Tai Chi

In this paper we examine both the yin and yang of the question: How to Teach Tai Chi for Health Effectively.  On the one hand, the technology, or the “how” of teaching represents the ”Text”, a script, a theory, a set of guidelines or prescriptions of what is needed to explain what is meant by “teaching effectively”.  On the other hand, different cultural, historical, social and legal frameworks provide multiple contexts within which “effective teaching” could be evaluated, judged, compared and contrasted.  Any meaningful analysis on what is the "how of effective teaching" needs to consider this relationship between the "text and "context". 

To simplify for our purposes, this relational analysis between "Text" and "Context" begins with differentiating between two different “contexts” of tai chi, between how Tai Chi historically has been practised as a Martial Art and how Tai Chi is practised as a Health Art.  What constitutes the “texts of effective teaching” in the martial arts through traditional contexts of lineage, secret transmission protocols, metaphysical and combative orientations (see Cartmell, 2003, Wong, 1996; Wile, 1993; Miller, 2000) are thus qualitatively different to the “texts of effective teaching” for Tai Chi for Health (TCH) within the secular context of evidence based research and the modern duty of care that operates within a scientific approach to the health and fitness industries (see Arthy, 2006). 

Accordingly, the main focus of the discussion will be within the "context" of TCH wherein we will formulate "Effective Teaching Texts" as three specific and interrelated concepts of representing the comprehensive framework of effective teaching for TCH:

• Knowledge of Tai Chi, Fitness and Health
• Technical Skills of Teaching
• Connections between Teacher and Student

While the main practical “context” of TCH will be examined as the community based class, our discussion will also examine the need to expand the focus and support network that exists at present within the modern and secular concept of TCH.  We will examine the need for the development of a comprehensive framework of "effective teaching" within the context of "training-the-trainer" of TCH. 

This need for a comprehensive framework for TCH has its historical and philosophical beginnings with the “open mind” concept of learning and teaching of “Tai Chi as a Health Art” first radically promulgated by Sun Lutang in the world’s first publication of Tai Chi, in his book titled Study of Taijiquan (Sun Lutang 1921; and Arthy, 2006).  We know today that specific TCH Instructor Training has already expanded from the base level and short course workshop concept focussed on specific health issues as pioneered by Dr Paul Lam and developed further in Australia by Alice Liping Yuan through Exercise Medicine Australia.  This needs to be extended even further into the contexts of professional health and fitness education and training programs, to provide resources and skills necessary to gain effective teaching expertise as an essential part of the accreditation of the different levels of the TCH Instructor.  Teaching expertise needs to be an equal player and should parallel the development of the practical skills and research focus and outcomes of TCH. 

In order to be effective in the broader “context” of the delivery of TCH, serious consideration should be given to the expansion of the concept of TCH Instructor Training into a multiplicity of other contexts, to make TCH teaching expertise both accessible and comprehensive.  The “Effective Teaching Texts” of TCH could and perhaps should be written into the curriculum, to be inserted into the pedagogy of “training-the-trainer” modules of a range of health, exercise and educational professionals including – Medical Doctors, Community Nurses, Fitness Instructors, Therapists, School Teachers, Home Carers, Social Workers, Aged Care and Hospice Workers. 

In the short-term, however, there needs to be a valid pathway and graded levels of opportunities for the TCH Instructor.  This would involve accreditation and recognition independent from the pathway for accreditation for Tai Chi as a Martial Art.  This accreditation for TCH would thus include an ongoing commitment to developing teaching expertise of TCH, to “how to teach TCH effectively”, based on a comprehensive curriculum of "Effective Teaching Texts" which are fundamental to a secular and science based approach to TCH from beginners to advanced levels.

Tai Chi (TC) is an exercise training that is becoming increasingly popular as an intervention for single fall prevention. This meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the efficacy of TC on fall rate, fear of falling and balance in older people. Randomized controlled trials published between 1988 and January 2009 were included. In the Netherlands (2009) we used random effects models for the analyses, with data reported as incidence rate ratios (IRR) for falls and standardized mean differences (SMD) for fear of falling and balance. Nine trials (representing 2203 participants) were included in the analyses. Compared with exercise controls, TC participants showed significant improvements in fall rates (2 trials included, IRR: 0.51, 95% CI 0.38-0.68) and static balance (2 trials included, SMD: 0.47, 95% CI 0.23-0.72). Compared with non-exercise controls, no improvement was found for TC participants in fall rates (5 trials, IRR: 0.79, 95% CI 0.60-1.03) or static balance (2 trials, SMD: 0....

Vestibular rehabilitation (VR) is a well-accepted exercise program intended to remedy balance impairment caused by damage to the peripheral vestibular system. Alternative therapies, such as Tai Chi (TC), have recently gained popularity as a treatment for balance impairment. Although VR and TC can benefit people with vestibulopathy, the degree to which gait improvements may be related to neuromuscular adaptations of the lower extremities for the two different therapies are unknown. We examined the relationship between lower extremity neuromuscular function and trunk control in 36 older adults with vestibulopathy, randomized to 10 weeks of either VR or TC exercise. Time-distance measures (gait speed, step length, stance duration and step width), lower extremity sagittal plane mechanical energy expenditures (MEE), and trunk sagittal and frontal plane kinematics (peak and range of linear and angular velocity), were measured. Although gait time-distance measures were improved in both gro...