Elements3 = MA + PT + BG

Tai chi, is practised worldwide - but it is more than just for exercise or for fitness.  Apart from the Martial, it is a way of life to help lessen stress and to improve health.  Can it be that so many people of widely varying ages do this without knowing why?  Millions of people, daily, in open city spaces around the world continue to do it in order to reap the benefits it provides.  Is it as easy as it looks?  Is it just for spectacle?  This apparent phenomenon has gone on for hundreds of years in China, openly and in private.  Only by regular participation and regular practice can one obtain the profound realities of this ancient skill and art.  Ancients knew it, moderns know it—so why can’t we?  We can, is the answer.

Summary of Tai Chi

· Promotes sharper BALANCE

· Promotes stronger POSTURE

· Promotes STRESS relief

· Promotes greater AWARENESS

· Promotes sharper MIND

· Promotes internal ENERGY

· Promotes better CIRCULATION

· Promotes effective BREATHING

· Promotes SELF DEFENCE skills

· Promotes COORDINATION etc etc

Nick is insured by The British Council for Chinese Martial Arts (BCCMA) and teaches Wu Hao Tai Chi.  Recognised as the third original system, it was founded by Wu Yuxiang who was also prominent for his Classic writings on the subject, as were his brothers and nephew.  It is a relatively unique style to the western world with a unique and highly distinguished provenance that maintains a strict adherence to the 13 principles of Taijiquan.

The name, Tai chi chuan, however it is spelled, is new by degree but the underlying principles of Taijiquan, as Nick prefers to call it, are quite ancient, perhaps from 3 millennia BC.  The addition of Quan to Taiji indicates the martial, or fist aspect.

The symbol of Taiji is well known and from this, perhaps, we learn that not everything is quite black or white.  The components are in a perpetual state of interdependence.  The ‘Tao Te Ching’, an ancient Chinese philosophy, states:

An army without flexibility never wins a battle, and a tree that is unbending is easily broken

In China and elsewhere, Liu Jishun, is recognised as the sole head, and true Grandmaster of this system.  In the UK he has only two disciples.  Together they both run The Wu Hao Taijiquan Association, of which Nick is an active associate member. 

Nicholas JC Swinton:-Fitness for Health and Longevity