For those who don’t already know I have been busy this summer, doing something I hope will have positive impact on the health and wellbeing of the area.

If you have read any of my blogs you know that I already instruct  for Young’s Tae Kwon Do in Bellefonte. Our Tai Chi Program has been growing and we soft launched yoga this month with four new class times.

(go to www.taichiteacher.org or call me at 814-359-2380 for more details of these classes)

But the Majority of my time has been spent creating a new partnership and an extensive wellness location for Central Pa.

Over the summer I have been working with the owner, Davina Haponski, of Kneading Body Spa, which is centrally located on a main road only minutes from State College, Tyrone, and Clearfield to create a massage therapy and wellness education program that will meet or exceed anything also available in the area to the general public.

A military veteran and mother, Davina’s focus on helping her clients,and her skill set, impressed me .  As did her attitude to focusing on the Community, the Spa offers discounts to those who serve or have served others.  Police, fire, military, health care, and educators are all provided a reduction in the cost of service. Since I was granted practice privileges at Kneading Body Spa have been collecting for the food banks, supporting blood drive efforts and volunteering at health fairs, and it has been amazing.

Our core services are in place offering massage, a full range of Spa services for men and women, many crafted by hand, and adjunct therapies, including Shiatsu, Thai Yoga massage, Reiki, and Reflexology.

This entry is a first draft excerpt from the Tai Chi Principles Manual I a currently working on all feedback questions or comments are appreciated  Please contact me through my website www.taichiteacher.org or by email at info@taichiteacher.org.

The Principle of Sung

One of the most important principles to the Internal Martial Arts is Sung (pronounced Soong). While no directly corresponding concept exist in the English speaking culture, a working translation would be using “least possible effort” in both the physical and mental efforts. Since Sung is foreign to western culture, and individual schools have different ways of applying this principle, what I will present here is a mixture of this several of these philosophies.

Physical applications of Sung

When we apply Sung to the physical body, we can separate the development into stages the first is the static or still cultivation stage of this principle. Static Sung begins with a simple premise that the body will require no more force than that provided by the natural tension of the soft tissues to hold a static position distributes the weight within the base of support.

To experience this principle, relax you arm entirely and allow a partner to raise it until the hand rest in the plane of the shoulder in front of you without helping them. Once they have positioned your arm, slowly take back control of the weight of the arm until you reach the threshold that the arm will remain raised. Your partner can help you by testing and lowering their hands. The feeling localized in your arm is a beginning body concept of Sung in its static form.

With the weather getting colder outside training for all but the hard core practitioners is coming to an end. Moving inside we are returning to limited space, at home you may find only a few feet to train in, and unless you have access to an open gym you might not find significant space to practice most days so it may be time to change up your routine once again.

Close the Distance

Because of limited space this is a good time to train in close quarters techniques. No matter what your style learning to use shorter range fighting techniques to gain power and an advantage is always a good idea. While your style might use high fast kicks learning to defend against and fight with short range attacks can be a great advantage.

Stretch Stretch Stretch

Practice some form of additional stretching in the fall and winter.  You might not be able to get outside or even go for a run. but if you can clear the space of about a coffee table you can insert a good stretching routine into you program.  I recommend incorporating Qi Gong, a Chinese form of exercise that is taught along side of the martial arts or a well organized yoga program that relates to what you are training in.  The local gyms yoga class may not do it for you but there are a wide variety of yoga systems out there even routines designed specifically for martial artist and athletes. Look for “Power Yoga” sets or see if you can find an instructor with a martial arts background that can guide you through.

One of my students who happens to be a musician handed me a new topic for an article this weekend. We were discussing how martial forms change as the Tai Chi Player develops and grows and we started relating it to music. While we were specifically discussing Tai Chi the examples could be applied to all martial arts.

Solo Form training: Form training is simply learning the instrument, or in the Martial Arts your body, and continues throughout your practice. Everything comes back to this again and again. Any musician I know that does anything professionally or even publicly takes the time to touch base with their instrument on a daily basis and to be a good martial artist you need to do the same.

It may be the as simple as going through the basic touchstone form of your art. For those practicing Long Form Yang Style Tai Chi, getting the first set in each day, is perhaps the most important thing to do.  Even if it is only once through, it is enough to keep the mind and body connecting.  This is actually the basis of the class that I teach for http://www.athletics.psu.edu/fitness/ " target="_blank">Penn State Strength and Fitness. The Wellness/Fitness Tai Chi class we do there is designed to provide in a semester enough knowledge of Tai Chi to allow a person to continue to practice on their own for their own benefit.  Think of the hobbyist guitarist, their only interest is the enjoyment, its for that purpose alone that they practice, and they are happy with a few cords.  Many cardio kickboxing classes or Tai Chi short form would also fall here with no real interest in making it a focal point of your life just a fun distraction.

I was asked this week if being in your forties is too old to start a Tai Chi class, when I get this question it always seems strange to me especially since nearly all the latest press releases on Tai Chi have been about it being used in senior exercise classes and to prevent falls. But than again I was in culture shock when I saw that if I entered my business partners bi annual Karate tournaments I would be considered a “Senior” competitor.While competing in tournaments and full contact sparring may be of the menu if you start later in life, other portions of a martial arts curriculum can easily make your life more interesting and well rounded.

The health benefits from Tai Chi have become so popular that the Mayo Clinic’s Woman’s Health Resource recommend it as a:

“relatively inexpensive techniques that may help improve health and well-being”.

Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/463/story/1412240.html#ixzz0MO3N5Qyi)

On becoming a Students:

Good instructors of the martial arts can easily adapt their program, focusing not just on self defense or competition but also on the other benefits the the martial arts have to offer in cardiovascular health, range of motion, balance control, muscle strength, bone mass, mental focus, and general confidence.  My comments below are based on research being done on Tai Chi and my own experience.

Many times this is the slow time of the year for regular martial arts classes, people are on vacation or attending summertime events, but it is also a really good time to change up your training and get outside.  While there are certain things that can be only practiced inside under controlled conditions, outside practice is one of the best ways train under different conditions and improve your skills.  The Chinese Martial Arts Group which I instruct move from our inside school at Young’s Tae Kwon Do  across the street to the Bellefonte Park whenever we can during the summer.

Take your forms out of mothballs and give them feel

Getting your feet on uneven ground is a great way to change and improve your forms. Anyone who has competed can tell you having to change your surroundings or direction can throw you off so getting outside where there are no fixed points can greatly help your forms. If you traditionally train barefoot you may need to adapt to wearing shoes and/or the uneven surfaces. This is usually more extreme a change than vinyl mats, wooden floors, or carpets. It also forces the body’s muscles to work slightly differently since to maintain balance the feet will need to sit differently on the ground. You also learn to work through distractions. Parks or college lawns are great for this since there are always other people in the area.