Tai Chi Enhances your GAME!
What’s your favorite Sport?
Did you know that Tai Chi can improve the way you play your favorite sports?
Check out this amazing testimonial from one of our students in Colorado Springs, Benjamin Van der Wel
04 May 2023
My journey to Tai Chi began in the water. I swam competitively in high school and college (Division I) and in 1984 I found myself at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Not long after that event I painfully crashed out of college swimming for a number of reasons, the biggest of which was undiagnosed asthma. Needless to say I was tired and frustrated and so it was that I didn’t set foot in a pool again for over 32 years.
Until the summer of 2018 when the smell of chlorine and the itch to swim brought me back to the pool and into U.S. Masters Swimming. I was having so much fun swimming again! What also came back with me was the way I’d always tried to swim a race, with as much grit and grunt as possible, whipping myself into a “race frenzy” and going as fast as I could in the water. This worked, sort of, when I was a teenager, but now that I’m in my late 50s I knew I was at the limit of what that mindset could do. I needed something new. Something very different.
Before my move to Colorado in the spring of 2021 I had some exposure to Tai Chi but didn’t connect it with swimming. However, once I discovered on May 4th of 2022 the Tai Chi Association of Colorado Springs and its fantastic teachers something began to connect. And it wasn’t that long before I began to see Tai Chi and swimming as not only similar but identical in many aspects. The peaceful, patient instruction in this inner art of Tai Chi from Michael Paler started to sink in and I began to see how understanding myself on all levels in class translated into the same understanding in the pool. Now, exactly one year later, I just returned from the Master’s National Championships where I swam five races and medaled in all five: two bronze, one silver, and two gold. And the gold means National Champion in two events.
What else has happened since a year of Tai Chi? Not only vastly improved swimming, yes, but also lower blood pressure, better sleeping, calmer mind, better balance, and an inner body awareness never before present that helps me to live in a peaceful and deeply happy way. So, now in and out of the water my journey continues and Tai Chi is the path I’ve chosen to walk (and swim!) not only for all these benefits but also for something perfectly simple: it’s fun!
Best wishes,
Benjamin A.O.Q. van der Wel
Here’s a few example’s of Tai Chi at work in other sports
Running – tai chi principals will improve the way you run, and teach you to run softly, more effortlessly, and injury free.
Golf- Greatly improve your golf swing by learning simple Tai Chi techniques to
use your whole body for power and avoid painful injuries
Tai Chi for hikers- learn important techniques from Tai Chi to use when hiking, by learning correct structural alignment allowing for better balance and ease. Also improve your overall health experience by engaging connective tissues for a more elastic, springy hike allowing for a more energetic experience.
Tai Chi Will improve and help you to achieve the Maximum Health Benefits in any sport you enjoy…
Tai Chi can improve the way you:
Bike, hike, walk, kayak, swim, tennis, ski, surf, play basketball, baseball, football, soccer,
bowling, pickle ball, archery, skateboard, ice skate, roller skate, and all martial arts.
Tai Chi will enhance your balance, and teach you how to use your whole body power in any sport you choose to do, improving your game.
Do you want to get better at your game?
Try Tai Chi!
Sifu Michael Paler is a 7th Generation Lineage Holder of Imperial Yang Family Tai Chi and has been helping people in all these areas to excel in their favorite sports
He has been hired to help teach Olympic hopefuls many times, working closely with Olympic Trainers at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
He has Assisted World Class Olympic coaches and Olympic Ice Skaters to improve their
balance, strength and flexibility teaching them how to use whole body power to become stronger and faster on the Ice…
He has also worked with many students who have been injured during their training and …
By using Tai Chi techniques to gently Rehabilitate old injuries, he taught them how to strengthen and improve the way they train to avoid future injury.
Many people have come to us injured and broken over the years, having given up on the things they once loved to do, but through Tai Chi practice it has improved their health and their quality of life, and given them a new enthusiasm to try again, but this time, with knowledge, correct training, and more vitality allowing them to perform better than before.
Knowledge is Power!
If you live in Colorado Springs, come in and try out a Free Class with us Just visit the Tai Chi Association of Colorado Springs!
If you’re not in Colorado Springs, try our Amazing Online Course, TaiChoOnlineClasses.com created and taught by Sifu Michael Paler. You can do this online course remotely, anywhere in the world, from any internet-connected device.