It is a popular misconception that taiji is merely a form of gentle exercise for arthritic old ladies and certainly not a pass time for children.  In fact there are some who would argue that children do not have the patience to learn such a complex art, nor can you keep them still long enough to work with it.  While there is some difficulty working with short attention spans, this certainly does not mean that the practice can not be enjoyed by all as Mandeigh Wells demonstrates from her recent experience....

Early last year (2000), writes Mandeigh, I was approached by a local primary school with a view to teaching an after school taiji class.  The age range of the children is around 9 and 10, essentially primary 5 and 6.  The thinking behind the idea was to promote a healthy form of exercise that would encourage calm behavior as well as giving the kids a challenge. It was hoped that the complex nature of taiji would teach the kids valuable skills that could be carried over into the classroom, such as listening, concentration and of course self discipline.

I put together a more dynamic program, one that would include a more robust warm up some taiji related games, forms and qigong.  As this was a new concept for both the school and myself, it has been a bit of trial and error to find a program that would cover all of the criteria as set down by the school and also keep the kids amused.  because the kids sometimes react with inappropriate behavior.......I know one kid who turned round and belted another who had accidentally bumped into him, (hit first, ask questions later) I was asked not to have the children practicing applications !   This made it quite a strange concept for many of the children to start with.  Introducing taijiquan as a martial art and then using movements that seem far removed from the kicks and punches of other arts, left them a little bemused, although using the application  to illustrate a movement is fine and this has helped to prove to them that we are not just doing an airy fairy dance.  Our warm up routine consists of fitness, strengthening and flexibility exercises.  It is quite a good move to enable the kids to let off steam at the beginning and this can be accomplished with jumping jacks, relay running and stationary kicks.  To get the kids listening we have made the warm up routine fast paced with frequent changes of instruction.........from jogging round the hall to press-ups then back up for sideways steps.  This is helping to improve the kids overall fitness levels and gets the body well enough warmed up from some stretching.  We spend quite some time on this part.  Some of the kids, especially the gymnasts and synchronized swimmers are very flexible with the boys so far being the least flexible and that includes those who train in other martial arts.

We don't spend a lot of time on the form ( 24 step simplified form), but we do look at the essence of what we are working with.  Making sure that the children's stances are correct, especially the knee alignment in bow step for example is a priority and as taiji is physically demanding in particular on the joints of the lower limbs, we don't hold the postures for very long.  Rather than working on individual movements, we run through a whole section of the form together with the kids watching and following. This way they have to stay focused to keep up with the sequence.  At this stage I am not expecting them to have to memorise the form, just to get into the way of moving from one step to another.  This seems to be working for the kids who had no problem in picking up the basic yin yang theory either.

Our games are based on taiji classics. We play river, mountain, tree. You know the one..........in stillness like a mountain, move like a mighty river. It's a bit like musical statues and distinguishes between different methods of movement. From using the whole body as in the stepping (moving like a river) standing stock still ( like a mountain) and also being rooted in the feet while maintaining a flexible upper body (like a tree). We are using a basic single hand tui shou routine but teaching yielding is even more successful with the weeping willow exercise. Fixing your roots into the ground and having a partner provide the wind...usually to a shoulder or hip and the tree has to bend in the wind and spring back to the original position. Adults seem to have a lot of fun with this too!

The qigong exercises have produced some interesting emotional releases. Even as young as nine, children are bottling up feelings and as any practitioner of TCM will tell you, setting up a whole lot of trouble for later life. I hope that the exercises will give the children the tools for coping with stress, if not now, then later in life. In fact the children seem able to understand and happy to work with the repetition of qigong more than the form.

So what do the kids think of their taiji classes? Well, as much as they try to give me as hard a time as possible, apparently most of them love it.

You can play taiji with children, it just requires a thoughtful program and masses of patience. The occasional drop of alcohol after a class (for the poor teacher) can help to steady the jangly nerves a bit, but if it means that these kids are able to develop a calm disposition and a coping mechanism that will serve them later in life then...
why not give it a go?

This article was published on Monday 30 December, 2002.