Welcome to Tai Chi Cloud Hands, a 7-week program designed as both an introduction to Tai Chi for beginners and a refresher or enhancement course for intermediate to advances students.

In Taijiquan (Tai Chi) studies, Wuji Standing Meditation lays the foundation for stillness and rooting, while Cloud Hands (also known as Silk Reeling Exercises) are the building blocks of movement. These seemingly simple arm circles embody Taijiquan’s essential movement principles: 1) the external kinetic principle of whole-body movement with the Dantian as the center, and 2) the internal energetic principle of the integration of mind, qi, and body. 

This course covers the following contents:

Core components:

1. the foundational Cloud Hands / Silk Reeling Exercises including natural circles and reverse circles in various single-hand and double-hand combinations; 
2. Five Steps (五步 wu bu) - center/fixed, left and right, front and back - to be practiced in conjunction with the Cloud Hands arm movements;
3. discrete drills and flows that include transition between different drills

Ancillary components:

1. proper warm-up and cool-down
2. proper postural alignment

Class format:

Below is how a typical session would run; details may vary.

Instructional Sessions (55 - 60 minutes per week):

• Warm up the joints
• Wuji Standing
• Cloud Hands of the week (see curriculum below), including instructions, led practice, and self practice
• Q&A and review
• Stretch-down (a cool-down with light whole-body stretching)

Flow Sessions (45 - 50 minutes per week):

• A 40-minute guided continuous practice including warmup, Wuji Standing, Cloud Hands of the week (in a flow), and closing (exact sequence may vary)
• Brief Q&A (as needed)

At the end of this course, you will have acquired: 

1. A standalone practice offering the major health benefits of Tai Chi such as:

• greater balance and lower-body strength,
• better upper-body alignment (posture) and relaxation,
• quicker access to calmness,
• and many of the healing benefits including enhanced immunity and reduced stress;

2. A reliable foundation for further studies of any style of Taijiquan (Chen, Yang, etc.) in a number of ways: 

• a good coordination between the arms, legs and body weight that will make it easier to learn complex moves in form sequences (the beautiful choreographed flow you see in Tai Chi performances); 
• a conceptual and (more importantly) embodied understanding of the kinetic and energetic principles of Taijiquan;
• drills and routines you can keep using to refine your Taijiquan skills. 

How to succeed:

This course is designed to guide the participant through a steady pace of progress in the course of 7 weeks. However, students at different experience levels can choose to go over the materials at their own pace.

The amount of time needed to grasp the materials covered in this course varies greatly by individual. Below are some general recommendations:

Beginners can expect to spend about 2 hours each week -- i.e., same amount as total lesson time. Beyond lesson time, no additional practice is required, although many students find themselves practicing (or wanting to practice) on their own, which is certainly encouraged. A few minutes each day is a good start! This exercise is so portable and doesn't require any equipment you can literally do it anywhere where you can stand evenly.

Intermediate to advanced students are advised to follow the weekly Flow Sessions in its entirety at a minimum, and use their own discretion on how much to review the instructional sessions.

Although this is a self-study course, I am available for questions by email: yli.taiji@gmail.com (please expect 1-2 day response speed for shorter questions and longer for more complex questions).