the hell happened. Fedor, angry and shocked gets up saying "alright! I wasn't being serious! lets do it one more time!" The Shaolin monk says "alright....." And, once again, Fedor gets sent flying 10 feet, and also, once again, it happened with such ridiculously tremendous speed no one saw what happened. How did the Shaolin monk do it? Same way you respond to people when they speak to you; as easily, and naturally as that. You understand my point now? In the same way, for example, a young healthy male will get an erection if he sees an attractive and naked young woman, a Shaolin monk will respond to an attack, just as naturally. In the same way a young man responds quickly to an attractive young woman, a Shaolin monk will respond quickly to a bad physical encounter with an assailant. All logic, "strategy" and "anticipation" of attack, will all flow together, harmoniously and effortlessly. The only way a grown adult who started late, will achieve similar levels, is by emphasizing meditation. Again with just training, its pretty hopeless. Miyamoto Musashi for example received SOME training as a child, but it was not in the use of the Katana. The truth is Musashi did not take up a Katana until he was 16 years old, by which point the majority of young men belonging to Samurai families, had already been practicing Kenjutsu for just over 10 years, from the age of 5. Chronologically, the difference between a 5 year old and a 16 year old may not be that much, but, regarding the way time is measured in martial arts, that is actually quite a bit of time lost. Nevertheless, Musashi faced, and defeated men, some of which had 20 years of practice on him, who had been practicing sword fighting since the age of 5. Achieving mastery is not impossible, but it requires an exceedingly arduous programme of meditation, meditation, and MORE meditation. With training alone, it is IMPOSSIBLE, to defeat a martial artist who has been training since the age of 5. You will no more defeat a Kung Fu man, or even an MMA man, who has been doing that stuff since the age of 5, any more than someone who took up a foreign language as an adult, will speak said language like a native speaker. From a material view of the world, speaking from the nature of how the brain develops, as well as the nervous system it just isn't possible. You can forget those inspirational "anything is possible" stories, with training and drilling alone, it just can not be done. With meditation though, if you are sincere and make an ernest effort, as Musashi's example showed, the impossible suddenly becomes possible. Again, many of the men Miyamoto Musashi defeated, some of them were in their 40's, and they had been training in Kenjutsu, from the age of 5. Musashi himself was in his late teens to early 20's, and he fought his last duel at the age of 29. In fact, the first man he killed in an actual sword duel, was in his mid 30's, Musashi himself was just a kid, aged 16. At the age of 12, due to the trauma of a bad childhood, Minamoto Musashi killed a Samurai, whom he witnessed mercilessly beating a child. Watching a child be beaten like that, reminded him of his own experiences, so he took a log intended for use as firewood, and beat the Samurai over the head with it until he killed him. Because to kill a man in Feudal era Japan, you had to have either the permission of the Daimyo, Shogun, Emperor or your commanding Samurai, or in a duel, Musashi had commited murder. It was only okay to end a Samurai's life, if you obtained special legal permission, or, in a duel. Peasants, Samurai could kill with impunity, they did not need permission to kill them, other Samurai though, it had to be through a duel, or special permission, which Musashi did not obtain. Musashi's uncle, his mother's older brother, a Daimyo, even though it was his own nephew, because he had commited a crime, he was forced to follow the law, and thus he sentenced Musashi to death. Musashi's mother tearfully pleaded with her brother to spare him but, he would have none of it. That is when the Buddhist priest Takuan Soho stepped in. Takuan, a well respected Zen Buddhist scholar and priest, persuaded Musashi's uncle to spare him, on the condition that he would be locked away in solitary confinement, forced to meditate, and study Buddhist scripture. For three long, lonely years, Musashi was locked away, visited only by his mother, who served him his food, and Takuan, who pleaded with the boy to study Buddhism and to meditate. After ABOUT (don't quote me on this; not too sure) six months of screaming in rage and banging on the walls where he was locked away, he eventually gave up, and started meditating and studying. For most of the time though, all he did, for the better portion of 12 hours of the day, was meditate. No martial arts, no swordplay, just meditation, and Buddhist scripture, and that's it. At the age of 16, he was able to defeat, and kill, a swordsman in his mid 30's, thus still strong, still in good physical condition, who had been training since the age of 5. Even though Musashi himself, had not gotten any sword or martial arts training from the age of 12, around the time his father mysteriously vanished. Musashi's father, was not a very nice man; he had only married Musashi's mother to secure power, but he never really loved her, on top of that rumors persist, traditions persist that he abandoned his family, and was eventually presumed dead, killed in battle. In other words he DID receive training as a child, but only very briefly, not long enough to significantly affect his skill with a sword. Musashi's "secret weapon," was meditation. If you wish to unlock the limitless nature of Tai Chi Chuan, the way Musashi tapped into the various possibilities of the use of a sword, then, like Musashi, most of your time should be spent meditating, NOT doing martial arts. Again if you are a grown adult, or past the age of puberty (puberty can start as early as 12, even in boys), there are too many inner demons, too many mental blocks not to mention the fact that neurobiologically, your brain is pretty much fully developed. Size wise, its not fully grown yet, your neurons need to get bigger but for all intents and purposes by the age of 12, all fundamental and necessary connections, specifically language connections or anything else you may have learned, have already been formed, thus, if you did not begin martial arts practice earlier than that age, it will never come naturally. Relying on the material approach, will only take you so far. Take it from a mistake I myself made; doing Kata and Basics for 3 years of my life, got me very little progress, it was hopeless, because I am a grown adult, I am not a 5 year old child, just starting to learn Kung Fu. The only thing that has brought me progress, has been meditation. Musashi's example is important, because it shows that the Chinese convention that "you must begin at the age of 5" is not always true. Now, let me reemphasize, I know this has been a long answer but let me emphasize that one more time; if you have not been studying since an early age, total mastery is an impossible dream. Unless you meditate, and emphasize that over physical training. If you are a grown adult, for every hour of martial arts practice, 2 hours of meditation. [[User:67.148.120.72|67.148.120.72]]stardingo747

Yang Style Tai Chi is the most popular. Other popular styles include Wu Style, Chen Style, Sun Style, and Wu/Hao Style.

These 5 are considered the primary styles of Tai Chi. However, there are many other styles that are variations and derivatives of these 5.

The body's vital energy; although everything has chi in it, the chi generated by human beings is different, unique, it is a bridge between heaven and earth. If made to circulate over a period of many years for long enough, in time it becomes refined into "Shen" or "divine" chi.

Yes it can, but only at alleged "legendary levels." And by "legendary" I mean, your chi is so strong, you have total and absolute perfect health, like when you were 18 years old, and you stay that healthy, until the day you die. However I will not make the dangerous claim that Tai Chi Chuan is a panacea; now it CAN be, if you have dedicated practice, and watch your general health, but always caring for the body. What I am trying to say is, do not give up your treatments, just because you do Tai Chi, it tooks the old masters decades, years, before they reaped the full effects of the martial art, and even then they were guided by masters. Even master Yang Lu Chan made occassional visits to Chen village to consult with his own teacher, long after he earned the nicname "Yang Wudi" (Yang the invincible). If anything, it is when martial artists reach really high levels of skill, that they most consult with their teachers, similar to how, even though a middle aged man may have much experience in life in general, they will still visit their father for advice. No matter how much experience or skill one acquires, there is always a degree of insecurity, hence the reason the advice of the old is valued. What I am trying to say is, you may never cure it with Tai Chi Chuan, OR, you may pull off a miracle, nevertheless, don't get careless. Diabetes is a serious condition from what little I know of it, and considered by western medicine to be incurable. If you wish to cure it, you will need an extensive regiment of Tai Chi Chuan, Chinese herbal medicine, Chinese accupuncture, treatment with insulin that MUST continue so long as you still have the disease, Chinese theraputic massage, and finally, Chinese chi kung designed specifically to improve health. Most importantly you have to have a humble attitude. In other words, to outright cure diabetes you will need "the works" so to speak, absolutely everything Chinese and western medicine have to offer. I do not know where you live, however if you live in San Francisco, I'd start being nicer to the Chinese American folks who live there if I were you, as their doctors, accupuncturists and massage therapists may save your life. good luck.

The Qi (which sounds like "chi") is in itself a misnomer. A more approximate pronunciation of 太极 is Tai zhji.

if it was posted here it wouldn't be a secret...

-In Hoc

I believe they are, although this is not the cycle;

Water, Earth, Wood, Fire, and Metal, but, these are not the "five elements of Tai Chi," in Daoist alchemy they are the five elements of nature. Additionally, in Chinese face reading, the five elements are often used. An example of a "fire" face, is Halle Berry, another example is Wesley Snipes, and a third one, although his is a mix of Wood and Fire, is Mike Tyson. The head of the Shaolin temple in New York Shi Yang Ming, is Earth and Metal I believe.

Those are just guesses though you'd have to purchase a book; the reason the Chinese place importance on "face types," has to do with the chi flow. For example, on a person with a "fire" face, their chi flows in a manner which makes them more prone to react emotionally to an injustice. As the element implies, "fire" faced people, are protective towards their loved ones, but, against people who attack them they, well, "burn" them. Metal faced people, their chi flows in a manner that grants them strength, both physical and mental.

However people are never exclusively one element, usually its a combination of two, and up to three elements. The most auspicious type of face to have, is a face that does not fit any one element, in other words a face that has all elements, and makes for optimal chi flow. It is people with "neutral" faces, among some Kung Fu experts in China, who are believed to posses the ability to master martial arts the fastest. Usually though in China, most martial artists are fire dominant, or metal dominant, when it comes to the shape of their face.

The word "chi" in tai chi chuan, can be roughly translated as "ultimate, terminus" or "nexus." The entire phrase, tai chi chuan, can be translated as "Grand Ultimate Fist." Tai chi refers to the Daoist principles which form the philosophical foundation of tai chi chuan.

A practitioner of tai chi begins their practice by standing in a ready position with arms at their side. This position is called "wuji," representing a void or nothingness wherein nothing is thought of, no movement occurs. At the very moment that the intention of movement is expressed, it is said one goes from wuji to tai chi. At this point, tai chi represents the balance of yin and yang, the polar opposites found throughout all of nature in general, and in the tai chi movements in particular. From the two opposites of tai chi spring "the four" - greater yang and lesser yang, greater yin and lesser yin." The four divide once again to become the eight trigrams which, combined with the tai chi diagram, form the xiantian bagua. The bagua is combined with the Chinese five elements or phases, to create thirteen distinct patterns of movement, often called the "thirteen postures of tai chi chuan." These thirteen postures predate the oldest "form based" training methodology (Chen style) and were practiced in an ad hoc manner. Trained this way, the art was referred to as "long quan." The eight trigrams of the bagua are further divided to create the sixty four trigrams of the I-Ching, the Chinese book of changes, otherwise known as the "bible" of Daoism.

The "chi" in tai chi should not be confused with the "chi" which roughly translates as "life energy." While pronounced identically, these are two distinctly difference Chinese characters, meaning two entirely different things.

There is no such thing as blocking with chi, but you can improve your chi flow making your blocks and strikes more powerful.

Cosmology

Tai Chi (pinyin: taiji) is a concept from Daoist cosmology and has no one-to-one English equivalent. It derives from wuji, essentially everything that came before existence, or an undifferentiated void. The void began to expand or move in some way and this created the first distinction - two-ness from the indistinct oneness of the void.

These two distinctions are known as yin - roughly the quality of being near the origin - and yang - roughly the quality of being away from the origin. Everything exists between these two extremes and without them there would be no relativity and thus no universe. There would be only indistinction of the void. Taiji itself is the sum of all things, the active universe, and the underlying quality of twoness of yin and yang permeates its oneness. Taiji can be thought of as the active churning of the two primal forces within the cosmos to make a unified whole.

Martial Arts

Tai Chi in English also commonly refers to what is more properly known as Tai Chi boxing (or Taijiquan) which is a fighting system based around the taiji philosophy. It asserts that maintaining one's equilibrium is of the highest importance in fighting or combat and it utilizes a constantly revolving vortex of opposing movements around a stable, relatively un-moving center (mostly an, upright, un-crooked torso) to allow the Taijiquan player to successfully navigate through and around aggressive opponents. Most of its theoretical basis revolves around pairs of complementary qualities that must be developed in a combatant and observed in combat. The most notable of which is that to confront a direct force with another direct force damages one's body as well as that of one's opponent. If direct force is countered with indirect force it can easily be redirected away from a player's body with minimal effort and self-harm. This is the theory behind the "soft" aspect of Taijiquan.

Taijiquan is notably for having a Shaolin derived technique set and nomenclature but who's theoretical basis does not occur in normal Shaolin styles and is almost entirely Daoistic in habit. It's unclear how this came to be exactly, but the style's codifier Ming general Chen Wangting was known to be conversant with Daoist philosophy and it was not uncommon for high ranking officers of the Ming to go study higher level martial skills at the Shaolin Temple. Several old styles conserved within the walls of Shaolin Temple were actually Daoist in origin and would have lent themselves very well to the reapplication of Daoist martial theories. This is due to cross-pollination during the Temple's golden years as a famed hub of martial learning. Traveling Martial artists would stop by at Shaolin Temple and ask to measure their style against the gold standard of Shaolin kungfu. If the monks were sufficiently impressed with what they saw they would exchange information on their styles with their guests and in this way Shaolin Temple came to have many hundreds of styles recorded in its archives as well as the many dozens of different styles practiced within its halls. Which styles specifically influenced Taijiquan is unknown but Shaolin Rouquan (soft boxing) is said to fit rather neatly into the sequence and naming conventions of the basic Taijiquan techniques and Emperor Taizu's long-range boxing or Taizu Changquan (another Daoist martial art that arrived at Shaolin) has long been thought to be one of Taijiquan's precursors. Tongbeiquan (through the back boxing) is an ancient martial art with many parallels to Taijiquan and is likely the originator - or at least a very early offshoot - of one of the martial arts that led to Taijiquan. However the case, Taijiquan is a martial art with extremely deep roots going back much farther than the timeline of the originator would tell and has a storied if rather mysterious and obscure history.

Taijiquan is very commonly practiced today as both as a martial art and as health exercise since the rounded movements of its techniques and its even pace subtly articulate all the joints of the body throughout their full range of motion, directly stimulating the blood flow throughout all the limbs and the torso, the flow of lymph fluid through the body is encouraged by the same means (and thus stimulating the immune system), it exercises the respiratory system with deep even breathing, it excites the often underutilized peripheral nervous system, gently massages the internal organs of the torso through the many turnings of the waist, and promotes the secretion of synovial fluid in the joints through use, keeping them supple and pain free into ones old age. All of these qualities make Taijiquan excellent for treating and preventing conditions and diseases caused by the lack of a healthy lifestyle. In most cases it promotes recovery, healing, and increase in quality of life in those with chronic illnesses and conditions stemming from origins other than the lack of physical activity such as scoliosis and arthritis. One is cautioned that the practice of Taijiquan is notably not a direct tool for curing cancers, infections, or for treating illnesses derived aberrations of the diet such as ingesting harmful substances or failing to ingest necessary and vital nutrients. These must be addressed by direct means with the help of some sort of a physician and, when expedient, a dietician.

Symbolism

As a side-note, the Taijitu is the proper name for the diagram known as the yin-yang symbol which is a visual representation of the concept of Taiji. There are many variations of the diagram, subtly implying different things. The most common, the taijitu with "eyes" implies that yin and yang necessarily exist and lead into one another, each having the seed of the other and needing one another to exist. In martial arts, there are often paired taijitu depicted together, one spiraling clockwise and the other spiraling anti-clockwise. This represent techniques that start near the center of the body and exert force away from it as well as techniques that go away from the center of the body first and exert force coming back into it. In these techniques one generally breathes in on the first phase and then breathes out and exerts force in the second phase. Another common variant in martial arts is that of the taijitu cyclone, with the calm eye of the storm representing wuji, stillness or equilibrium in the center of the body with the complementary yin and yang forces of the limbs whirling about in all directions, but all remain contained within the harmonious, balanced whole of taiji, or the picture of an effective combatant.

"Chi"

Another note, the chi in Tai Chi is not the energetic chi. The difference is more apparent in pinyin as they resolve to ji and qi. Tai is a superlative and means the greatest, or too much. Ji literal means an extreme or extremity. Taiji literally means the greatest extremes and refers to the two primordial forces combined together as previously stated. Wuji literally means without extremes and refers to either to something outside of the universe that the universe exists within or a state of the universe that came before existence as we know it. It's impossible to accurately define in a positive sense and can only be defined accurately in the negative in the sense of "that which is not taiji".

Qi literally means spirit and like the word spirit in English it originally referred to the breath. Its meaning expanded early on to more broadly mean any sort of animating force and translates roughly as energy, force, or power. It is a very general and imprecise term and therefore there is a mismatch as the English equivalent of spirit can refer either to one's spiritual body or their emotional body, much closer to the Chinese concept of shen in the three treasures model of understanding the human body - which in turn is related to the Daoist concept of the immortal body or fetus, which arrived in western world by a long circuitous route - from Chinese internal alchemy, passing through and blending with several Mesopotamian spiritual traditions before finally arriving in European alchemy, in a slightly altered form- as the concept of the humunculus.

Qi in humans more closely means vitality or vital energy and can often be functionally reduced to meaning the sum-total state of one's metabolism or the combined health of one's circulatory systems. A person with good qi has great circulation. A person with weak qi has terrible circulation and one or more of their circulatory systems aren't functioning properly. Qi - as vitality - can be said to be felt but cannot be readily interacted with.

Manipulating qi involves becoming cognizant of internal going-ons in one's body and - since one can't consciously control the smooth tissues of our body - one uses visualization, relaxation and focus to try and "feel" qi moving about. Qi as a definite thing is said to be the bio-electric system of the body - essentially the human nervous system + the other electro-chemical processes of the human body - and the visuals are meant to make your nervous system fire off the correct signals to elicit the desired response in the body, essentially control of the autonomic functions of the body. These manipulation techniques are generally referred to as qigong (meaning qi work) and may be practiced while moving or standing still but generally involve some sort of breathing exercise as the lungs are the only organs that are both autonomic as well as voluntary and can be generally said to hold the keys to accessing the deeper functions of the body.

Qi in a martial arts context can also refer to the structural power of the body - or indeed any sort of power, force, energy, or sensation - and many of the exercises designed to increase a human's sensitivity to the structure of their body and their ability to maintain it deal with muscular relaxation and becoming aware of, and controlling, the breath and air within the body to provide stability or exert force which leads very naturally into the deeply physiological types of qigong. Considering the complementary nature of these practices qi in a martial arts context is deeply intertwined with both the practical aspects of combat as well as those of the health enhancing sort.

It is commonly translated as "Grand or Supreme Ultimate Fist."

Ku style is Yang style as taught by Ku Yu Cheung a famous Iron Palm practitioner.

I recommend Terence Dunn's DVD "Tai Chi for Health; The Yang Long Form." It has a very basic package regarding the rudimentary basics of Tai Chi Chuan, and a moderately comprehensive instructional section on the Yang Long Form itself. Here are tips to learn the yang long form;

1) Be PATIENT.

2) Do not skimp on the details, and constantly "rotate" Mr. Dunn so that, in your mind, he is facing the same direction as you. It is really confusing, if you try to follow his movements, before you follow any movements, in your imagination, "rotate" Mr. Dunn, so that in your living room or T.V. room, he faces the same direction as you, and THEN follow his movements.

3) Follow his movements, all the while making a mental tape reccording, don't just watch and follow, memorize. I recommend, two to three steps at a time.

4) With every session you spend with the DVD, memorize a total of 5 steps per session, and keep a strict limit of 5 steps, and only 5 steps, until you practice those 5 steps 10 times. Memorize 5 steps, and practice them 10 times, to memorize them well. Then, memorize 5 more; within a day, you may end up memorizing a total of 15 steps. Practice those 15 steps for the duration of the week, setting aside one hour for practice, just one hour, as you only need one.

5) At the end of the week, set aside the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, to learn more steps. The Yang Long Form is divided into three sections; the 24 step beginer's form, the 56 step intermediate form, and finally the 108 step "master's" form, which in fact is just all the moves you've learned connected together. That is, you move 24 steps, and then you cross your hands. You move a few more steps reaching 56 steps, and then you cross your hands again in front of your chest, the movement is called "as if closing." You do a few more steps and then you cross your hands yet again, having done a total of 108 steps, but this time, you actually bring the form to a conclusion, you "close it." Because there is a total of 108 steps to learn....

6) Practice the first 24 steps for at least a month, before you move on to the second set of steps. Again, patience is key here.

7) Now, to help with the raw volume, with the next set of steps after the first 24, learn 10, and practice them on their own. Here's what I'm talking about; first, memorize steps 1 through 24, and practice hard, 1 to 2 hours a day, for a month, so you know steps 1 through 24 REALLY well, so that there is absolutely zero doubt that you know what you know, so that you do not constantly have to consult Mr. Dunn's DVD. Okay, once you know you have learned steps 1 through 24 really well, move on to steps 25 through 56, repeating the same process that you used to learn steps 1 through 24. Sorry for not being clear. That is, every weekend, you impose upon yourself a limit of only 10 steps, and only 10 steps because trust me, learning only 5 steps will be difficult enough, as they are stringed together. When you practice...

8) Practice first, the most recent set of steps you learned, 5 times, and then practice steps 1 through 24, one time. If you practiced steps 1 through 24 for a whole month, for an hour a day every day, as many repetitions as an hour will allow, you should know steps 1 through 24 so well, you only need to practice once to refresh your memory. It is more important, to practice the most recently learned steps first, and practice them at LEAST 5 times a day, 10 times if possible. Do this, for about two weeks or so. At the end of the two weeks, connect the most recently learned steps, with the first 24.

9) Now, practice, practice, practice, again for a whole month, to make absolutely sure, you know the steps well. Next, move on to the next set of 10 steps, practice the latest set 10 times a day for at least a week, the steps prior to that, the ones you know really well, only once. The "large well known chunk of steps," you only need to practice once, the "recently learned small chunk," you practice as much as possible, for at least a week. Before you know it, you will be doing steps 1 through 56. Practice those, once again, for at least a week, at least 5 times; by now, because you know steps 1 through 56, Tai Chi Chuan is consuming much time, and because there are more steps to practice you will need a total of 2 months before you move on to the next set.

10) Once again, for the final set of steps, keep repeating the same cycle; practice the steps you know very well only once, but the latest set of 10, at least 10 times, eveyr day for a week until the next weekend, and then teach yourself another 10, and another 10, and another 10 when finally, after a total of 4 months of hard training and practice, and a total of roughly 7 hours of DVD learning...

11) You know the entire Yang Long Form. Congratulations.

It takes roughly 7 hours of learning, but 4 months of PRACTICE, and repetitions for the sake of memorization, to learn the Yang Long Form of Tai Chi Chuan. It IS possible to learn it on your own, if you are patient. If you do not like my method of memorizing things, you can consult two different kinds of people, to help you memorize the Yang Long Form, as there IS quite a bit to memorize;

1) If you are still in high school or college, your Drama teacher or professor, ask them how actors memorize scripts, as the techniques used to memorize scripts may be applied towards learning from Terry Dunn's Tai Chi Chuan DVD.

2) A Muslim who knows large chunks of the Koran; Koran memorization, again, involves the same principles as memorizing the steps of a Tai Chi form.

To recap; you learn 10 steps every weekend, and practice them as often as you can, setting aside a solid hour, to practice them as many times as possible within the space of that hour. At this point don't worry about pace or speed; time is short, and you need to go through the motions as often as possible until they are very well memorized. At the end of the week, 10 more steps, and at the end of the week after that, you complete the first set of 24 steps. Twenty four steps may not seem like a lot, but timewise, if you are repeating the same sequence a lot, trust me it is, so, you have to practice it 5 times a day, every day for a month, before you move on to the next set of 10. After you have extensively practiced the first chunk for a month, from then on, you only have to do it once, as by then you should have it well memorized. Make it a point to practice the most recent set of steps first, while doing the "more established in memory" set of steps once. If you feel up for it, at the end of that week, go on ahead and connect the most recent steps, with the first chunk, and practice that 5 times a day for a week.

It sounds confusing I know, but when you take the time to actively memorize you'll know what I'm talking about. Again; patience. Let me warn you know, that in your endeavor to learn the Yang long form, frustration will always be a guest in your room, living room, or T.V. room. The only way to throw frustration out, the only way to deal with it, is to simply not think about how long the form is. The more you dwell on how much there is to memorize, the more disheartened you will become.

Mountain climbers have a rule; never look up, and never look down, always look at what is directly in front of you, and JUST above you, that is your next grip, but NEVER, EVER, look at how much there is left to climb. You do so, and you will panic and loose focus. The same principle applies, when learning the Yang Long Form of Tai Chi Chuan; learning the Yang Long Form, which is 108 steps long, is akin to climbing a mountain, the best way is to keep your sights directly in front, and just above, but NEVER looking at how much there is left, otherwise you become disheartened, loose focus, are unable to concentrate and with concentration lost, you can't memorize anything.

good luck.

Drunken Tai Chi was created on 1984-05-31.

Yes, Christians can do Tai Chi, but may or may not choose to put all of their mind on the main reasons of Tai Chi. Yes, of course Christians can do tai chi. Tai chi is practised by people all over the world, regardless of their religion, culture or creed. Tai chi is not only practised due to a religious point of view, its practised world wide because of its amazing health benefits.

As with almost any learning, the earlier you start the better.

No, it is just as nonsensical as any other religion or superstition. But your religion probably thinks any other religion is 'occult'

Yes - most traditional Tai Chi schools contain occult practices at some stage.

A figure that is displayed during the Kiowa sun dance ceremon.

chi chi got eliminated then sinister the final 3 are London 12 pack and flex

Slow slicing (Traditional Chinese: 凌遲, Simplified Chinese: 凌迟, Pinyin: língchí, alternately transliterated Ling Chi or Leng T'che), also translated as the slow process, the lingering death, or death by a thousand cuts, was a form of execution used in China from roughly AD 900 to its abolition in 1905. In this form of execution, the condemned person was killed by using a knife to methodically remove portions of the body over an extended period of time. The term língchí derives from a classical description of ascending a mountain slowly.

Lingchi was reserved for crimes viewed as especially severe, such as treason and killing one's parents. The process involved tying the person to be executed to a wooden frame, usually in a public place. The flesh was then cut from the body in multiple slices in a process that was not specified in detail in Chinese law and therefore most likely varied. In later times, opium was sometimes administered either as an act of mercy or as a way of preventing fainting. The punishment worked on three levels: as a form of public humiliation, as a slow and lingering death, and as a punishment after death.

According to the Confucian principle of filial piety or xiao to alter one's body or to cut the body is a form of unfilial practice. Lingchi therefore contravenes the demands of xiao. In addition, to be cut to pieces meant that the body of the victim would not be 'whole' in a spiritual life after death

There are no religions groups that focus on tai chi. It is a martial art, not a religion.

While it is true that there are a number of fixed moves in Tai Chi thinking about it in this way can be very misleading.

When you first start to learn Tai Chi you will often be taught a fixed form. For example the '24 Posture Simplified Yang Style Form'. This has 24 distinct moves. You may then be taught a form with 48 postures/moves. Soon you will realize that what you need to learn isn't how to perform the move, but rather what this move teaches you about movement in general.

Tai Chi is movement. Nothing more, nothing less.

The greatest form in Tai Chi has no shape, no fixed pattern and will naturally counter any technique used against it. Naturally this is near impossible to obtain, but it gives the general idea that you should be aiming for.