June 26, 2002
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
Cover Story
Stretch It Out: Instructor David Pounds incorporates a sword into his tai chi warmup routine. The art of tai chi consists of a series of 64 smoothly flowing positions that take about 20 minutes to complete. By Kate Carter The practice of the martial art tai chi is something of a paradox to the Western mind. It is a skill that takes years to learn and master, yet its success cannot be accomplished by being focused on perfection. It is a series of intricate and challenging physical movements, but it is really designed to strengthen the mind and spirit. And while its techniques can be applied to aggressive situations, it is derived from a philosophy that values accommodating oneself to the surrounding environment rather than seeking to control it. Understanding tai chi is not an easy thing, which may explain why David Pounds, who has been trying to help people do so for 12 years, has yet to find the student who will carry his work on after him. "I haven't had anybody finish the course yet," he says. "People come and go - I get used to it." The 56-year-old Willow Glen resident can be seen by passersby practicing his skills at Willow Street's Bramhall Park on Saturday mornings. He arrives at 7 a.m. to allow for his own practice, which he does every day, and then instructs students there from 9 a.m. to noon. Tai chi is short for the martial art's longer name of tai chi ch'uan, which means "supreme ultimate martial art" in Chinese. It was developed after 500 A.D. by Buddhist monks in China's Shao-Lin temple, who used the skills to not only help them avoid falling asleep while meditating but also to defend themselves from bandits along the mountain roads. The monks taught the techniques to Chang, San Feng in 1247, who then wedded them with Taoist philosophy to better channel energy, or "chi." His techniques traveled throughout the region, undergoing a variety of interpretations, which has led to the many different versions of tai chi, Pounds says. But the version he espouses and teaches - quang ping yang tai chi - is more directly related to Chang, San-Feng's, Pounds says, and is somewhat rare in the United States. The art is a series of 64 smoothly flowing positions that take about 20 minutes to complete. But each of those minutes takes about a month to learn, and that is only if one sticks with the secret of learning tai chi, Pounds says - "You practice every day." Pounds discovered tai chi in his early 30s, after having practiced some martial arts but wanting something less aggressive and more natural to him. He was familiar with and attracted to Taoism. Although tai chi is considered a precursor to learning the martial art kung fu - popularized in Bruce and Brandon Lee movies - it can be understood through the Tao Te Ching: "Under heaven, nothing is more soft and yielding than water. Yet for attacking the solid and strong, nothing is better; it has no equal. The weak can overcome the strong; the supple can overcome the stiff." "They're so nonjudgmental," Pounds says of Taoist philosophies found in the Tao Te Ching. "It just seems logical to me to let things develop the way they were naturally meant to." That has been Pounds' philosophy since he began teaching, following his study of about 11 years. "I like to take people at their own pace," Pounds says. "It's all the little details that make the tai chi what it is." Because of the length of time it takes for a person to become familiar with basic tai chi forms, Pounds doesn't consider advancing his students until they've been with him for about a year. He takes another year to break those forms back down and hone the details, and another year to put them back together and make the series flow. During that time he might also begin to introduce other applications of the basic tai chi movements, as well as props like a staff or sword. Pounds teaches about 10 people, usually individually or in small groups. In addition to his Saturday morning classes in the park, he also teaches at a location on Capitol Expressway on Sunday mornings. And he serves as a judge at tai chi tournaments, although, he says, "I don't believe in competition. Isn't that hypocritical?" He is such a believer in the value of tai chi, both for physical and mental health, that he is working on creating a video to allow more people the chance to learn the skills. A pilot video shows Pounds stretching, seemingly impossibly, his chin down to his foot as that leg extends out; his other leg brings him down near the ground in a squat. Pounds credits tai chi with his health and his patience, focus and self-discipline. He contrasts those skills with the attitude of many people who come to him to try tai chi but are discouraged by its slow pace of advancement. "People today want things handed to them," Pounds says. "The tai chi isn't like that. It's about personal achievement. Only a few people stay with it to learn something." One of those people is Willow Glen resident Peter Acronico, who has been a student of Pounds for about five years. He has progressed through the course, learning the basic tai chi series, stretches and other series influenced by tai chi. Acronico, 43, first became interested in tai chi about 25 years ago but had stopped practicing. One day he discovered Pounds' class through a flyer posted at the Willow Glen Coffee Roasting Company. Since then, he has practiced - the tai chi series or other series or stretches - almost every day. "The biggest accomplishment that I ever achieved was learning the first set of 64 moves," Acronico says. "It's very hard to keep your balance moving slowly. I did it every day. Most students, after they find out how hard it is, leave." Acronico says that tai chi has "changed his life," something he doesn't expect people who haven't tried it to understand. "After you've done tai chi for a while, it just feels so good and the body just longs for it," he says. "I just could not not do it. There's a whole philosophy behind tai chi that appeals to me so strongly. Tai chi is internal. It's for building up the spirit, the mind and the internal organs. It allows me to embrace the Taoist principles." Acronico also calls Pounds one of the top four teachers in his life. Pounds knows that a student like Acronico is rare and that life has a way of getting out of his control. So, instead of fighting that, he chooses to work with it and give people different ways of bringing tai chi into their lives. "What I'm trying to do here is preserve these ancient Chinese martial arts before they're lost to the world," he says. For more information, contact Pounds at 408-286.6346, or visit his website, www.shaolin-taichi.com. |
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