Taijiquan (太極拳 — Supreme Ultimate Fist) is a classical Chinese martial art. Its distinctive appearance — slow, flowing, and composed — can obscure what it actually is: a complete and sophisticated fighting system built on principles of structural integrity, sensitivity, and the intelligent use of force rather than its raw application.
The foundational principle of Taijiquan is that softness overcomes hardness — that a practitioner who is relaxed, rooted, and sensitive will consistently outperform one who relies on muscular strength and speed alone. This is not a philosophical abstraction but a practical reality, developed and tested across centuries of martial application.
Yang-Style Taijiquan
I teach Yang-style Taijiquan, one of the principal lineages of the tradition, developed by Yang Luchan (楊露禪) in the nineteenth century and refined through successive generations into the form widely practised today. Yang-style is characterised by its expansive, open movements and its emphasis on sung (鬆 — deep relaxation and release) as the foundation of all technique.
The curriculum covers the full scope of the art:
Jiben Gong (基本功 — foundational skills) encompasses the conditioning exercises and skill drills that create the foundation upon which everything else in Taijiquan is built. Before the form can be understood, before push hands can be productive, and before martial application can be expressed correctly, the body must be conditioned and the basic movement principles must be established.
Jiben Gong develops the physical and internal prerequisites of the art — joint mobility and opening, correct structural alignment, the basic stepping and footwork patterns, silk reeling (纏絲 — chán sī), and the fundamental jin (勁) expressions that recur throughout the form and its applications. These are not warm-up exercises to be rushed through before the real practice begins. They are practice in themselves, returned to at every level and refined continuously.
For beginners, Jiben Gong is the entry point — the place where the body begins to learn the language of Taijiquan. For experienced practitioners, it remains the diagnostic tool and the foundation, revealing exactly where the principles are genuinely embodied and where they are merely approximated.
The Hand Form — the foundational solo sequence of Taijiquan, through which the principles of the art are first learned and embodied. The form is a repository — each posture and transition encodes martial application, structural principle, and internal development simultaneously. It is not a performance or a demonstration but a moving meditation on the principles of the art.
The form is learned slowly and in stages — first the gross shape and sequence, then the refinement of structure and alignment, then the development of internal connection and jin expression, and finally the martial meaning that animates each movement. This process takes years and is never complete. A practitioner who has been training for twenty years will find the same form revealing things it did not reveal at five years. This is not a deficiency of the form but its nature — it meets the practitioner at whatever level they bring to it.
Zhan Zhuang (站樁 — standing post) is standing meditation practice and one of the most powerful conditioning methods in the internal martial arts. The practitioner holds a series of postures — beginning with simple standing and progressing to more demanding positions — for extended periods, developing root, structural alignment, relaxation under load, and the capacity to remain present and settled under pressure.
It is unglamorous and demanding and produces results that nothing else replicates. The body learns to release chronic tension, the connective tissues develop strength and resilience, the nervous system settles, and the quality of sung (鬆) that is the foundation of all Taijiquan technique begins to become real rather than theoretical. Zhan Zhuang is not a supplement to Taijiquan practice — it is one of its essential pillars.
Tui Shou (推手 — push hands) is the partner practice of Taijiquan, the bridge between solo form work and martial application. Two practitioners maintain contact — typically wrist to wrist or arm to arm — and work through a series of structured drills and free exercises that develop the listening, sensitivity, and responsiveness that define the Taijiquan martial method.
The core skills developed through Tui Shou are the four listening and responding abilities: ting jin (聽勁 — listening to force), dong jin (懂勁 — understanding force), hua jin (化勁 — neutralising force), and fa jin (發勁 — issuing force). These cannot be developed in solo practice alone. They require the feedback of another body — the experience of actual force arriving, being received, and being redirected. Tui Shou provides this in a structured and progressive way, making it possible to develop genuine martial sensitivity without the risks of full contact sparring.
Martial Application — every posture in the Taijiquan form has specific martial applications — throws, locks, strikes, and controlling techniques — that give meaning to its structure and movement. Exploring these applications is not separate from form practice but integral to it. Understanding what a movement is for changes how it is practised; practising it correctly deepens the understanding of what it does.
Application work is explored through structured partner drills, beginning with the single techniques encoded in each posture and progressing to the more complex sequences that arise from their combination. This work reveals the martial logic of the form and develops the capacity to apply its principles under pressure — not as choreographed sequences but as responsive, adaptive expression of the underlying principles.
The Internal Dimension
Taijiquan belongs to the family of neijia (內家 — internal) martial arts, distinguished from external styles by their emphasis on internal development — the cultivation of jin (勁 — trained force), the refinement of yi (意 — intention), and the coordination of the whole body as a unified structure rather than a collection of separate parts.
The three core internal qualities that Taijiquan develops are peng (掤 — expansive structural force), song (鬆 — deep release and relaxation), and yi (意 — intention leading movement). Peng is the foundational quality — an outward, buoyant aliveness in the structure that neither collapses under pressure nor resists it rigidly. Song is the condition that makes peng possible — the genuine release of chronic muscular tension that allows the body to move as a connected whole. Yi is the directing principle — the understanding that in Taijiquan, movement is led by intention rather than muscular effort, and that developing the sensitivity of yi is central to the development of the art.
This internal dimension is what gives Taijiquan its depth and its longevity as a practice. The principles take years to develop and continue to deepen indefinitely. A practitioner in their sixties with thirty years of genuine training will express the art differently — and in many respects more completely — than a younger practitioner relying on physical attributes alone.
Teaching Approach
Teaching follows the classical model of Xiūliàn (修煉 — cultivation and refinement) and Xiūzhèng (修證 — practice realisation). The fundamentals are introduced carefully, revisited constantly, and refined over time. There are no shortcuts and no syllabus to be completed — only the ongoing deepening of understanding through consistent practice.
My teaching draws directly on classical texts and the practices they preserve, maintaining fidelity to the original methods rather than modern reinterpretation.
Classes are open to all levels. Beginners are welcome and will be met where they are. Those with prior Taijiquan experience — in any style — will find much that is familiar and much that will challenge their existing understanding.