Oral Presentation on Tai Chi

[KungFuGuy!]

I'm a U student taking Police Sciences and am supposed to do an oral report based on some research on relaxtion techniques, so I've decided to do my report on tai chi. Thing is, most of my students know tai chi as something old people and hippies do. I wonder how I should go about getting a good message out on the art in 3 minutes. Any ideas? I'm also debating demonstrating some movements, though I'm afraid this will get me laughed at :(

[GLW]

You are about to go down a bad path...

First, you are in a classroom environment. There was, from your description, a clear assignment "to do an oral report based on some research on relaxtion techniques"

You also state that you have 3 minutes.

Now, Taijiquan DOES indeed work very well for calming the mind and has relaxation uses. It ALSO has other aspects.

You need to keep in mind : WHO YOUR AUDIENCE IS and WHAT THE ASSIGNMENT WAS.

While you may be tempted to explain about the martial aspects of Taijiquan, a simple mention of its origins as a martial art and its continued practice as such by many is about all you have time for.

Also, if you delve into those areas, you will NOT have time to his the reasons for the assignment...the relaxation aspect...and so you will probably make yourself feel better but get a lower grade.

Stick to the assignment. Your main audience and the person you have to "Please" is the instructor. Unless you have a desire to butt heads with the instructor or a wish to crash and burn your GPA....give the instructor what they asked for...

In 3 minutes, it will all be over ...and you will not have educated or enlightened anyone much in that short space of time anyway.

[emre]

Tai Chi is not a relaxation exercise.

[bamboo_ leaf]

(Relaxation techniques)

taiji is not a relaxation exercise but it does promote a relaxation response. The idea of sung is far more then relaxation but shares many of the same charictoristics.

If you wanted to demo as you talked about. Pick some one from the audience have them stand and explain why and where they are relaxed or not. Then put them in the wuji stance (opening posture) and cover the same points. Be sure to explain what the definition of relaxation is first, this should be unrelated to taiji as a type of comparsion.

As for what the benefits are, the standing relaxed should be more stable then when one is tense. 3 min. is not a long time.


good luck :cool:

[norther practitioner]

Good post GLW, I'd not add much to what he said.

[SPJ]

It is a police science class.

Police is in the frontline of dealing with violence.

Tai Ji is about how to balance and neutralize the violence.

Tai Ji is about how to cultivate a peaceful, balance and calm state of mind.

Tai Ji is about how not to oppose a force head on.

Tai Ji is about how to use a minimal force to neutralize, control and defeat a bigger force.

Tai Ji is about how to borrow the force and use it against the opponent.

You train your body, mind and soul to respond in a nonviolent way.

And yet at the critical juncture, Tai Ji may dish out sudden forces as well.

In short, Tai Ji is about how to yield to the force, use a minimal force, deal with force and redirect the force away from you in a smart way.

Here is a ball. Tai Ji is to train your body to have the property of a ball. The ball may deflect all directions of force.

:D

[unixfudotnet]

i would just explain about the health benefits of walking meditation. like go down the path of it is walking chi gung, and the relaxation benefit comes from the breathing and just focusing on the breathing.

think most people can understand that, pretty much everyone knows about taking a couple deep breaths to chill out. just expand on that.

at the end, say it is a martial art as well. if people have questions, tell them it takes years to be able to use it as such, and if they still as questions, point them to a school.

but for a short presentation, just focus on the relaxation of breathing. if it a class project, sure someone will talk about meditation. just explain it is moving meditation. people that are not interested and do not understand, will rub off the idea of it being a martial art, and how taijiquan helps balance your body and makes you healthy from the inside out.

everyone can personally understand and relate to taking a deep breath, and pretty much anyone can understand that taijiquan from the beginning is an organized method of doing it (at least in yang family style, cheng fu at least).

don't worry about supporting what taiji is, just worry about the presentation and how you can get people to understand and listen.

if anyone is interested more than that, they can talk to you personally. :)

[unixfudotnet]

Originally posted by SPJ
It is a police science class.

Police is in the frontline of dealing with violence.

Tai Ji is about how to balance and neutralize the violence.

Tai Ji is about how to cultivate a peaceful, balance and calm state of mind.

Tai Ji is about how not to oppose a force head on.

Tai Ji is about how to use a minimal force to neutralize, control and defeat a bigger force.

Tai Ji is about how to borrow the force and use it against the opponent.

You train your body, mind and soul to respond in a nonviolent way.

And yet at the critical juncture, Tai Ji may dish out sudden forces as well.

In short, Tai Ji is about how to yield to the force, use a minimal force, deal with force and redirect the force away from you in a smart way.

Here is a ball. Tai Ji is to train your body to have the property of a ball. The ball may deflect all directions of force.

:D

the report is on relaxation, and yet you are very right on what Taijiquan is, it will not sink in or even be relevant to the assignment.

what we as people that practice taijiquan everyday see as taijiquan is different from those that haven't the slightest idea of what it really is, except for something they saw where people moved slow together... old people.

if you gave people the above info, it would be over their head.

maybe they could ask you more info if they are interested past the 3 minutes? :)

[SPJ]

Agreed.

:cool:

[jon]

Bah never mind Taichi, just scream abuse and insults at the class for the full three mintues without skipping a beat.

Then when asked what on earth your maniacal tyrade had to do with relaxation simply inform them that you now feel much more relaxed so obviously your research has been validated.

[KungFuGuy!]

"Stress relief" was a better description of the project than relaxation methods. I don't know why I said relaxation as I personally never feel very relaxed when practicing tai chi, I feel envigored.
Anyway, it's a very open ended presentation. We attended a week of seminars, and one of the seminars was on Stress Relief, during that presentation the speaker mentioned tai chi chuan as a way to relieve stress. The presentation is to be on anything mentioned or inspired by this week of seminars, so I can pretty much relate it to this mention and never talk about stress relief or relaxation for the rest of the presentation.
I figure that I'll try to make tai chi look exciting and try to dispell some of the myths that plague the art. So far I have lines such as "learn to use the spine effectively to generate incredible power" and "just a bunch of old people moving slowly in the park".
Thanks for your input so far, this thing is due next week so I'l keep checking back.