Have you ever passed a park of beach front in the morning or evening and seen people doing what appears to be a slow motion martial arts exercise? That “exercise” is most likely Tai Chi also known as Tai Chi Chaun; an exercise that has been known in China since the early 1800’s and more recently in western countries.
Though generally called a martial art, like Karate and Kung Fu, practitioners of Tai Chi, said to actually be a “hybrid” of earlier martial art forms, consider their science to be an internal exercise discipline that helps people maintain skeletal and muscular agility long into advanced old age. In fact in China it is not uncommon for people in their 90’s to practice Tai Chi which is considered to be a soft-style martial art intended to improve not only the posture but also to coordinate the opposite Yin and Yang extremes of the body. Practicing traditional Tai Chi involves learning a series of “warm up” postures, known as forms or taolu, and afterwards the more known movements that many refer to as boxing and as “Oriental meditation”.
The physical attributes of Tai Chi exercises include helping people deal with stress as well as increasing the body’s blood and lymph circulation. The three main objectives of Tai Chi are health, meditation, and martial art. Good health is primary focus of Tai Chi as the other objectives, especially martial arts, cannot be accomplished if a person is not in good health. There are five main forms of Tai Chi: Chen style, Yang style, Wu Hao Style, Wu Chuan-Yu ,and Sun style. The most popular style that most Westerners are familiar with are the Yang and Wu chuan styles. These are the styles most seen when observing a group of people practicing the science in parks and other public places. History says that Tai Chi was first taught by a Taoist monk named Zang Sanfang and taught in monasteries in the Wu Tang Shan province of China.
The martial arts technique of Kung Fu is said to be a derivative of Tai Chi Chaun and observations of both techniques show their similarities to each other. If practiced correctly, it can be a very effective form of self defense as well as fighting technique. Modern versions of Tai Chi are becoming very popular in America and many parks and playgrounds in large American cities, as well as beaches often have many people practicing these exercises in groups as by individuals.
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