friday, february 13,2004
news
the university daily kansan 5/4
5A
Annie Bernethy/Kansan
Ryan Brice, Overland Park resident, and Beth McClellan, associate professor of geology, aligned themselves while practic ing Tai Chi at the Dole Center Wednesday night.
Tai Chi club helps students learn balance,relaxation
By Patrick Cady pcady@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Four hands slice through the air. The arms are relaxed, yet firm. As if in a dance, four people move their bodies in a long flowing circle.
Their movement continues as they turn another deliberate half circle, then, they stop.
Now four of the members of the KU Tai Chi Club begin a new form, raising their legs tentatively into the air. Like birds, they hold this for a moment, then begin something new.
Hands follow hands, then feet follow feet in a slow, graceful balance.
Through these sweeping movements, they practice Tai Chi, a martial art that in the native Mandarin translates to "infinite extreme."
"If the art is good then there should be balance everywhere," said Wan Yueting, Shanghai, China, graduate student.
Wan is the president of the KU Tai Chi club, and the instructor of the group that meets weekly to learn the centuries-old practice.
It began in China as a martial art, but millions practice Tai Chi to help improve balance and to relax, Wan said.
Basically, it consists of people following set forms of motions. During these moves, participants focus on relaxing a certain body area, and keeping another firm. It's a metaphor of the
"You know you have it correct when part of you feels you have passed that position, and another part of you knows you have not really passed it."
Wan Yueting Shanghai, China, graduate student
black/white, male/female dichotomy of the Yin Yang, Wan said.
"It's full of contradictory sides." Wan said, "opposite but together."
Tonight, they practiced a moving Tai Chi called Chen style. It stressed more flowing leg motions and movement than another more stationary style called Yang.
Wan said achieving a perfect move in Tai Chi was a relaxed, yet seemingly mysterious experience.
"You know you have it correct when part of you feels you have passed that position, and another part of you knows you have not really pass it," Wan said.
"The reason I started is because I want to keep in shape," Keatts said. "I hate weights, I hate running and I wanted to do something outdoors."
Zack Keatts, Lenexa graduate student, has spent two years learning Tai Chi from Wan.
He had researched martial arts and Tai Chi for months before choosing his style and has found benefits from studying this particular type.
that type.
"I had a bad knee now it's fully rehabilitated," Keatts said. "Healthwise I'd recommend it to anybody."
Keatts said that it took diligent practice to see the benefits from Tai Chi.
There were other more basic benefits to Tai Chi as well, Wan said.
One of the main principles behind it stresses that the body acts as one unit, Wan said.
"An old saying states that, 'if you move one piece of hair, you move your entire body,'" Wan said.
This in turn helps with both coordination and balance.
Beth McClellan, associate professor of geology, has been learning Chen style for six months.
"I think one of the concerns for me, being older, was balance," McClellan said. "I noticed my balance was much better when I started and my breathing was better too."
For beginners, Keatts suggested the more basic stationary Yang style might be best to begin with.
Wan instructs both groups and holds sessions on the second floor lobby Dole Human Development Center from 7p.m. to 8 p.m.each Wednesday.
kansan.com
- Edited by Henry C. Jackson
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