The Vital Force Archive

Sandy McAlister answers whether all 19 movements must be done in order, citing Justin Stone on Chi memory, and describes reordering her beginner classes so students finish on familiar ground.

Jessica Lewis describes launching veterans-only classes through Taijifit and the VA Community Care Network, with a roadmap for letters of introduction, meetup listings, flyers and befriending local VA staff.

April Leffler gathers comments from participants at the August 2019 Teacher Symposium in Pennsylvania, where Sandy McAlister led work on movement refinements, wholeness, class formats and ways to describe movements to students.

Jerry C. Jonnson lays out ten guiding codes for T'ai Chi Chih instructors, from knowing your purpose and putting on your own oxygen mask first to being present, acting rather than overreacting, and valuing the journey.

Pam Towne's practical guidance for teaching seniors, covering hearing loss, balance, stamina, footwear, chairs for seated practice, time for social interaction, and knowing the facility's emergency procedures.

Bev Chandley handed each of her 31 senior students at Shell Point Retirement Community a polished stone to hold palm up, and not one hand turned over while learning Pulling Taffy.

Guy Kent uses an orchestra analogy to argue that teachers should play their own instrument but not rewrite the score, recalling Justin Stone dropping Circles within Circles and adding the jing.

Carmen Brocklehurst describes how Caroline Guilott's invitation to touch one's own cheeks like a baby's face let teachers feel softness for the first time, plus the 2019 Minnesota conference theme Return to the Circle.

Judy Kistler-Robinson, teaching a Saturday class at a 55-plus retirement complex, found herself telling students to pick up a burden from the shoulder, carry it forward and release it.

Shari Holmes, accredited in November and teaching her first class right after New Year, describes the twelve students who came, the forgotten handouts and tips, and watching beginners find softness.

Linda Minor describes preparing to teach a seated class for seniors aging in place, practising seated herself, attending Carmen Brocklehurst's retreat entirely seated, and checking the room for armless chairs.

Daniel Pienciak lists practical lessons from years leading two senior memory loss groups: speak loudly, repeat movements six or eight times, walk to each person, and return to favorites like Six Healing Sounds and the Joy Song.

Cathy Burton attended accreditation in Rochester at age 70 with no plan to teach, then took over Dixie Adeniran's Ventura classes after the Thomas fire forced her mentor to evacuate.

Stephen Thompson's conference notes give three partner exercises: a paper plate shared between Pulling in the Energy and Around the Platter, mirrored Working the Pulley, and a hand-hovering energy circle with weight shifts.

Sandy McAlister opens her continuing classes with a circle of good news and questions about softness and favorite movements, and tells of a reclusive student whose balance class led to friendships and a first cruise.

Daniel Pienciak compares the forward and back weight shift to shifting a car through neutral, using Sandy McAlister's phrase "glide and arrive" to show that stillness on one foot does not break continuity.

Suzanne Roady-Ross breaks the taffies down for confused students, starting with the lower scooping palm during Carry the Ball to the Side, then the windup, the opening hands and the sinking leg that raises the upper hand.

Julie Heryet credits Sandy McAlister's playfulness for loosening her insistence on accuracy, describing how frustrated elders at a Senior Center and inmates needing to feel safe changed her teaching priorities.

Sandy McAlister argues that nit-picky corrections and rigid insistence on one correct form are driving good teachers away from community events, and calls for tolerance, softness and self-discovery instead.

Sandy McAlister lays out how she runs a weekly class where students range from 17 years of practice to one day, from the opening "good news" circle to slowed-down Pulling Taffy and one-hand Working the Pulley.

Lisa Otero explains how she runs drop-in classes at fitness centers, a church and a park, placing experienced students in front rows and using a circle-within-a-circle formation for large group practices.

Pat Finstad names five constants she reviews at the start of every class: the soft rounded hand shape, shoulders down, head up, vertical spine, and elbows always pointing down.

Dora Wiemann breaks the forward and back weight shift into three repeated words for new students, bend, shift the weight, set the foot out, with hands resting on the t'an t'ien.

Daniel Pienciak breaks down how he teaches the hip swivel, starting with a full lateral weight shift and waist turn, then the pelvic tilt, the elliptical path, and why men and women may feel it differently.

Sharon Sirkis collects two classroom moments: a college student's evaluation calling T'ai Chi Chih "very peaceful and weirdly healing," and a rainy day spent flipping fluorescent switches like an eye doctor.

Adabelle Rychtarik recounts the business basics covered at her 2013 Albuquerque accreditation, then describes calling 911 when a new seated student lost consciousness in class and later needed a pacemaker.

Sharon Sirkis recounts three classroom mishaps and puns, including a student who insisted she had taught only variations of the Six Healing Sounds and a Working the Pulley question that turned into a Supremes singalong.

Carol Spicer describes closing every class with a short seated meditation, crediting Dorene Krause and Phyllis Segal for the practice, and includes her poem "Within the Softness," written after the 2014 teacher conference.

Julie Barrier describes taking over the T'ai Chi Chih class she had attended as Bill Moore's student at the Oakland Senior Center, including sleepless nights before teaching and the silence that ends each class.

First-year teacher Nikol Price describes using essential oil sprays and albums like Misty Forest Morning to mask Student Union noise and make her class an experience rather than exercise.