teaching tai chi in schools

Discussion in 'Tai chi' started by tonglonglengjai, Mar 24, 2009.

  1. tonglonglengjai

    tonglonglengjai Valued Member

    Hi All,

    I have been asked to teach tai chi workshops in schools. Anyone got any experience of this as previously I have only taught adults tai chi.

    Paul
    www.moifa.co.uk
     
  2. East Winds

    East Winds Valued Member

    tonglonglengjai,

    Good luck with your project. If the students are primary school age, then the classes should only be 15m minutes long as that's about their attention span!!!!!!. You will fare better with older students. Girls are best but the boys will appreciate the martial aspect (providing you can teach that).

    Let us know how you get on

    Very best wishes
     
  3. lieqi fan

    lieqi fan Valued Member

    Tricky... so many variables but a lot depends on the ages of the students, male/female/mixed?, the length/frequency of workshops and the expectations of the institution: do they expect their students to be able to learn (part of) a form - possibly do a demonstration at the end? I would start with a sticking exercise where one person has their eyes closed (helps quieten their minds) and a few warm ups, teach them Ta lu, instead of form, so they can work in pairs - it will be chaos, but can be a lot of fun. Fun being the operative word - the more so the younger they are.

    What are your motives for doing this? Teaching kids can be very rewarding but if you're just doing it for some extra cash, you may find you've bitten off more than you can chew.

    The problem with a captive group of students i.e. they have not chosen to be there, it's just part of their curriculum, is keeping them interested. Lose their attention and you're dead meat. You will probably have to compromise your integrity and resort to 'cool' stuff like getting the whole class to try and uproot you LOL.

    Good luck :)
     
  4. tonglonglengjai

    tonglonglengjai Valued Member

    cheers for the advice guys.

    I regularly do kung fu and lion dance within schools and am frequently asked to do tai chi so just waiting for the day when they insist on tai chi rather than lion dance or kung fu.

    My motives are promote my school and the arts, earn a living and of course have fun as I love teaching.

    Paul
    www.moifa.co.uk
     

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