Mike Shunney started his studies in taijiquan in 1987 with Cindy Born, who was then a
senior student of Pat Rice. He began study in earnest with Pat Rice in Winchester,
Virginia the next year, 1988. Mike has studied with Grandmasters Yang Zhen-duo and
Yang Jun numerous times at “A Taste of China, Taijiquan” workshops, starting in 1990
in Winchester, Virginia, and at the Symposium in Thunder Bay, Ontario and workshops
with Grandmaster Yang Jun at the New Hampshire Tai Chi Chuan Center, the Royal
Oak Michigan Tai Chi Chuan Center, the Symposium in Selvino Italy and many times at
the Teacher’s Academy in Danbury, CT, as well as several times at the Directors and
Instructors Seminars in the Seattle area.
Mike had the privilege of receiving written evaluation by Grandmaster Yang Zhen-duo at the First International Taijiquan Symposium in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada in 2006. He has also had the opportunity to study with a wide range of taijiquan and qigong masters from the United States, Canada and China over the past 25 years, thanks to connections made at “A Taste of China, Taijiquan” workshops produced by Pat Rice, and three months in China in 1993-94. In the 1990s, following the advice of Sifu Pat Rice, he entered competitions and faired well. In 1993, he was selected as a member of the North American Taijiquan Team and placed highly at the First International Invitational Taijiquan Competition in Fuzhou, China. Mike has been teaching since 1994, first as a designated teaching assistant through the Shenandoah Taijiquan Center in Winchester under the guidance of Pat Rice. He has taught continuously since then through college, hospital, adult education and senior center classes in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Maine. With the generous assistance of association center directors Pat Rice and Michael Coulon, Mike was accepted as a Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan School Director in July, 2013.
Address:
Inner Works Center for Taijiquan and Qigong Studies
