The Vital Force Archive

Amy Tyksinski describes the New Teachers' Cohort pilot, six monthly Zoom sessions after the November 2024 Colorado Springs accreditation, in which 13 of 15 graduates became actively teaching.

Nine new teachers were accredited by April Leffler in Leavenworth, Kansas, and candidates including Gilbert Pagat, Barbara Starke and Roksan Biktimir recount refinements, presentation nerves, PTSD healing and long delays.

Mary Wichmann describes leading twelve widows of fallen servicemen in one hour of T'ai Chi Chih on a deck at Holbrook Farms Retreat, with minimal instruction and no goal beyond peace and joy.

Lesley Nell answers questions about the new suggested curriculum for preparing teacher candidates, developed with Marie Dotts and Lisa Otero, and the new Teacher Prep Coach designation for experienced referring teachers.

Christian Gunning, accredited in November 2024, traces 25 years of practice from Athens, Georgia through a midlife reckoning to the Colorado accreditation week with Sandy McAlister, where a long-carried sense of not deserving to be lifted.

Steven Huskey, accredited in November 2024, sets out what his accreditation week gave him in an acrostic spelling T'ai Chi Chih, from grounding and coaching students to establishing new classes and camaraderie.

Accredited in November 2024, Joan Sheehan describes the intention she set during accreditation week, the absorbed attention she now brings to mashing potatoes, and the clarity of practising at the Poudre River.

Vanessa Petterson, accredited in December 2022, describes building two Village Hall classes despite weak marketing skills, the laughter and loving kindness at each class ending, and her growing confidence as a teacher.

Lisa Stroyan summarizes a November teachers' Zoom discussion on how referring teachers prepare accreditation candidates, with advice from Marie Dotts, Caroline Guilott and others on one-on-one work, leading practice, weight shifts and when to teach Seijaku.

Steven Huskey recounts the teaching that found him after accreditation, from filling in for his own teacher to classes for Parkinson's patients and a brain injury support group, and the lesson plans he abandoned for flexibility.

Darlene Benton, newly accredited after years of teaching qigong and T'ai Chi Ch'uan, filled her first classes with massage therapy clients aged 18 to 80 who kept returning and brought friends.

Colette Hertz describes the exhaustion and deepening after her November 2024 accreditation, teaching seated TCC to her 95-year-old neighbor Roberta, and feeling chi in her fingertips while her right hand was in a cast.

Christian E. Gunning's poem, written out of the November 2024 teacher accreditation course, moves through circle sharing, magpies and mule deer, snow past a west-facing window, and pealing bells.

Greg Berg recounts his first eight-class beginner course, crediting written class plans, co-teaching with Jim Eagle, Justin Stone readings and closing stillness, while admitting 14 students was too many.

Greg Berg, who writes free verse himself, examines Justin Stone's Pyramid Poetry form from Climb the Joyous Mountain and reads its seven lines as an ascent of yang and descent of yin.

Rod Nakayama recounts becoming accredited in November 2024 after seven years as a student, and teaching a class of thirty-plus at his Senior Center, including a seated session.

Catherine, accredited in November 2024, took the training to deepen her own practice, then found herself teaching when three friends asked for classes in her home.

Marie Dotts gathers reflections from the fifteen candidates accredited with Sandy McAlister at the Franciscan Retreat Center in Colorado Springs, on inner sincerity, finding the t'an t'ien, and community during a divided pre-election week.

Judy Kistler describes the TCC International Foundation's redesigned website at taichichihfoundation.org, which added teacher conference registration, scholarship and grant details with teacher testimonials, and a Donate page with fund options.

Lisa Stroyan compiled accounts from April Leffler's October 2023 Zoom accreditation, where 12 candidates from three countries worked from tree-frog "suction cup" feet upward and shared their "green banana" takeaways.

Lisa Stroyan gathers teachers' views from April Leffler's July Second Saturday practice on whether and how to teach the hip swivel, including Justin's one-finger ellipse and Carmen Brocklehurst's "tiny hula in the tan t'ien."

Lisa Stroyan, after auditing accreditation courses and a Zoom intensive, counsels a hesitant candidate and argues that accreditation is a class to be met with an empty cup, not a test to pass.

Ann Rutherford recounts a Tibetan Buddhist class where the lama, his translator and a sangha member warned that T'ai Chi was dangerous, and argues that holding the close position grounds circulating Chi.

Paula Haraldson set four intentions for her accreditation course and found grounding the hardest, especially when fatigue from a brain injury left her unable to teach a movement she knew well.

Bianca Lee's poem traces the move from hiding fear and imperfection to trusting the group that caught her, closing with accreditation week as a beginning rather than an ending.

April Leffler introduces the ten teachers accredited in the fourth Zoom course with Pam Towne, with their mission statements and reflections on grief, letting go and finding softness during the week.

Sue Bitney recounts auditing the final days of a teacher accreditation course, describing the candidates' vulnerability and courage and the welcome she offered them in their last conversation together.

Dorene Krause traces her 2003 path from the first East Coast intensive to Sandy McAlister's first accreditation course, and explains why she refuses to sign for any candidate who has not attended an intensive.

Mission statements from twelve teachers accredited in Daniel Pienciak's Zoom course hosted by April Leffler, plus Barbara McAnamy's account of finally understanding her front weight shift with Marie Dotts.

Kristin Clark Taylor describes completing one of the first accreditation courses held entirely on Zoom, with Daniel Pienciak and April Leffler, and insists the Chi she felt alone in her living room was not virtual.