Fall Season

  With the Fall weather coming (it is, really) we have moved the  Tuesday/ Thursday Tai Chi classes back to St. Paul’s Lutheran Church from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm.    The Church is by the Hospital and across the street from the Harding Memorial.  Saturday classes remain at the Recreation Center behind City Hall at 10:00 am.  Beginners are always welcome, with a focus on personal instruction.    Because everyone learns at their own pace, the personal instruction approach eliminates the feeling that a student has to keep up with the class.    We work with individuals to accomodate any physical limitations.  Come join us.

June Venue Changes

We have several exciting activities in downtown Marion in June that will require us to move Tai Chi Classes to another location.  Saturday, June 6 and Saturday, June 13 classes will be in Busby Park, weather permitting.  If the weather is bad, we will move to the basement of the County Office Building.

Summer Classes moved to the Marion Recreation Center

All summer Tai Chi classes will be held at the Marion Recreation Center (Red brick building behind City Hall).  The parking lot may be accessed from either Center Street or Church Street.    Tuesday and Thursday evening Tai Chi classes are at 6:00 pm.  QiGong starts at 5:00 pm.  Saturday Tai Chi classes are from 10:00 am to 11:30.

We would like to thank Saint Paul Lutheran Church for graciously allowing us to use their fellowship hall for the winter months.

Press Release about World Tai Chi Day

                                Marion area residents and guests will be participating in World Tai Chi Day at Busby Park in downtown Marion on Saturday April 25^th at 10:00 am.  Anyone who is interested in Tai Chi, to watch or to participate, is welcome to attend.  Approximately 15 participants from the Water Song TaiJi group and individuals from Columbus and Mt. Gilead will be participating.  Both the open hand and sword forms will be demonstrated.

 

Tai Chi is an ancient Chinese martial art that helps develop strength, flexibility, and balance.  There has been research to suggest that it can also improve respiratory function, burn calories, dramatically improve balance, provide cardiovascular benefit, provide powerful stress management tools, and slow aspects of the aging process. Anyone can enjoy and gain benefit from Tai Chi, regardless of physical condition  or age.   Most young people focus on the martial arts aspect of Tai Chi, while older people focus on the health benefits

 

According to local a Tai Chi instructor, Carol Nelson, the World Tai Chi & Qigong Day begins at 10 am with groups in New Zealand, and then quietly spreads time zone by time zone across the globe, to finish with the final events in Hawaii.  This is the ninth annual World Tai Chi Day, which started in 1998 on the front lawn of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri.   “It’s very fitting that the birth place of a world event celebrating and educating people about Tai Chi & Qigong (Chi Kung), would also be the home of one of the Western world’s finest collections of Asian art,” notes Ms. Nelson. More than 200 people participated the first year and has now spread to more than 60 countries involving millions of people.  “Here in Ohio there will be events occurring in more than 50 locations and Marion will be one of them,” says Nelson.   

 

Carol Nelson has practiced Tai Chi for more than 10 years and has worked in three variations of the Yang style, including work with William C. C. Chen.  In 2001 and 2002 she earned both gold and silver medals in solo form at the Arnold Schwarzenegger Battle of Columbus event. The Yang style taught in this class was developed by Lee Siu Pak.  Carol Nelson teaches through the Marion Recreation Center.  Class schedule is available by calling the Recreation Center.  Classes are also available at Wolf Pak Martial Arts in Mt. Gilead.

 

Photos of the Group at Harding Memorial

Here are some pictures of our groups running the Yang long form at the Harding Memorial in Marion, Ohio in October of 2008.

 

 

World Tai Chi Day

Water Song Tai Chi will be participating in World Tai Chi day at 10:00 am on Saturday, April 25, 2009.    Several people from Columbus will be joining the Water Song group in Busby Park.  Both yang long form and the sword form will be presented.

Class Schedule

Tai Chi [TaiJi] 

Tuesday / Thursday evening 6:00 pm Saint Paul Lutheran Church, Marion, OH

Saturday morning 10:00 am Marion Recreation Center, Marion, OH

QiGong  [Chi Gong]

Tuesday /Thursday evenings  5:00 pm  Saint Paul Lutheran Church, Marion OH

Tuesday evening 6:00 pm at the Senior Center, Marion OH

Monday / Friday  9:30 at Wolf Pack in Mt. Gilead, OH

Begining in May 09 , Tai Chi class will also be offered Mon/Wed evenings , 7p-8:30 at Wolfpak Martial Arts …

CALL 740 360 6931 FOR DETAILS

Blue Skies and the Practice of Tai Chi

 

When I was a young mother, I looked at pictures drawn by other young children, with the sky colored as a two-inch band of blue across the top of the paper.  I confidently thought that I would simply show my young daughter that the sky goes all the way down to the horizon – and she would color her skies “correctly.”  She listened carefully, smiled, and colored her two-inch band of blue just like every other child her age. 

 

When I first started doing Tai Chi my teacher would say things that made no sense to me.  I smiled nicely, and kept doing my form.  Months (or sometimes years) later, I would have a sudden flashback and insight into what my teacher meant.

 

Keep your mind in the yin space,

 

Sometimes the insight comes when doing a sequence in the form repeatedly, trying to find the essence of the movement, the martial application, the internal balance.  Sometimes the insight comes when watching one of my students.

 

It is not moving “to there,” it is moving “from you.”

 

It is why teaching is really just another way of learning and expanding my own knowledge of Tai Chi.  It is also why I am learning patience with my teaching and my students.  If the students have not understood the adjustment I have asked them to make, maybe it is not the quality of my teaching – or their willingness to learn and understand.  Maybe it is just that they have not yet reached the developmental stage where what I am saying makes sense. 

 

Yang rises; Yin descends.

 

It is also why reading the Tai Chi Classics over and over is so important.  Each time I read them, I am coming from a different level of development and understanding.  Each time I understand a little bit more.

 

The counter turn is inherent in the shift.

 

Sometimes students will ask what happens after they learn the form.  I tell them and I do not know – after more than 12 years, I am still learning the form.  But I am happy to report that my daughter did understand that blue sky extends all the way to the horizon – when she reached the right developmental stage.

 

 

Tai Chi

Tai Chi is an ancient chinese martial art that offers opportunity for exercise for people of all ages.  It is a low impact slow motion excercise that focuses on balance, flexibility, and strength.  You will see Tai Chi also spelled TaiJi — the difference between the Wade Giles and the Pinyin spelling methods.