Tai Chi Chuan Beginners

Introduction Courses: Tai Chi Chuan (Shaolin Style)

The easiest way to get started is taking our four-weeks Introduction Course, which we run twice or three times a year. This gives you the opportunity to join together with other beginners and work with a dedicated teacher.
After some warm-up exercises with the more advanced students, you will be taught in a small group to learn the basic moves. After the course you are welcome to keep coming to the ongoing classes. If your intro-course was in Hanwell, you can still join our Northfields class, or the other way round.

More info/sign-up

Don't worry if you have never done Tai Chi before, don't feel fit, or start your training a bit later in life. Our class is for everybody. We train in a friendly atmosphere, with no competitive undertone. We are focused, and we also like a good laugh.

Monday Class - Hanwell

St. Mary's Church Hall, 62 Greenford Ave, Hanwell, West London, W7 3QP
Mondays, 10.30-11.30am
Next course: 14 September 2026 (then 21 and 28 Sept, 5 Oct)
Costs: £48 for 4 classes. Pay-in-advance (no refund for missed lessons).

Friday Class - Northfields

Northfields Community Centre, 71A Northcroft Rd, Northfields, West London, W13 9SS
Fridays, 11.30am-12.30pm
Next course: 11 September 2026 (then 18 and 25 Sept, 2 Oct)
Costs: £48 for 4 classes. Pay-in-advance (no refund for missed lessons).

We teach in a way that enables you to learn with joy

Some people shy away from Tai Chi, as they feel they cannot learn the sequences, which may seem like one long, complex flow of movements. No worries: We take each sequence apart, and repeat every single move many times. Once you can do some moves, we put them together and make them flow.
If you find it difficult memorising moves, don't worry. It is O.K. to just copy the teacher - you still receive the benefits of Tai Chi. In addition, we provide short training videos after almost every class, which summarise the new moves you learned in the class. So if you like, you can go through these at your own speed again at home.

Elna's experience: "At almost 86 I am enjoying the benefits of the exercise, meditation and learning new techniques (Even self-defence!) It helps to keep me fit and improve my memory as well as making new friends".

More Testimonials; click here

What is Tai Chi Chuan?

Tai Chi Chuan increases and balances your inner energy (called Chi) through gentle, flowing movements. It has mental, emotional and physical benefits, as it fosters stress release, agility, balance, self-confidence, memory, mindfulness etc.
Kung Fu is related to Tai Chi, but it is the harder and faster version of this ancient Chinese Martial Art.

Every single move in our Shaolin system has a health and a self defence application. For example, lifting your arms in a certain way may strengthen some muscles and massage the glands. At the same time, it also could serve as a blocking motion for an incoming strike. We will talk about these self-defence applications on occasion, but our focus is on the health benefits and life lessons. The core goal is always using your energy with more mindfulness (and enjoying your training, of course). Read more

The benefits of Tai Chi Chuan

Practicing Tai Chi Chuan has physical and mental benefits. It is also great fun, as we are a friendly group who likes a good laugh. We work hard, but we do not take ourselves too seriously. Some examples of benefits:

Learning Tai Chi Chuan will make you stronger and helps you find your balance, both in a physical and an emotional way.
Through the training, you can increase your agility and coordination, linking your right and your left brain. This is also good for your memory, your mental alertness and intuition.
The training boosts your metabolism and can help you re-tune yourself regarding healthy eating habits. It also supports the circulatory, cardiovascular and immune system and detoxifies the organ system of the body.
On a more emotional level, learning Tai Chi Chuan helps with your self-confidence, joy of life, and mental health. It calms you down when you feel stressed and it helps you let go of worries or tensions.

Read more on our dedicated benefits & testimonials page):

The energy teachings

When working with Chi - the inner energy - we select specific moves and sequences for you that enable you to:

raise your energy or calm it down
explore where you give your energy away and how you can take it back
guard and protect your space in a peaceful manner
balance and harmonise 'Chi' in all your body parts, your mind and your emotions
explore Yin and Yang aspects of energy, which allow you to shift from a hard and fast way of problem solving to a soft and flowing approach. This is useful for situations where you feel stuck or caught up in a conflict.
learn how to shift your emotions (using Shaolin animal styles). For example, you can shift from feeling like a focused, assertive Cobra to being a playful Butterfly (or the other way round).
energise the space around you; Tai Chi moves can revive stale rooms
learn more about yourself by visiting the place of your deepest essence - somewhere in between all energies...

Thelma attended the Beginners'course 2019. Here is her experience:

"The Beginner's Course is excellent. Andrea is a great teacher, very patient and always willing to explain things and repeat the movements more slowly if one needs this.
To have the connection with martial arts explained is a useful insight. It was novel to me to work with a partner as this was not done in another Tai Chi course, I did some years ago.
Having now moved from the beginners course to the regular class, I have experienced the more senior members as friendly, helpful and encouraging.
If a set of movements is challenging, I write down the process in my own words and then regularly visualise myself doing the moves, as well as doing them as often as possible. This helps me fix them in my mind and in time they become more fluid.
I would highly recommend this course to anyone wishing to take up Tai Chi Chuan. It allows you to forget about everything else for the duration of the class and I find I am more relaxed in mind and more energised in body afterwards."

More testimonials