Before breakfast
Wake up your body and settle your mind.
Traditional principles · Practical teaching · Gold Coast + onlineMove better.
Move better.
Balance better.
Stay capable.
Keep moving. Stay independent. Keep enjoying the life you love.
Shang Tai Chi™ teaches the principles behind the movement, then helps you practise them in manageable pieces and gradually bring them together into Tai Chi you understand.
Built with adults 50+ in mindBeginners welcomeGold Coast + online
A different way to learn Tai Chi
Learn the art. Practise its principles. Live them.
Rather than beginning with choreography to memorise, Shang Tai Chi helps you understand what you are learning, practise the principles in manageable pieces and gradually bring them into increasingly complete Tai Chi and everyday life.
01
Learn
Understand why you stand, shift, step, turn and move the way you do, not simply where to put your hands.
02
Practise
Develop the principles through focused practice, including short Micro Tai Chi sessions that fit naturally into your day.
03
Live
Bring structure, balance, breathing, awareness, intention and movement together in your Tai Chi and increasingly in everyday life.
Micro Tai Chi
You don’t need an hour to practise Tai Chi.
Five minutes before breakfast. Two minutes while waiting for the kettle. A short practice at your desk. A few quiet minutes before bed.
Micro Tai Chi takes a principle you’ve already learned and gives you a simple way to practise it during everyday life.
It doesn’t replace learning Tai Chi. It helps turn what you’ve learned into something you can actually practise regularly.
Learn it properly. Practise it briefly. Use it often.
Short & simple2–5 minutes
Use it dailyAnytime, anywhere
Builds familiarityBit by bit
While you wait
Turn small moments into meaningful practice.
At your desk
Reset posture, breath and focus.
Before bed
Release the day and prepare to rest.
Experience the Shang approach
Want to see how this way of learning feels?
Start with the free 7-Day Shang Tai Chi Introduction. Learn one principle at a time, reinforce it with Micro Tai Chi, then begin connecting the pieces.
Tai Chi for life
Keep moving. Stay independent. Keep enjoying the life you love.
Shang Tai Chi™ is designed with adults 50+ particularly in mind. We focus on balance, mobility, coordination, body awareness and confidence in movement to help you remain active, capable and independent in everyday life.
You do not need to be particularly fit or flexible. Tai Chi can be adapted to your capabilities, including seated and supported practice where appropriate.
Being able to move well is about more than exercise. It is about continuing to do things for yourself and enjoying the life you want to live.
Move with confidence
Develop balance, coordination, awareness and greater confidence in how you move.
Practise at your level
Standing, supported and seated options can be used where appropriate so practice can meet you where you are.
Stay capable
Use Tai Chi principles to support the movement, capability and independence that matter in everyday life.
Our approach
Tai Chi should adapt to the person, not require the person to fit Tai Chi.
We all move differently. Age, mobility, balance, strength, confidence, injury or physical limitations can affect how someone is able to practise.
That might mean practising seated, using a chair or other support, reducing the range of a movement, slowing a movement down, or working on an individual principle before combining it with something more complex.
The movement may change, but the principle being practised remains. Structure, weight transfer, relaxation, breathing, awareness, intention and coordination can still be explored in ways appropriate to the individual.
The aim is not to create a lesser version of Tai Chi. It is to give more people a meaningful way to learn and practise the art from where they are now.
Start where you are. Develop from there.
Why learn with James
50+ years of martial arts shapes how I teach Tai Chi.
I’ve spent more than five decades studying martial arts including Tai Chi, Kung Fu, Judo and Taekwondo, and was a regular contributor to Blitz Australasian Martial Arts Magazine.
That experience taught me to look beyond the outward shape of a movement: why it works, where balance comes from, how the body connects and what the movement is actually teaching us.
That’s how I teach Tai Chi.
Coming soon · free
Start Tai Chi in 7 Days.
Seven short guided lessons. No previous Tai Chi or martial arts experience required.
Don’t memorise a form. Start by understanding how Tai Chi works. In seven short lessons you’ll explore how to stand, release unnecessary tension, shift your weight, step with control and begin connecting movements together. Each lesson gives you one principle to learn, a short Micro Tai Chi practice to use during your day, and an explanation of how that isolated practice connects back to the whole.
Register for early access. You'll hear first when the program opens and receive details of the online membership and any founding-member launch offer.
Join the early-access list
Where you can go next
Start free. Continue in the way that suits you.
Gold Coast Classes
Learn face-to-face with clear, progressive instruction and practical feedback.
Stay Capable
An eight-week program in development connecting Tai Chi principles with balance, mobility, coordination and practical movement for life.
Online Membership
Progressive Tai Chi lessons, Micro Tai Chi, Qigong, everyday practice and live learning, designed for continued development rather than simply a video library.
A path, not a rank
Progress without belts.
Shang Tai Chi uses four stages to describe how practice develops, not to rank students.
FoundationLearn the principles→ConnectionBring them together→IntegrationMaintain them in movement→ExpressionExplore and apply
Advanced practice continually returns to the fundamentals. Progress isn't leaving the fundamentals behind. It's discovering more within them.
Common questions
Starting Tai Chi.
Do I need previous Tai Chi or martial arts experience?
No. The beginner pathway starts with principles such as structure, breathing, weight transfer and controlled stepping before building toward more complex movement.
What is Micro Tai Chi?
Micro Tai Chi reinforces individual Tai Chi principles through short practices that fit into everyday life. It supplements proper Tai Chi teaching rather than replacing it.
Is Shang Tai Chi only for people over 50?
No. Shang Tai Chi is built with healthy ageing and adults 50+ particularly in mind, but adult beginners of any age are welcome.
Do you teach Chen or Yang style?
James has studied both Chen and Yang approaches. Shang Tai Chi begins with foundational principles and progressively develops traditional Tai Chi material rather than asking beginners to memorise choreography without understanding it.
Is Shang Tai Chi spiritual?
You do not need to adopt a particular belief system. We explore body awareness, attention, intention, breathing, nature and traditional concepts such as Qi while distinguishing traditional and subjective ideas from established physical principles.