Talking to a Tai Chi chuan ( taijiquan ) teacher like Gianfranco Pace, a great connoisseur of the Chen style, is enlightening, because you can taste the flavor of those who have known endless hours of practice, the search for psychophysical elasticity and a strong connection with the earth .

Many fill their mouths with words in the world of martial arts, unfortunately also (and above all?) Within those with strong philosophical roots, such as Taoism. A little because a magnificent and all-encompassing apparatus such as Taoist wisdom lends itself to multiple interpretations in which minds are not ready to be lost, partly because in today's world it is easy not to go to the bottom, not to take radical decisions like dedicating your life to an art.

The answers emerge in the silence of daily practice. The transmission is a gift that shines if the search for the giver never stops, and this is the case of Pace, founder of the ITKA School ( International Taiji Quan Kung Fu Association ). The movement never stops, either. That symbol that we all often see, even in inappropriate contexts, expresses precisely this: everything is always in motion.

The nervous system recognizes expansion and contraction. A kinesiologist, like a doctor, would say it, like a movement therapist. On a personal level, I had this confirmed by Jader Tolja, during an experiential anatomy seminar held in Madrid. In tai chi is the same and these two moments are realized with the body but do they also have effects on the mind?

Contraction and expansion are properties of what is elastic. This elasticity is achieved with the body but is also psychophysical. Through practice we acquire a kind of elasticity that leads us to see life in a different way. After having enjoyed a practice that develops the mental aptitude to elasticity also problems that seem monolithic and fixed take on different values.

Training with you often brings the mind to a very powerful and evocative hat-trick: released, natural, open.

These are three key words that open up different things in people. All that is done for the period of practice is always impregnated with these three principles. Many people practice haphazardly without any way. Practice is the same as going down a road and to walk down a road you need two lines that define a space. These three adjectives accompany the practitioner along his path.

In his book Anatomy trains Myers explains the body through the myofascial meridians. In summary, the author identifies lines of strength that consider the approach to movement and manual therapies to be considerably enhanced.

I don't know the idea you are proposing but it's understandable. We are composed of parts, each of which is interconnected. By stimulating one part one acts also on others, it is natural.

Looking at the lines of strength of Myers one sees spirals. What are spirals in tai chi chuan?

Tai chi is a martial art that contemplates the study of spirals and the transmission of force ( jing ) that takes place precisely through this spiral movement. Relaxation is the first step of relationship and connection, when we relax we connect to the earth and through these spiral movements we manage to conduct the energy that comes from our relaxation. Essentially we give to the earth to receive, we become conductors through this spiral movement made with the body.

This allows us to create a continuity of energetic movement, a dynamic energy that unfolds without pause or solution of continuity precisely. It has no beginning or end, it can be realized according to infinite directional possibilities and take on different qualities.

What is strength?

Force is energy. It can be used differently through various circumstances. Being strong means keeping quiet on an emotional and physiological level simultaneously. We need the intention to direct the things in our lives, a clear and transparent intention . It is not a structural but a psychophysical factor that allows you to live in a relaxed manner.

You often refer to the fact that tai chi is natural but we are not. The movement is of nature, to it it belongs, but in us it can find no adherence. Explain to us better.

Yes, the movement is natural. With the tai chi the things of nature are explained, it is explained that life is change, that everything is constantly transformed, that as long as we are alive everything changes . The seasons confirm it, the seeds that become stems, the I ching .

Where do we stop being natural?

When we think we feel good as long as nothing changes. We are conditioned by many factors, human nature coexists with resistances.

Tai chi is there to remind us that the natural course is that of yin and yang, of continuous and changeable complementarity.

The change actually makes us very afraid.

Even when we're sick, we're still better if we think the situation doesn't change. Being present in life, this is the point. Develop a presence that allows us to change according to the circumstances . The practice is nothing but an exercise that allows us to approach this feeling with serenity, adhering to the changes of life .

Many tai chi teachers convey the form as if all the practice were exhausted in it. What are forms in tai chi chuan?

Like everything we study, we must go to depths. Imagine having a book in your hands. The text, with its cover, introduces us with the introductory chapters and gradually deepens the fundamentals of the proposed topics. The form is like a book, it has no value in itself when it is devoid of content. If it is an end in itself, it is a book full of blank pages.

But if you buy a book, you look after it, you go into it, you explore it, by studying it you end up studying your own person, and every page takes on great value. The form contains all the principles of tai chi, bases on which you can build notes, insights, many details that serve to better explain what the sequences carry with them.

Yang and Chen style. Do they end up touching each other at very high levels?

Of course they meet. Two things that have the same root end up touching each other again. Historically, Yang Lu Chan studied Chen Jia Gou and then codified Yang, customizing it.

I don't believe much in the differences of styles, I believe in the application of the principles.

The ITKA school is growing considerably, has branches in Italy and abroad and the Catania branch itself will be expanded. Inside is the idea of ​​a Taiji college. Can you explain better what it is?

Tai chi college is an idea that I developed throughout my teaching activity; I remember when I was a boy I imagined a school entirely built for taiji. Each stone of the school was set for tai chi chuan and this structure will be further expanded to carry out this project which aims to give interested parties the opportunity to study seriously, deeply .

The modalities foreseen will be different, as the tai who teaches us to adapt also the project adapts to the needs of the life of the people who would like to study. Alongside the mother idea of ​​a course that goes from 3 to 5 years where people live constantly in the school and there is little room for anything else, there is the alternative for those who already have a working life or family commitments. In these cases, the stay is for a period of 3 months that can be diluted into several parts. The entire project lasts 5 years, the time required to finish the entire system. The project is ambitious and the university students or those who have completed high school are offered different possibilities to carry out their studies. The intention moves the energies of the world, we are as concrete as we are determined and soon we will talk about something that already exists.