Tai Chi is practiced as a series of relaxed and graceful movements, performed slowly, but with meditative concentration. Originating from China, tai Chi is well known for its health benefits including reduced stress, improved breathing, strength and fitness, greater flexibility and balance. Regular practice also promotes a calm and clear state of mind.

With correct training, Tai Chi is also be a highly effective martial art. Every motion is based on principles of efficient movement and self-defense. These coordinated and balanced movements can be used by competent Tai Chi practitioners to defend themselves effectively against any attack. In application, the movements match the speed of the opponent.  Unlike many other martial arts, Tai Chi does not rely on brute muscular strength and speed. Instead it works with skill and accuracy. Sifu refers to it as "iron wrapped in cotton." It is a non-aggressive, efficient alternative for people who wish to learn self-defense.

CMAA teaches Yang style Tai Chi. It employs big circlular arm movements and medium bent knee stances. It's martial applications are strategic and powerful and it is the most well known of the Tai Chi styles.

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Tai Chi for Seniors!

All About Yang Style Tai Chi

This class consists of soft internal martial arts.

Yang Style Tai Chi works on a relaxed soft exercise that concentrates on healing the body and opens up all the joints and meridians for natural healing and blood flow. It helps with any kind of joint problem, arthritis, or diabetic issues. Tai Chi is also a powerful martial art however the martial side is not pushed in this class. If you are interested in Tai Chi as a martial art, we can gladly teach it. We also practice Chi Kung (Breathing exercises) in this class.

Sifu Chris Strelau studied Tai Chi in the USA and in China . He is a USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame Instructor and has extensive knowledge in Gung Fu and Tai Chi as well as Chinese weaponry and philosophy. 

Yang Lu-chan was born in 1799 in Yung-nein in the prefecture of Kuang-p'ing in the province of Hopeh in China. There are several versions of his early life. One maintains that his family were farmers but his father soon noticed an interest in his son in martial arts. He arranged for lessons for him from a teacher named Liu. Yang Lu-chan soon mastered all his teacher could teach him and wanted to know more. Liu told him about Tai Chi Chuan, the secret of the Chen Family, but said that it was impossible for outsiders to learn the form.

Undeterred Yang Lu-chan set out for Hui-hsing in Hunan province where he managed to get employment as a servant in the household of Chen Chai-kou. At this household there was a famous teacher of Tai Chi, Chen Chang-hsing who was teaching the form to the young men there. Yang spied on them and at night practiced what he had seen.

After some time Chen Chiang-hsing happened to see him practicing one evening and realized the excellence of his technique. He decided to break with the tradition of secrecy and invited Yang into the school. Other accounts of Yang Lu-chan's early life claim that he came from very poor circumstances and was a bonded worker in a pharmacy before coming to Chen Chang-hsing's attention.

In any case, after some period of study, so great was his mastery of the form that Chen dismissed him and Yang returned to Yung-nein to teach martial arts. Later, one of his students Wu Yu-xiang, recommended that he go to Beijing to propagate the art. Yang eventually established a school of Tai Chi there, although not without some difficulties. In time he taught Tai Chi to the Imperial court and became known as 'Yang the Unsurpassed'.

Yang Lu-chan had three sons: the first Yang Ch'i died in early youth. His other two sons, Yang Pan-hou (1837-1892) and Yang Chien-hou (1842-1917) both continued to study and practice Tai Chi with their father, although perhaps not as diligently as he would have liked. One account claims that after his death an outstanding student Chen Hsui-feng, proclaimed himself the head of the Yang Family school and split with Yang's son's. In time, however, the two factions were reconciled.

Yang Lu Chan

Image taken from • The Yang Family History Fine Art Book •
www.martialgraphics.com Image by Marco Gagnon

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