Tai Chi For Health

by Edward Maisel

The classic text that introduced Tai Chi to an American audience a generation ago.

224 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1998

Reviews

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read but not the reference I was expecting it to be. There is information worth holding onto here, so I will add the book to my library. But as a 20 year practitioner of Tai Chi I can attest that it cannot be learned from a book alone. Even videos can't replace a knowledgeable teacher. I DO recommend learning Tai Chi!

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are new to Tai Chi, this is the place to start. The language is a little odd, but it was written for an older generation. The book is broken into three sections: an introduction to Tai Chi which will describe both what Tai Chi is and what the benefits are, a large section describing a traditional Tai Chi sequence in extreme detail, and a section on the history of the most popular strain of Tai Chi: Yang style. As a beginner, I highly recommend the first and last sections. The middle section is good too, but a little more advanced. Specifically, the sequence taught is called the Yang 108 Form Tai Chi. You can read about it in the book. This form is really long for beginners to learn. In the 1950's or 60's there was invented what is called the Yang 24 Forms, sometimes called Yang Simplified Form. This is by far the most common tai chi sequence and is much easier to learn, not to mention that it still covers many of the common forms found in the original 108. For that you will have to turn to other resources (I can recommend Dr. Paul Lam's tai chi DVD set). If you are a little further in your Tai Chi journey and want to learn this classic form, assuming you already have a background with simpler forms, this book is a wonderful resource.