different types of classes
Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, October 29, 2014
When I first started learning tai chi myself, I had no idea what to expect in a class... Nowadays I teach all over London, for various organisations or individuals, so my classes vary wildly, depending on what clients are looking for. Since tai chi is a huge subject, it is very adaptable to pick and choose what will appeal to clients with quite different requirements:
Some classes, people like to just follow and copy, so for them I do mainly warm ups, tai chi walking, single form exercises and chi kung (qigong). All of these practises will help support people in improving health, wellness and balance. This type of class is very suitable for one-off events too, as people can just join in and have a go and enjoy themselves!
Some classes are entirely sitting down, for more disabled or elderly clients. People are quite surprised by just how much exercise activities they can do, even when they have difficulty standing. It's really important to keep exercising with these types of gentle activities, to keep feeling healthy.
The third type of class is for people who want to learn their way through the tai chi sequence (called tai chi chuan), which is structured so that people have a variety of tai chi activities as well as learning a small section of the chuan each lesson. These activities aren't random, but are instead an introduction to both condition your body and to help start you out on the full curriculum, which is a lot wider than just learning the chuan sequence.
Anyway, LTCI instructors are all trained in the wider curriculum, so are able to offer whatever type of class clients are looking for....
Some classes, people like to just follow and copy, so for them I do mainly warm ups, tai chi walking, single form exercises and chi kung (qigong). All of these practises will help support people in improving health, wellness and balance. This type of class is very suitable for one-off events too, as people can just join in and have a go and enjoy themselves!
Some classes are entirely sitting down, for more disabled or elderly clients. People are quite surprised by just how much exercise activities they can do, even when they have difficulty standing. It's really important to keep exercising with these types of gentle activities, to keep feeling healthy.
The third type of class is for people who want to learn their way through the tai chi sequence (called tai chi chuan), which is structured so that people have a variety of tai chi activities as well as learning a small section of the chuan each lesson. These activities aren't random, but are instead an introduction to both condition your body and to help start you out on the full curriculum, which is a lot wider than just learning the chuan sequence.
Anyway, LTCI instructors are all trained in the wider curriculum, so are able to offer whatever type of class clients are looking for....
