Tai Chi Academy

Gain Greater Flexibility & Vitality with the 18 Silk Reeling Chan Si Gong Exercises

Suitable & Beneficial for Everyone.  Easy & enjoyable to do.  No experience necessary.

These 18 Silk Reeling exercises:
>  relieve tension in the joints
>  give greater flexibility & freedom of movement
>  strengthen the joints & tendons
>  tone the muscles
>  improve circulation & coordination
>  calm the mind

To achieve best results, students are advised to practise one movement daily for 5 to 10 minutes.

Conducted by Fontane
who has 34 years of experience in teaching internal health arts

14 Feb to 3 Apr 2024 (8-week Zoom course) : Wed 11.15am – 12.30pm (Canberra, Australia)
Click here to check your local time.

• Fees: $220– GST included
• A special rate of $180– for Students who are also enrolled in Tai Chi, Qigong or Wu Dao Gong.

Bookings are essential in order to receive the Zoom link.
Phone 02 6296 1357 or use our online payment facility now – the fast and efficient way to enrol.
Please pay the course fee to confirm your booking.
We welcome payment by credit card – M/C, visa, Amex.

Full Rate $220

Academy Student Rate $180

Tai Chi is Chan Si (Silk Reeling)
Grandmaster Feng Zhi Qiang (1928– 2012), founder of the Hun Yuan Tai Chi system, states that Tai Chi is chan si (silk reeling).  This statement highlights the importance of this aspect of the training.  The Tai Chi classics speak of performing Tai Chi movements like reeling silk from a cocoon.  The analogy warns us that if the silk is reeled too fast, the thread will break.  If it is reeled too slowly, the thread will tangle.  The silk reeling exercises teach you to use an adequate amount of force to generate movements efficiently.  If you are too forceful, you will lock your joints and will fail to achieve freedom of movement.  If you are too limp or empty in Tai Chi terms, you will also fail to circle the joints completely, thus losing the full range of movement.

What makes Chan Si Gong so Effective?
The Chan Si Gong is an important training method for developing body awareness and coordination.  It is a link between building and expressing qi (internal energy) and jin (force).  These silk reeling movements work on different joints of the body: neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, chest, abdomen, waist, hips, kuas (inguinal crease), knees and ankles.  Grandmaster Feng describes the Chan Si Gong as training the body’s 18 balls.  If it is practised well, the body moves like a well oiled machine, each part moving on a series of ball bearings.

How does Chan Si Gong improve your Tai Chi?
A good practitioner’s Tai Chi form will give the impression of moving like water – a domino wave like effect.  This is due to the chan si jin being expressed through each and every joint.  The benefits of Tai Chi become clear when you feel these gentle, circular, silk reeling movements work on your body.  As you practise more, you will also feel how these spiralling exercises help to develop your internal energy.  Once qi is strong in the Dan Tian, you will feel qi enveloping the body.  This makes the practice of chan si gong even more enjoyable.

Can anyone learn this even if they don’t do Tai Chi?
Yes, the chan si gong exercises are easy to learn!  Improving flexibility and reducing tension in the body is important for overall health and well being.  The flowing and continuous nature of the silk reeling exercises encourage a wide range of motion in the joints.  This gets rid of stiffness and promotes lubrication of the joints.  Your body will come alive!  You can look forward to improved flexibility, strength, balance and overall vitality!

Testimonials

I thoroughly enjoyed my new experience when I attended the Silk Reeling Chan Si Gong course.  I have always tried to keep fit by attending the gym three to four times a week.  Recently though, I was finding the exercise at the gym was not assisting my flexibility and was in fact causing me some pain in my joints, particularly in my hands, shoulders and elbows.  I was looking for some sort of exercise that would assist me with my flexibility and general health.  I found the gentle Silk Reeling exercises caused me no pain and in fact the increased flexibility has improved my golf game!  I also find I am more capable of relaxing.”  
– Mark, Retail Worker

The Hun Yuan Silk Reeling course was an excellent way of consolidating my practice of this wonderful movement set.  These exercises gave me a deeper insight into the origin of the forces from the Dan Tian, the foundation strength from the legs and the subtle spiralling of the body and arms.  All of these factors combine to make my practice of Tai Chi more effective, relaxed and enjoyable.
      The Silk Reeling movements improve joint mobility, muscle strength and joint conditioning. 
I believe that the exercises also improve your ability to practise the Hun Yuan form and to engage in
day-to-day living with more ease and efficiency.  An excellent wholistic set of exercises to practise every day to optimise your health, both mind and body.”
–  David, Physiotherapist

The Chan Si Gong exercises are of great benefit for developing flexibility and strength.  The exercises enable the body to be trained and if regularly performed over a period of time, give maximum benefit.  I have been attending classes for the past two years, twice per week.
      I have had two major operations on my back which had resulted in substantial residual side effects.  However, the Chan Si Gong exercises and regular attendance at classes enable me to derive enormous benefits for the time devoted to it.  I do approximately fifteen minutes of the Chan Si Gong exercises each day as well as additional practice of the Tai Chi form.
     The benefits accumulated over time have enabled me to live my life without having to rely on pain killers and I have been able to resume bike riding as well.  I have flexibility and freedom of movement that would not have been possible without participation in the Tai Chi classes.”
– Michael, Public Servant

The Silk Reeling Chan Si Gong course I recently completed with Fontane was a totally liberating experience.  Over the past five years, arthritis has crept into my joints causing stiffness and loss of flexibility.  Only two weeks into doing the Silk Reeling exercise, I was encouraged by the changes beginning to happen.  Sure stiffness occurred, as Fontane had warned us, but this time it was muscular, and looseness in the joints was already becoming apparent.  In particular, the shoulder, neck and upper back began to open up and at last I felt what it meant to ‘engage the back’. 
     Now I am enjoying improved freedom of movement and flexibility in the waist, spine and upper body, complemented with greater strength in the legs and hips.  Understanding the importance of separating waist and hip movements and using the waist to direct each movement is one thing,
feeling it gives a whole new dimension to practice!
     I highly recommend Silk Reeling Chan Si Gong, for achieving higher levels of Tai Chi practice and fitness, resulting in better health and well-being.”
–  Loretta

I am a life-long arthritis sufferer, and as a truck driver, I found it difficult to maintain a sensible work-exercise balance.  I was on quite heavy medication for pain relief and inflammation control for many years.  At the suggestion of my rheumatologist and physiotherapist, I started Tai Chi.  After a few semesters, I found I no longer needed medication.  I had much greater mobility and a lot less pain.  In particular, the Silk Reeling exercises were of great benefit.  Once I got the hang of them, I found they took up no space at all in my suitcase!  I’ve still got arthritis, of course, but it no longer plays the huge role that it used to.”
–  Rodger, Truck Driver

My balance has improved (important for all of us as we add on the years), my joints are moving more easily and smoothly and, probably the best and most important aspect of all, I am experiencing an increasing loosening of my waist.  I mention the waist because I have struggled with ‘getting it right’ – ‘getting it to drive the action’ – since taking up Tai Chi.  I am not claiming to be there yet, but I am moving along the track.
     The other very noticeable change has been in my shoulder joints.  I thought that after years of those swinging arm and waist turning warm-up exercises, I had achieved a respectable level of freedom in those joints.  Within a few weeks of incorporating the Silk Reeling exercises, I found a whole newness to the meaning of freedom.  It was quite a revelation to find the degree of improvement I had yet to discover.
     I continue to pluck out different sets of the eighteen to practise and so I give a focus to loosening and oiling different parts of the creaking frame.”
– Nicole, IT Consultant

Enrol Now!

Full Rate $220

Academy Student Rate $180

Notices

Sitting Qigong to Connect with Your Energetic Heart & Unlock Inner Peace – Zoom 2-week course: 5, 7, 12, 14 Dec, 7.15pm to 8.45pm

Tai Chi Classes at Aranda, Weston and Curtin begin the week 5 Feb.

Gain Greater Flexibility & Vitality with the 18 Silk Reeling Chan Si Gong Exercises – Zoom Course, 8 weeks, 14 Feb to 3 Apr.

Suggested Reading:

“No Fight, No Blame: a Journalist’s life in Martial Arts”, by Michael Dorgan
Grandmaster Feng Zhi Zhang, founder of our Hun Yuan Tai Chi system, is featured in the book.

“Proof of Heaven: a neurosurgeon’s journey into the afterlife”, by Dr. Eben Alexander

“Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us”, by Michael Moss

“The Web that has No Weaver : understanding Chinese medicine”, by Ted J. Kaptchuk