The Vital Force Archive

Susan Roady-Ross breaks Pulling Taffy Perpetual Motion into smaller steps and arm circles, using the cue "pull, reverse, heel touch" and naming the heel touch as the key to perpetual motion.

Eliza Fulton adapts a yoga strap trick for teaching the weight shift, holding a belt across the kidneys so students feel the hip flexors open and close as they yin and yang.

April Leffler, who has taught at Widener University since 2008, reports what her PE Director said would persuade a college to hire a TCC teacher, plus class formats and credit arrangements elsewhere.

Stu Goldman, uneasy about repeating what "Justin would say," describes building his own teaching phrases like "I came for the movement; I stayed in the moment," and recalls a silent correction from Carmen Brocklehurst.

Stu Goldman rebuts the adage that those who cannot do teach, describing his use of humor, props and mirroring, and urging teachers to notice what works and build a consistent personal style.

Dixie Adeniran's substitute teacher fell through at the last minute, and her twenty-four senior center students formed the circle-within-a-circle on their own and practiced without her.

Linda Braga describes a November ceremony in San Leandro where fourteen students in their 80s and 90s received gold-sealed certificates for years of consistent attendance, and offers the template to other teachers.

Sandy McAlister brought Justin Stone's 1993 conference remarks on Ahimsa to her classes, met mostly silence, and found her own revelation while cursing other drivers in traffic.

Terry Slaney tells students who speed up to treat each part of every movement as a beginning, and Sonja Walker adds nine-word meditations for every movement from Rocking Motion to the Cosmic Consciousness Pose.

Judy Hendricks discovered that a school's new director had changed her once-silent elementary students into chatterers, and that setting clear expectations with teachers and children made every class move well.

Donna McElhose describes restructuring her intermediate college class with five minutes of silent sitting, a wordless 45-minute practice and a closing meditation, followed by nine students' written accounts.

Dixie Adeniran, accredited in October 2014, recounts finishing her first beginner series at a senior center, from business licenses and flyers to the silent circle practice with music.

Justin Stone's general comments from the booklet "Teaching Tips For Teachers" insist T'ai Chi Chih is neither exercise nor martial art, and detail spotting faults in weight shift, wrists, waist and knees.

Richard Karasik distinguishes speaking T'ai Chi Chih from speaking about it, urging teachers to build a shared vocabulary with students, test words like "palm up" and "circular," and treat confusion as an opening for learning.

Linda Braga describes how the WASC accreditation process at San Leandro adult school pushed her to survey students, analyze the data, and draft a revised "Levels of TCC" skills list with Northern California teachers.

Justin Stone's teaching keys for Pulling in the Energy and all four Pulling Taffy variations, correcting flat feet, horizontal palms, waist turns and weight shifts timed to the pulling hand.

Justin Stone's booklet excerpt gives the keys to four movements, including cocked wrists in Daughter on the Mountain Top, when the weight settles back in Daughter in the Valley, the sideways step in Carry the Ball to the Side, and the 60/40 hand emphasis in Push Pull.

Judy George recounts how softness in T'ai Chi Chih let her feel stored painful memories, and how Marie Dotts' conference talk on habit energies led her class to stand in new spots and enter in silence.

Dixie Adeniran describes the five phases of student teaching under Lisa Otero, from awkward unprepared presentations to leading whole classes while Otero was away for a month.

Sharon Sirkis ends her college T'ai Chi Chih course with a show and tell circle, where students bring laundry detergent, a construction level, Pringles and a near empty cigarette pack to explain what they gained.

Justin Stone gives teachers the keys to the first five movements, from flattening the feet before raising the toes in Rocking Motion to keeping the hands a steady distance apart in Bass Drum.

Matthew van der Giessen describes sending weekly class-summary emails with unlisted YouTube clips of the movements taught, using Chimpmail, an iPad and Good Karma videos to cut dropout rates.

Linda Braga recounts a year of teaching James, a student with dementia, and Angel his caretaker, including how she asked the class to welcome him and how he returned after a failed residential placement.

Jackson Rains tried dropping the rest pose between movements in his own practice, found it broke the flow, and then learned from a student with arthritic wrists why holding it during instruction hurts.

Daniel Pienciak describes moving away from insisting on a full daily practice, citing Justin Stone's own suggestions of shorter programs and personal selections, and finding his classes fuller because of it.

Jackson Rains compares Good Karma's two Justin Stone instructional DVDs, the 2005 four-teacher filming and the 1994 solo re-release, on mirroring, music, chapter breaks and picture quality, and recommends the solo version.

Amy Tyksinski recounts being rejected then accepted as a TEDxABQ speaker on "Innovations in Education," paired with KG's summary of Lisa Otero's talk on insurance, waivers, taxes and trademark use for teachers.

April Leffler describes eleven years of drop-in classes at a YMCA, learning to teach to whoever shows up, giving cues to her "frequent fliers," and adding a Seijaku class in June.

Linda Braga, a special education teacher for 40 years, introduces "think alouds," in which teachers speak aloud what they see, feel and sense while moving, with a full worked example using Rocking Motion.

Sr. Antonia Cooper suggests teachers turn students' Internet searching into a classroom exercise, comparing YouTube demonstrations by Travis Enerix and Chris Norkus against the six principles of movement in Justin's DVD introduction.