For Beginners

How to start Tai Chi

Beginners are very welcome at my classes. If you want to start Tai Chi and try it out with me, I offer a 4 class beginner trial that is valid for the applicable class term.

The current price for this is £45.

It is usually best to start this trial at the beginning of a term, but I don’t mind if you join part way through the term, bearing in mind that you may have to be a little more independent and follow along a bit more. You can just get in touch to let me know you’re coming.

The beginner trial covers the 1.5 hour class on Thursday evenings, from 1800 – 1930. This way you can experience both Tai Chi exercises and a little bit of the form.

Please note: I get asked a lot if beginners can just come along to a single or free class trial. I don’t offer this as an option at my classes due to how these disrupt the flow of the classes, sorry.

Below are some tips I think could also be helpful to read if you’re considering starting Tai Chi.

Don’t make it a big thing

It’s very common for beginners to make starting Tai Chi a big thing in their lives. Sometimes this is tied into a new life resolution to get fitter, improve mental health, learn mind-body integrated meditation, or something similar. This easily results in creating a new imagined long-term commitment, the buying of books, and sometimes I’ve had beginners declaring that Tai Chi is definitely for them, for life, without ever having tried it before.

My advice is to do the exact opposite of this:

• Don’t make it a big commitment – just come along in a relaxed non-committal way as if you were just going out for a coffee;
• Don’t make any large structural changes to your life to fit it in, see what you can do and take it from there;
• Don’t go and buy a load of kit, you don’t need to. Just come along in whatever clothes you’re wearing. You can do Tai Chi in almost any shoes too, just probably not stilettos, although I’ve never tried tbh;
• Don’t buy a load of books about Tai Chi and pressure yourself to read all about it. Tai Chi actually doesn’t translate well into writing because it only gains its meaning through action;
• Don’t worry about practising, just join the class, follow along and you’ll get a feel for it. Then, if you get into it, once you’ve learned the basic patterns, you’ll probably find your body wants to practise between classes. Then just follow this intuition. Practise can be as little as a few minutes;
• Don’t worry about how long it’s going to take to learn. It’s all about the journey in Tai Chi so relax and just enjoy the flow. It’ll come;
• Don’t take it too seriously. There’s plenty of serious Tai Chi content out there if you want it, but the essence of Tai Chi is to be in a place of relaxed enjoyment and that means holding any seriousness lightly;
• There’s no long-term commitment here, just take it as it is and see where it goes!

You won’t experience any pressure from me, just encouragement to relax and follow.

If you have a medical condition

Tai Chi is deceptive in its gentleness. People often assume that the calm, slow movements of Tai Chi don’t work the body very much and therefore underestimate the amount of work they’re actually doing. Because of this, if you have a medical condition, I recommend that you start with short sessions, perhaps even just 1/2 hour because depending on your condition it’s quite easy to over do it.

The wonderful part of Tai Chi is that it is beneficial for most people of all ages and varying levels of health. It’s almost impossible to injur or strain yourself, but you may feel exhausted after a session.

Finding a Tai Chi Teacher

Finding the right Tai Chi teacher for you is a necessary process in your Tai Chi journey. I’ve had several teachers in my time and it took a few years to find the right ones for me. When you start out it is difficult to determine what’s right for you, but at the same time I accept that the way I teach and structure my classes is not for everyone. One of the reasons I only offer a 4 class introduction is that it takes everyone a bit of time to get a sense of a new activity and how it works for them.

If you’re starting Tai Chi, I recommend that you try out different classes and teachers, get to know them and then make a decision. It might be that you decide to learn from several different teachers at the same time. Some Tai Chi teachers don’t like this, but I’m fine with this and think it can be beneficial to your learning.