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Welcome at the Academy Tai Chi Chuan -ITCCA Hungary
International Tai Chi Chuan Association
“Breath is Life. Tai Chi Chuan is about breath.
So, Tai Chi Chuan is life.”
by Master Chu King Hung – ITCCA Europe
What is Tai Chi Chuan?
Tai Chi Chuan is an ancient Chinese art of movement that has its origins in Taoism, Traditional Chinese Medicine and martial arts.
Tai Chi Chuan is about breathing, about health and about being centred. Tai Chi Chuan is movement in balance and balance in movement: balance in body and mind.
The ITCCA teaches the Original Yang style. These teachings were handed down by the Yang family.
The Original Yang style is all about energy, ‘Qi’. This energy cannot only be felt but it can also be experienced throughout so called ‘Qi-tests’.
Tai Chi Chuan is not only practised individually. Within the Yang style there are partner exercises such as pushing hands, fighting form and weapons forms (sword, sable).
Why learn Tai Chi Chuan
In our childhood we lose and abandon movement-patterns which are free and not energy-inhibiting. In their place, we learn to use muscular force and unnatural movements. The slow, flowing sequence of Tai Chi Chuan movements teaches your body to once again move in a natural way.
An open and relaxed posture creates a free flow of vital energy in the body. Self-healing powers are set in motion and regenerate the body.
It is scientifically proved that practitioners of Tai Chi feel mentally stronger and suffer less from stress. Many welfare-related illnesses can be alleviated.
So there are good reasons for practising Tai Chi: better health, body awareness, enhanced internal energy, balance and harmony, all of which improve your every day life.
When the Qi flows unimpeded, this has all sorts of positive effects on an individual’s health, mental activity, psyche, emotions and spiritual potential.
Classes Tai Chi Chuan – Qi Gong – Meditation
Three practices are central to learning Tai Chi Chuan: meditation, Qi Gong and the Tai Chi form.
It is sometimes said: Tai Chi Chuan is meditation in movement. Outwardly it is a martial art, but its inner principles come from Qi Gong and Taoist meditation. Taoist meditation is all about posture, free-flowing breath, and an even heart & mind.
Qi Gong is an umbrella term for all sorts of energetic exercises, literally ‘Qi work’. Its practise aims to increase and harmonise the Qi flow in the body.
What makes Tai Chi special is that these three practises are inextricably linked. They influence and reinforce each other, making its benefits far greater than the sum of its elements.
Tai Chi Chuan
Qi Gong
Meditation
The three practices help us to understand the life energy Qi and therefore form a unity in Tai Chi Chuan.
In order to teach all aspects of Original Yang style Tai Chi Chuan, classes include the following components:
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Taoist meditation
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Taoist self-massage
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Taoist health exercises (dynamic Qi Gong)
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Zhan Zhuang (standing Qi Gong)
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Step-by-step learning of the Tai Chi form (the ‘choreography’, the sequence of movement)
At the advanced level:
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6 inner steps of immersion
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Pushing Hands
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Fighting Form
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Weapon Forms
Grandmaster Chu King Hung – founder of
ITCCA – Europe
Master Chu King-hung (1945) was born in China and came in contact with T’ai Chi Chuan early in his life, when his family moved to Hong Kong. As 12-year-old-boy, he began an apprenticeship with Master Yang Shou Chung which would last for 26 years. He learned the complete tradition of the Yang family and was then authorised by his master to teach the Yang style in its original form.
Master Chu created the International Tai Chi Chuan Association (ITCCA) in Europe and found an appropriate way to teach the Original Yang Style T’ai Chi Ch’uan to Western students.
As head instructor, Master Chu has established and continues to preserve the didactic methodology of the ITCCA.
Nanda Duin – Branche leader of
ITCCA – Hungary, teacher
All teachers follow a curriculum created by Master Chu and take private lessons with him annually. Only then do the teachers obtain his permission to teach. Nanda has been an ITCCA teacher since 2004.
She has started classes at the ITCCA Amsterdam with Martin Klett in 2002, branch leader of the ITCCA Netherland.
Nanda has permission to teach the Original Yang style Tai Chi Chuan Form, the immersive Steps, Fighting Form, Pushing Hands and Sword Form.
Besides attending private classes with Master Chu each year, Nanda takes intensive courses and takes parts in retreats organised both by Andreas Heyden and Master Chu. This training regimen continues to deepen Nanda’s experience of and feeling for Tai Chi Chuan and Qi Gong, so that she may pass these on to her students.
