Even though there are at the moment a reasonable number of people practicing Tai Chi worldwide, there is still a mystery about it. Tai Chi is relatively unknown compared to Karate or Kung Fu. Some people are in doubt whether it is a special form of Yoga, Kung Fu or even a dance. Others associate Tai Chi with the image of a large group of elderly people in a park moving slowly in unison, performing a series of “dance like” movements.

T’ai Chi Ch’uan is a soft style (internal) martial art but is also called “art of moving meditation” and it is characterized by relaxed and soft movements. T’ai Chi theory and practice is formulated in agreement with many of the principles of traditional Chinese medicine. The slow, repetitive work involved in that process gently increases and opens the internal circulation (breath, body heat, blood, peristalsis).

T’ai chi, taiji, t’ai chi ch’uan and taijiquan are different spellings for the same discipline and the words mean literally “Supreme Ultimate fist”, or “The way of supreme harmony”. Tai chi is a shortened name and is generally related to health, relaxation and spiritual development. Taijiquan is used for Tai chi as an internal Martial Art. We use normally the shortened name but refer to all aspects of Tai chi, health and Martial Arts.

The term “Tai Chi” refers to the ancient Chinese cosmological concept of the interaction between the polar opposites of Yin and Yang, where Yin is represented by night, cold, negative, soft, earth, intellectual, feminine, and Yang by day, warm, positive, hard, sky, physical, masculine. “Quan” literally means, “fist” and denotes an unarmed combat method. Tai Chi as an internal martial art is based on the principle of subduing the hard with the soft by adapting and sticking to the opponent’s movements.