The Vital Force Archive

Eugene L. Box describes the "homework game" he used with a beginning class: six practice sessions between classes, a November calendar to mark off, and a yes-or-excuse answer heard aloud.

Tara Stiles lays out her six-week Level 1 and Level 2 sequence, monthly Saturday practice sessions in a local park, and why she keeps the level names students like.

Ruth Marie Arguello-Sheehan, a retired RN, describes her Sun City classes for students aged 9 to 96, watching for unsafe movement after reports of knee, hip and back injuries from other T'ai Chi classes.

Steve Ridley recommends pausing class to sit and talk with students about T'ai Chi Chih, balancing the work periods of moving together, plus short aphorisms on what makes teachers effective.

Carol Glinski recounts a class where a mother arrived with her two young children after her sitter cancelled, and the restless pair ended up still, hugging the teacher goodbye.

Ralph Garn's practical advice for new teachers on finding venues, reaching the decision maker, and pricing, including how he rebuilt classes in Syracuse through a new age bookstore and a summer questionnaire.

Jean Katus taught eight introductory sessions at an international high school theatre festival, and when a rowdy group of six disrupted her final class, the movement itself quieted them without a word of reprimand.

Cass Redmon of Watsonville offers three classroom tips: cueing long fingers in Daughter on the Mountain Top, a hand on the lower back to reveal upright posture, and rubbing fingernails to feel subtle energy.

Carol Glinski's notes from her first conference since accreditation, collecting advice from Justin and Steve on teaching flow before mechanics, leaving ego aside, and living in cosmic rhythm.

Steve Ridley suggests opening and closing every class with an inward facing circle of 18 to 36 rounds of Rocking Motion to build unity among class members.

Steve Ridley names two primary responsibilities of a T'ai Chi Chih teacher, continually cultivating one's own practice and teaching as clearly as possible, offered as unconditional service students may use as they choose.

Loretta Shiver describes the final session of her eight-week course, leading students through the whole form for the first and last time, then closing with Steve's meditation tape.

Anne Doering, who has epilepsy, recounts team teaching at the Serenity Shop bookstore with her student Barbara, and catching Louise as a seizure struck her mid-practice.

Judith Jones of Redmond recommends the Good Karma audio tape Justin Stone Speaks on T'ai Chi Chih, which on a recent listening finally made clear why concentration rests on the soles of the feet.

Justin Stone explains why accreditation candidates give presentations, and how new teachers should use personal experience, two sample movements and definite class plans to win an audience and fill classes.

Rhonda St. Martin notices how dogs quiet down and cats curl up and purr when she practices, and gives her students the assignment of observing their own pets' response to chi.

Beverly McFarland describes her fourth-class Taffies and silent practice, Diana and Richard Daffner report free beach practice with dolphins and Diana's flute tape, and Hope Ridley balances quick learners with two students who have MS.

Noel Altman of Redmond, WA suggests teachers lend Justin's and Steve's books, cassettes and videos to students for a week or two during a course, with order forms for those who want to buy.

Virginia Shilson recounts offering her teaching free of charge to senior citizen centers after accreditation, where classes of eight to thirty students built the confidence she needed to eventually advertise and charge.

Ed Altman warns that the checkpoints useful to a new student can later become a distraction, and urges teachers to examine their own habit energies so students learn the feeling of the movements rather than details.

Virginia Shilson recommends that teachers preparing accreditation candidates exchange students between classes, so candidates meet one another and see that minor differences in executing movements leave the essence unchanged.

Noël Altman describes the "Ongoing Practice" continuing class she and Ed lead, where students pull the teaching from them, mature students strengthen the group chi, and beginners watch the second half of the form.

Hope Ridley of San Mateo outlines what her continuing class does after the beginning instruction: all twenty moves for refinement, then extended single moves, linked moves, practice in pairs or a circle, two extra moves, and alternate breathing.

Teachers from Anaheim to Albuquerque answer a Conference evaluation question about continuing classes, describing refinement of moves, connected form, Seijaku breath work, circle and outdoor practice, discounts and mailing lists.

Letters from Sr. Claire Whalen, Joan Torrence, Bryan James, Joy Barbour and Ralph Garn report first classes, five-session evening formats with treats, a monthly city-wide Denver practice in Washington Park, and a New Jersey teachers' weekend.

Patricia Bough, sidelined by tendinitis, taught her senior center class seated, then standing with a student model, then settled on using Justin's new video so she could circulate, correct and rest her foot.

Della Alberson assigns students to write a poem or story using the twenty movements in order as a 'memory key' for when they lose the sequence, with contributions from Frank Vance and Nikki Price.

Hope Ridley recounts two class moments that made her smile: students veering left in unison when reminded about equal weight in Cosmic Consciousness Pose, and the whole class turning sideways when she did.

Chris Worcester limits his eight-session Truckee class to eight students, George Balliet presented TCC and Seijaku in the "Self Care" segment of a Merced home business conference, and Jeanne Beatty-Jacobs demonstrated for 350 mostly black-belt karate students.

Joanne Sultar of Berkeley lists the seven T'ai Chi Chih principles she raises in the first class and returns to all course long, from self-acceptance to sinking energy into the feet.