T'ai Chi Ch'uan (taijiquan) is a Chinese movement art that consists of a series of quiet and fluid movements for maintaining a flexible mind and body, and sustaining a relaxed unity. It is also known as Meditation in Movement.
T'ai Chi also contains all aspects of self-defense as it is traditionally a martial art. Through mastering all the movements, you obtain perfect balance.
At different locations, mostly in Amsterdam, where I am giving courses for beginner to advanced. There are also training days and workshops. Private lessons are possible. The main possibilities are presented on this website.
At the end of the last century I started taking T'ai Chi lessons from Cornelis Slotema (Amsterdam), and have been captivated ever since. The classic Taoist texts that I studied earlier, together with the contact I had with late professor Kristofer Schipper, suddenly crystalized for me.
I continued studying T'ai Chi at the cultural student center CREA, where Nellie Klabbers was teaching in the tradition of late Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo. After her death in 2006 I took over and a few years later I also started teaching (up until Covid-19) at the University Sport Center. With Guido Valk, who is now teaching at CREA, I organize the Amsterdam Training Days.
With other students of Nellie, now teachers in The Netherlands and Belgium, I teach in rotation during the Delft Training Days. These Training Days bring students, who practice the same T'ai Chi form all over the world, together.
Personally I am happy to be a student and participant in training camps and workshops of colleagues and masters world-wide.
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Connected to:
• Universal T’ai Chi Ch’uan Association Nederland
• Stichting Taijiquan Nederland
You are going to learn the sequential movements of the Yang Style - Short Form. (Cheng Man-ch'ing >)
You practice the form – as far as you have learned – in a flow, as standing meditation and as holding posture. You will train each posture as well and as relaxed as you can.
You get instructions on how to perform a posture and the transition to the next, and recieve advice and adjustments from your teacher according to your personal abilities. The short form contains 37 postures. When you are familiar with the full choreography further lessons will give you deeper insight and feeling into the benefits of this art.
(Read more >)
Wear loose-fitting clothes and thin, flat soled shoes. It is advisable to practice parts of the form for a few minutes every day by yourself.