I was wondering what you guys thought of this,as it's making me pretty annoyed at the moment! The Council I work as is currently having this "Active at Work scheme" where activities are put on to try and tempt the lard arses who do nowt to take part in things,and ultimately I imagine lower sickness levels and apparently raise morale etc. When the timetable came out I noticed Tai Chi,so became interested as I would have been able to take part at lunchtimes. When I emailed the girl to ask questions about what kind of Tai Chi it was and who was teaching it ,she told me she would be teaching it. I asked her what style she did and about her background in Tai Chi. I was pretty horrified to discover she has never even done Tai Chi and that she has done Body Balance.She informed me that the sessions were actually Body Balance,but they couldnt pay the License fees so instead called it Tai Chi. I emailed her pointing out that she really shouldnt be calling it Tai Chi if she has never done it and that it was something entirely different. I pointed out that it was pretty disrespectful and also just incredibly bad form. She was either too stupid to understand what I was saying,as she asked ME to help teach ( I dont do Tai Chi and am not even qualified to teach kung fu either!) , and didnt seem to mind that I am not qualified! What would you guys do? These sessions are still going on under the banner of Tai Chi.
Are there any large tai chi organisations you could contact and inform about this? I am sure they wouldnt want to be associated with this kind of crap
Contact the council management too and voice your concerns. And definately contact any Tai Chi schools in the area. Oh, and go video it too
I did mention it actually but got no joy with it. I was thinking about going along to see what it was actually like.
Maybe it's just me, but isn't anyone else concerned about the fact they're ripping off another exercise programme which apparently requires licensing fees and calling it something else to avoid paying said fees?
Well, yeah that's what concerned me too! The fact they are doing it on the cheap by calling it Tai Chi and getting out of paying fees
The reply from the manager of my department was "Ok...keep your hair on" I somehow dont think it will be taken very seriously at all.
It is the direction Tai Chi is going. People can get a diploma in a weekend anyway to teach a short form sequence. The Body Balance woman is fake, of course, but then so is any non-martial Tai Chi. It is what people want though. In recognition of this, the governing bodies are becoming much slacker about who gets let in. The whole point of my organisation is a total refusal to recognise any non-martial Tai Chi. I don't expect we'll get many takers in the forseable future, as who else wants to teach purely martial Tai Chi and refuse to teach it in any kind of non-martial, non-contact way? Maybe you could send her a link to my T'ime to get T'ough article. I guess you could leaflet her classes or something, but I wouldn't expect too much sympathy as within the public mind the name of Tai Chi became something else long ago. People also often feel like they have a right to decide what Tai Chi means for them personally too these days, regardless of how ill-informed they are about it. I've had prosepective students walk out of watching my mostly contact Tai Chi classes snorting "well that's not MY idea of Tai Chi." It is a side effect of our consumer driven, "everyone has a right to their own opinion" culture. oops I'm ranting...
Sorry Su Lin - I just got into too much of a rant and thought I might attract critics... I can remember the gist of what I said if you want me to re-post...
Sorry but I usualy get an or with my either. Now if it were me I would run in the door at the start of the first class with a megaphone and announce that "This girl does not know tai chi, she just decided to make something up and charge you for it because she thinks you're too stupid to know the difference! Demand your refund now!! Then watch the fun!
I didnt think it was a rant at all, I thought you had valid points. I think the thing that annoys me most is that she has had absolutely no tai chi training whatsoever and is charging for the sessions! And yes 19th,I forgot my " She is either too stupid OR ignorant" I was ranting
