Colchester Tai Chi is a group of up to around 30 people who meet on Monday nights at 7.30 pm at Highwoods Community Centre in Colchester in order to practice Tai Chi in a friendly and informal setting.
Although our Tai Chi is based on an ancient Chinese martial art, the exercises we do involve gentle stretching and no violent movements, so are suitable for people of all ages.
After a series of warm up exercises, we do a set of one hundred and eight movements, which takes around fifteen minutes to complete. Whilst each of these movements is relatively straightforward in isolation, the ability to perform all the hundred and eight in the correct sequence is a bit more challenging!
It often takes three or four months before students are able to carry these out in the correct sequence. Fortunately, there are always experienced people on hand for those with less experience to copy if necessary and many of the hundred and eight moves are repeated, so that the problem is not really as daunting as it might seem at first.
The benefits of Tai Chi are said to include greater mobility and improvement of the flow of fluids around the body. It is often described as a moving meditation, as a high degree of concentration is required in order to do all the moves in the right order.