The minimum age is 18.
Monday
Where is the class?
Community Hall, St Andrew's Church, Station Road, Benton, NE12 8AW.
Please enter via the car park.
Friday
Invest in your wellbeing
Newcastle Tai Chi classes are an opportunity to focus exclusively on YOU. Everybody needs 'me' time. Time to work on your body, relax your mind, calm your emotions and find balance.
We teach people how to achieve the maximum results using the least amount of effort. The training attitude is: moderation, little & often, do what feels comfortable. Don't exert, push or strain.
YouTube
Some people want to learn tai chi from YouTube because it seems convenient and easy.
The drawback is very simple: nobody is correcting your mistakes. And you will be making a LOT of them. As a beginner, every single tai chi movement and exercise needs correcting.
Why join?
A lot of people don't see the point of joining a tai chi school and taking regular classes. Yes, they want the health benefits, but they don't want the commitment.
This is akin to wanting to get paid without actually doing any work.
Thursday
Standing, stepping and walking
When people say 'tai chi', they usually think of form. Form involves walking around the hall whilst performing a series of smooth, flowing, dynamic movements.
It involves quite a lot of stepping, mobility, balancing, motor skills and coordination (we teach this).
One of the main areas of concern in tai chi is balance - and in order to work on this, you need to be standing up, walking and mobile.
Is tai chi appropriate for me?
We receive a lot of e-mails from people who ask if tai chi is suitable for them. This is a rather tricky question...
We have never met the inquirer. We know nothing about them. We don't know what their tastes, expectations, requirements, personality is like...
We don't really know what they are looking for or what kind of exercise they are even capable of doing.
Oasis
Week in, week out, people attend tai chi classes. The instructor is always friendly. The lessons are always stimulating. Your fellow students are always courteous, well mannered and nice.
Your personal life may be in turmoil, your work life may be tedious or disappointing, yet tai chi class remains a constant: comfortable, familiar, friendly and fun.
Instead of being met by rivalry, one-upmanship and stress, you encounter friendship and warmth.
Wednesday
It’s crazy. I never thought I’d be getting more powerful as I got older!
I used to be able to hit pretty hard in karate but it was 100% effort. More than a handful of full power hits and I was getting fatigued. With Tai chi I’m hitting as hard, probably harder but no effort…I could carry on striking all day! It’s nuts! Also, with karate there was wind up or at least fist at waist or head so had space to travel before contact. Now I can almost hit as hard from touching the target!
The fact Sifu Waller has been able to transform my power generation as I age into my 40’s is all the proof I will ever need of both the art and Sifu as the real thing. I almost feel sorry for those that continue with slow old people tai chi or wushu style. They are missing the essence!
(Chris Young)
What do we teach?
Rachel specialises in teaching qigong. Qigong involves simple movements, mild stretches and cooperative partner work. The onus is upon relaxation, balance, good poise and coordination.
Students learn how to move their body in a healthy, comfortable way without the risk of injury.
Sifu Waller teaches taijiquan (martial art), tai chi for health and tai chi for fitness.
His martial classes that explore: taijiquan, biomechanics, neigong, jing, chin na, shuai jiao and self defence. He specialises in teaching the old/classical Yang style taijiquan. This is a very old style of kung fu (Chinese boxing). Authenticity is our primary goal; we teach a pragmatic, functional martial art.
An exercise class
Please bear in mind that you will be on your feet and moving around for approximately 90 minutes. Tai chi is a workout.
The training is gentle, but if you're unfit, you may find it tiring at first.
Tuesday
What don't we teach?
• We don't teach other martial arts e.g. karate, MMA, wing chun or judo
• Tailored sessions, such as: tai chi for the elderly, tai chi in a chair, tai chi for children, tai chi for people with mental health issues or tai chi as performance art
• We cannot teach kung fu to children or the elderly
These are not areas that we specialise in. We are not trained or qualified to teach these approaches, nor is our syllabus or insurance geared with these in mind.
Can you learn kung fu?
Learning kung fu is another matter entirely. This is subject to eligibility criteria.
Fitness exercises
Fitness is different to health. Being fit entails a wider range of concerns e.g. increased flexibility, suppleness, strength, cardiovascular health/fitness, agility...
These considerations are addressed at length in the fitness syllabus. The fitness exercises are more challenging than qigong & tai chi.
Qigong & tai chi
Qigong and tai chi are suitable for most adults who can stand and walk without the aid of a stick.
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