Frequently Asked Questions
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About Tai Chi School
Right now, we are only offering our flagship Tai Chi Foundation Course. In the weeks and months to come we will be offering tons of different content, including Chen Tai Chi, Qigong, Kung Fu, and Chinese Martial Arts in general.
When you order our course, you'll immediately get access to all the content when you're signed in. We've worked really hard to provide a broad but detailed curriculum across nine units, or subject areas.
We hope the course is helpful and instructive for everyone: from new beginners to advanced practitioners and instructors. We go over a huge amount of detail, often left out or not taught at all at physical classes.
Practicing Tai Chi
Loose, comfortable clothing and either soft footwear or barefoot. For example jogging pants, a tshirt and pumps or indoor trainers etc. Basically whatever you feel comfortable in.
This is up to you. Traditionally, teachers would demand daily practice for at least two hours: obviously this isn't very practical in today's busy world! Overall, little and often works best: see what works for you. To start with, try doing a one hour practice session and three 10 minute practice sessions every week and see how you get on.
Again, whatever works for you. We'd suggest not moving through the content too quickly though: there's more new content in each individual video than you would learn at a physical class. It's better to take your time and practice the foundations until you're ready to move on.
About the Tai Chi Foundation Course
It means it's an early version of the site that's not completed yet, but still works. You'll get access to everything at a bargain price, and give us valuable feedback on how to improve our site. However it might mean things go down from time to time!
We're currently shooting the other half of the Tai Chi Foundation footage, and expect it to be live in Winter 2015. You can either sign up to our beta program now, or join our email list for notification when we go live.
If you're part of our beta program, we will contact you as soon as the DVDs are ready to offer you them for a small additional fee.
About Tai Chi and Qigong
The main difference is that Qigong is mostly practiced for health, and Tai Chi for both health and martial arts. A lot of the differences are commonly over-exaggerated: at their core they have a lot in common.
With that said, Tai Chi can be practiced hard and fast for martial arts and to improve fitness, while Qigong is generally practiced slowly and solely practiced for health and relaxation. Tai Chi involves complicated circular movements, whereas Qigong in general involves simple stretching movements. Qigong routines in general are easier to learn than Tai Chi routines. In general Qigong is easier to learn and gentler on the body, Tai Chi can be adjusted to suit the needs of the practitioner and practiced in many ways. Both Tai Chi and Qigong improve health, fitness and relaxation.
Yes. Tai Chi is a style of Kung Fu. There are many different types of Kung Fu, generally divided in to hard and soft styles. Tai Chi is considered a soft style as it uses the opponents force against them. Tai Chi techniques include joint locking, throwing, tripping, sweeping and close quarter strikes with the elbow and body. Tai Chi has its roots in many styles including Shaolin and Xing Yi.
Support
Give us a ring or email us: check our contact page for more information. We're a tiny team and will get back to you within 48 hours, often within the same hour.
You can get in touch via email, Facebook or Twitter: check our contact page for information.
If you're not happy with your purchase within the first 48 hours, we're more than happy to give you a complete refund.