the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

http://www.taichichih.org/

My dad wants to start some Tai Chi for health reasons mostly. He subscribed to a group teaching at a school near his house and he bought a booklet from them. I briefly looked at the booklet this morning and I saw the discipline (they don't call it a martial art) mentioned as being Tai Chi Chih. Among other things, they use the Japanese term Hara instead of Dan Tien and they seem to claim that "chi", from the name I suppose, means energy. My first reaction was "WTF!!" and both my bullshitometer and spidey cult sense went crazy.

My second reaction was to point out to my dad the innacuracies and to tell him to beware because some Tai Chi related organization are more or less cults but I also told him to go ahead and practice to see if he likes it. This is still better than no exercise. If he likes it, we may try to find him a better school, but this one is conveniently located and not too expensive.

Here is the site of their organization: http://www.taichichih.org/.

Does anyone know anything about them or their founder, Justin Stone?

They're down with the animal spirits, that's all I know.

^^ is that supposed to be a bear? 'Cause it looks like a giant raccoon infused with human DNA...

Their name sounds like a sneeze. I guess it's like the sneeze of Brahma was the big bang, -- the sneeze of some marketing genius gave birth to this program?


On a serious note -- no exposure so I can't say anything good or bad. But if it was my mom or dad, I would tell them the same thing that you did -- looks like this might be better than not doing any physical exercises at all.

Best of luck!

Thanks! I will try to find him a better class but this one is convenient for him.

Eat your hearts out!

I'm sold! Where do I sign up?

Doc Stier wrote:

Eat your hearts out!

i know that guy.

he organizes the main world tai chi day here in town.

i borrowed a tai chi chih video from the library just to see what they were doing. it's absolutely the most superficial qigong possible. in fact i would go so far as to say it's really just no impact calisthenics, or waving your hands around in the air. as far as i can tell it's geared 100% towards seniors and they just slap some asian qi rhetoric on top as a selling point. i think for what it is, it get's some seniors up and moving who otherwise wouldn't bother so it's fine for that. i didn't notice any cultishness about it, but i didn't look too deep into it. now if it was danh yoga...

Dahn anything is up the poopshute.

S

lolz

I met some students of the supposed creator of this stuff (acupuncturists in Pasadena). It is geared for oldsters and others with health problems. It is basically very watered down taiji(sans)quan. Not a cult of any type, and perhaps a good thing for old people. But, not really a good thing for taijiquan, which is often all too watered down.

Ian C

If I did not know better I'd think that name translated to "grand ultimate eating", in which case absolutely sign me up.

I am already there. Next time you are in the Bay, I hope we can meet up (sorry we missed each other last time) I will take you to some of my favorite eateries (after you show me some chen quan).

Thanks everyone, that clarifies it a bit.

Darthwing Teorist wrote:Thanks everyone, that clarifies it a bit.

Glad I could be of help, so officially it's 'Grand Ultimate Eating" then... we're all clear?