Connections is available in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Chinese. We are very grateful for our translators who volunteered to translate: Rubén Coirini, Daniela Famulari, Gennaro Ripa, Françoise Desagnat, Jean-Claude Miremont, Thilo Krienke, Milena Locci de Oliveira de Lazzari, and Li Mingyang. Thank you very much! Here are the links to the other languages:

 

The Association is pursuing distance ranking for its members, particularly for those of us who live in remote and rural areas and are unable to readily attend scheduled ranking events.

Over the past year and a half, we held some distance ranking events on a trial basis and are now in a position to conduct distance rankings on a more regular basis. The plan is to offer 2 - 3 such ranking events each year. There could be more if there is enough demand. Distance ranking is limited to the Eagle ranks only.

To help us plan for and schedule these ranking events, we would like to get a sense of what interest members have in ranking virtually.  If you feel you would consider ranking this way in the next year or two, please let Pete Voll know. He is coordinating the association's distance ranking.

Email: distanceranking@yangfamilytaichi.com
 

The Tai Chi Chuan Teacher Academy USA will host the 2024 TTM-1 (Teacher Training Methods) seminar with Master Yang Jun, July 12-16, at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury CT USA.

On July 11, the day before the seminar, there will be a ranking event for levels Copper Eagle (Rank 1) to Silver Tiger (Rank 5). This ranking event will be held at Maron Hotel, Danbury CT, across from the WCSU campus.   

 
July 11
2:00pm-5:00pm: Ranking Levels 1-5

July 12 & 13
9:00am-12:00pm, 3:00pm-5:00pm: Hand Form Yang Family Tai Chi Essentials (20 credits)

July 14
9:00am-12:00pm, 3:00pm-5:00pm: Push Hands (10 credits)

July 15 & 16
9:00am-12:00pm, 3:00pm-5:00pm: Yang Family Tai Chi Sword (20 credits)


Evening class and push hands training by Academy faculty:
July 11, 7pm-9pm: "Prevention Exercises for the Knee" (4 credits); Senior Instructor Holly Sweeney-Hillman (Yang Yahui)
July 12, 13, 7pm-9pm: "Reinforcement Push Hands Training" (4 credits); Senior Instructor Bill Walsh (Yang Pin Fang) and Audi Peal (Yang Yabo), assistant instructors: Academy Instructor Michael Coulon (Yang Yahua), Certified Instructor Yang Yajun. 

For more information and registration please contact Mari Lewis at mari@yangfamilytaichi.com

To all instructors:

A reminder to check your instructor certificate for the expiration date. If it is June 30, 2024 or before, please send the renewal form as soon as possible, along with the required documents, to the Training Standards Department at ts-dept@yangfamilytaichi.com to keep your certification current and remain in the instructor registry. We will handle your renewal promptly. If you have difficulty meeting the requirements, please let us know so we can work together on a solution.
 

Due to regulatory changes in China, sword and saber orders must now be shipped directly from China to the purchaser. For this to be possible, weapon orders must now be limited to five units or more, so if you want a sword or saber, try to get together with your tai chi colleagues and place a group order.

Once you place your order online, then contact Fang Hong at sales@yangfamilytaichi.com to confirm the weapon lengths you need and to find out the shipping and handling costs.
 

 

 

Danbury, CT USA
TTM (Teacher Training Methods)
July 12-13: Sword Form
July 14-15: Essential Form
July 16: Push Hands

Mexico City, Mexico
September 6-8: Traditional Hand Form (103)

Baia Mare, Romania
September 14-16: Traditional Hand Form (103)

Lugo, Spain
September 21-22: Traditional Hand Form (103)

Cambridge, UK
September 27: Push Hands
September 28-29: Traditional Hand Form (103)

Taiyuan, Shanxi, China
October 19-23: Push Hands Intense Training

Lyon, France
October 31-November 2: Traditional Hand Form (103)
November 3: Push Hands

Rome, Italy
November 8-10: Instructor Seminar

Plovdiv, Bulgaria
November 15: Push Hands
November 16-17: Senior Form



Please visit our association's website for more information as it becomes available. 

 

Master Yang Jun continues to spend time developing Yang Family Tai Chi in China while still teaching internationally. Fang Hong Laoshi has been teaching in China too. Here are photos from some recent seminars in China.


March 14-15, Wenshan, Yunnan: Tai chi practitioners gathered for the Healthy China event.











March 20-24: Chengdu, Sichuan













March 29-31: Kaiyuan, Yunnan











May 4-5, Kunming, Yunnan: Laoshi Fang Hong corrections seminar part 2











May 8-12: Kunming, Yunnan









May 15-16: Dayawan, Guangdong













June 6-10, Taiyuan, Shanxi: Disciples Push Hands Training










 

The YCTC Center Paris seminar with Master Yang Jun was held in Gif sur Yvette from April 6-10, 2024. This 21st seminar had over 73 participants, including the Parisian schools and participants from all over France including Britany, Cherbourg, Nice, Franche Comté, Cognac, Lyon, and Toulouse. There were also foreigners from Switzerland, England, Hungary, Spain, Germany and Russia.

Master Yang Jun taught the Senior Form, the Sword Form, and a one-day push hands seminar. Duc Nguyen Minh was the translator. A ranking event was held on April 7th, for 6th level rank with Master Yang Jun as the presiding judge, Master Fang Hong as second judge, and Duc Nguyen Minh as 3rd judge and push hands partner.

 












 

After the Paris Center seminar, Master Yang Jun and Fang Hong Laoshi traveled to Antananarivo, Madagascar along with a group of nine others from France, including Paris Center Co-Directors Duc and Carole Nguyen Minh. The seminar in Madagascar was sponsored by Hugues Raharimanantsoa, Center Director of the YFTC Center Madagascar.

Master Yang taught a 2-day seminar on the Demonstration Form (49 Movement Form) and a 1-day saber form seminar. Also, a small group, including Master Yang was able to have a courtesy visit to H.E.M. Ji Ping, the new Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Madagascar.















 

After the seminar in Antananarivo, the group from France, with Master Yang and Fang Hong Laoshi went on a tour of southern Madagascar from April 18 - 24. They were accompanied by Yolande Ma-Ky, the assistant to Director Hugues Raharimanantsoa. This event was coordinated by the YFTC Centers of Paris and Madagascar, especially through the close cooperation and planning of Carole Nguyen Minh and Yolande Ma-Ky.


On the first day, the group crossed Sarodrano Bay in a canoe to reach the Vezo fishing village.









Later, they crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, and took a group photo in front of this important point in the southern hemisphere.






Photo of the Mozambique channel off the west coast of Madagascar:






After the night in Toliara, the group visited the Reniala Private Reserve. They stood around a huge baobab tree. The tree was so large it took eight people to measure the tree's circumference.






They visited Isalo National Park. Everyone remembered the sunset there.






This beautiful tour ended visiting the Queen's Palace at over 1400 meters above the sea in Tana (Antananarivo) and also visiting the Palace of Ambohimanga, about 20 km from the capital.

 
 

Seven students successfully completed a section one Jie ranking. Congratulations to Helen, Judy, Mei, Robin (photos), Erica, Will, and Diane (photos unavailable). We appreciate your diligent practice and willingness to challenge yourself.





 

For the first time as a Yang Family Tai Chi Center, we had our ranking event in Vicenza, Italy on April 12, 2024. They were all Eagle ranks. Twenty-two students participated in this event. They came from Florence, Rome, Varese, and Vicenza. The judges were Academy Instructor Roberto Carchio, Certified Instructors Sonia Ostrica, Maurizio Curia and Jack Cornell. Thank you for a job well done. After judging 22 people, we were all tired but it was well worth it. Great job everyone!



 

Recently, the Yang Family Affiliated School Vicenza became a Yang Family Tai Chi Center. It hosted an authorized Yang Family Tai Chi seminar in Vicenza, Italy on April 13-14, 2024.

At our seminar, we had three top Academy Instructors as speakers: Claudio Mingarini (Yang Yaren), Anna Siniscalco (Yang Yamei), Roberto Carchio, and two collaborators, Maurizio Curia and Jack Cornell (Yang Yagao)
 
Seventy people attended the seminar which exceeded our expectations. There were schools from Florence, Rome, and Vicenza. We even had one person from Portugal. Also, we had schools from different tai chi styles that participated and wanted to learn our tai chi style.  What a great motto, “One Family One Tai Chi”. One thing that we have learned from this experience is that being united makes us stronger. Thank you, Yang Family!

 






 

World Tai Chi and Qigong Day is held each year on the last Saturday in April. People in hundreds of cities in over 80 countries practice tai chi or qigong between 10 - 11 a.m. local time to help contribute to creating a healthier and calmer world and to educate people about the benefits of practicing these arts. This year World Tai Chi and Qigong Day took place on April 27. Many of our association's centers and schools participated. Some of them shared their photos:


Dortmund, Germany



Stockton, California, USA



Bothell, Washington, USA



Plovdiv, Bulgaria



Sofia, Bulgaria



Cherbourg, France



Kiel, Germany



Whitehorse, Canada



Bogota, Colombia



Baia Mare and Cluj Napoca, Romania



Köln, Germany



Buenos Aires, Argentina



Hackettstown, New Jersey, USA



Royal Oak, Michigan, USA



São Paulo City, Brazil



Antananarivo, Madagascar



Rockland, Maine, USA



Ribeirão Preto, Brazil



Newcastle, Washington, USA



Some of the members from the group above (Yang Family Tai Chi School of Greater Seattle) were traveling and sent photos from their destinations. From left to right: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; Melbourne, Australia; United Kingdom.





São Paulo, Brazil


 

Did you miss the last issue of Connections? You can read it here.