April 2025 Newsletter

Hello students & parents,

Please welcome our newest students to the school if you haven't said hi yet - Ashton, Brad, Paul and Livia!

Also Happy Birthday this month to Zach!

Here are the focuses this month:

• Morning Taiji: 5 Animals Qigong (No Classes on 04/07 & 04/09) - only 7 classes this month

• Evening Taiji: Taiji 28 (No Class 04/21/2025)

• Beginner Gongfu: Basics & review (No Class 04/21/2025)

• Kid's Gongfu: Sanda sparring (No Class 04/15/2025)

• Advanced Gongfu: Tournament prep (No Class 04/15/2025)

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Kids Sanda Sparring

Reminder that kids classes will be starting Sanda sparring this month! While most students are still waiting for their gear to come in, they will need to have all their gear available to spar, and 2 instructors will be present at all classes where sparring is involved. Those without gear will still be able to train and learn techniques so classes aren't a complete waste. Ask Shifu if you need help molding the mouth guard.

If your child's red uniform arrives earlier than the gear, feel free to have them come in their red tank/shorts uniform regardless, just so we can get them used to it (plus it's a nice breather during these upcoming warmer months). When we get to months where we do both forms and sparring, it'll be more imperative to watch the calendar on what to wear.

Also reminder that the red uniforms are meant to allow full freedom of movement, but with that comes exposure. Many times the shorts and/or tank-tops are too revealing, so please ensure your child is wearing longer sport underwear or liners beneath the red shorts, and a sports tank-bra or undershirt for the tank top if necessary.

Parents - please refer to your emails regarding full details of gear and uniforms if you haven't purchased yet.

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The Principles of Tai Chi

This month's words of wisdom will be presented by Disciple Li Pin, who teaches the Evening Taiji Classes. Li Pin has been with Shifu for a long time, stemming from our school's early days in Sugarhouse Park, before we had a school, and has grown to be a leading instructor for the Taiji students. Enjoy~

Placing focus on the principles of tai chi, I would like to think about it as the counterbalance to what we think about when we normally think of exercise. The first thing that comes to mind for many when the word “exercise” is mentioned is something that’s difficult, strenuous, and exhausting. The other components to the equation, which can be easily overlooked, however, are the movements that help keep overall mobility, flexibility, and improved energy levels – activities that call for a chance to find calmness within one’s routine instead of firing on all cylinders. That is where activities like tai chi come into play to improve the foundation of one’s physical abilities, mental calmness and clarity, and overall health.

Getting into a bit of my “origin story” as it brings the point back around: In 2019 I had a rather extensive workout routine (i.e., cardio, resistance training) that I would work on with my trainer. One of the goals was to make it to the gym six days a week, with the seventh day being an “active rest day” – a new activity outside of the gym that was enough to keep me mobile. My dad, knowing this, wanted to take this moment and share his new passion for tai chi with me, inviting me to go with him to all of his classes.

It was to the point where he had me meet and network with all of his instructors. He kept telling me this was absolutely important because one day I would be the one teaching my own tai chi students, which I found absolutely unfathomable at that time (especially with how much of a gym brute I was). Little did I know at the time how correct he was in his foreshadowing.

Eventually, his passion turned to him finding any tai chi event in the valley so I could take him there. That’s how we found Shifu’s Meetup group that summer. Up to this point, I only knew about qigong, and I had never seen anything like what we were practicing at the park. In fact, for being as proud of my physical abilities as I was at that time, I clearly remember my first time doing Taiji 13 and actually finding myself quite challenged by many of these movements! Needless to say, I found exactly what I was looking for in my “active rest day,” kept coming back to classes, and became more vested in joining my dad anytime he was reading about the principles of tai chi.

From attending these Meetups, I started to realize really quickly that 1) there’s far more to tai chi than I previously knew, and 2) there’s a lot more to my overall health, fitness, and well-being than how hard I can go at all times. I never knew how much I took for granted regarding the core elements of body mechanics like balance, mobility, slow and accurate movements, and especially the simple task of proper breathing whilst synchronizing your breath to your movements.

In fact, everything that I stated above needed a lot more work, so I would seek to apply these principles more to my daily routines. Eventually, I would find improvement in my movements and performance in the gym, feeling like I found a counterbalance I didn’t know I was missing.

Each time I came to the Meetup classes, I noticed myself being able to move better each time. Outside of class and at the gym, I noticed my overall mobility improving, and I was able to hold better movement and form in my exercises. My recovery time in between workouts also accelerated, and I was less prone to injury. Eventually, I would learn how to have more patience and focus on what I was doing and was able to find more calmness and grace in my movements and routine, making tai chi the activity I would frequent as a place to find a sense of calm in my day and for the week.

Eventually, I would find myself joining the gongfu classes in 2020, in which the benefits of tai chi have helped me a lot. One thing that attracted me to gongfu was the diversity and complexity of the movements, which I found desirable to learn. No doubt, there are many challenging moves (some I still struggle with immensely to this day), but the overall mobility I do have to do what I can has come from starting with tai chi first. Even now, when I try to learn the balance of soft and light movements in gongfu, I make the effort to gather myself and remember what I learned in tai chi to balance everything out so I’m not just gunning my engines and making my form work sloppy. A lot of the time, that’s much easier said than done; however, the lessons from tai chi still apply.

As an added benefit that’s still relevant to my routine now, I find tai chi to be the go-to activity when I don’t know what to do for my routine that day, or especially in the cases where I find myself incapable of being able to do a strenuous workout that day. Sometimes the best thing you can really do for yourself is to just keep moving at some capacity, which is much better than doing nothing at all. When all else fails, tai chi is always something I can turn to at some capacity, so I don’t lose focus or ability. Being able to double down on that when the time comes (we all have our days), I feel like it’s enough for me to stay consistent in what I need to do for my health.

From focusing on improving my performance inside and outside of gongfu, with great consideration of mobility, calmness and focus, and specifying accuracy in my general movements, tai chi has been an important and fundamental practice for years. A lot of what I try to relate to with my students is how these principles apply to situations outside of the classroom with everyday movements, and for those who’ve expressed interest in gongfu, how those principles can be adapted to the external arts.

Just like when we exercise to focus on how much we can push our body’s limits, we must also never forget the simpler tasks that help us recover, find calmness and control in our routine, and maintain the most basic of movements we do in our everyday lives.

Li Pin

HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS

• For Taiji students, please feel free to use the uniform rack in the closet to help avoid your top uniform from wrinkling

• We also have supplements available on our school store, with emphasis on traditional martial arts. Feel free to check them out!

• For adult students competing at the next tournament, triple check your reservations, flights, etc.

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SCHOOL SCHEDULE