Balance
How you control your body as you stand, shift weight, step, turn and move.
Do you want to move with greater balance and confidence?
Why we created it
How do you know if you are actually improving?
Some days you feel great. Other days you may feel tired, stiff, stressed or distracted. How you feel today does not always tell you whether your practice is making a difference.
Progress can also happen gradually: a little more balance, easier movement, better coordination, more confidence or less unnecessary tension. Small changes can be difficult to notice when they happen over weeks and months.
Capability for Life gives us a more consistent way to look at change over time.
Small changes are easy to miss.
Their cumulative effect over months and years may be much more meaningful.Four connected areas that support an active life.
Mobility
The freedom to move comfortably, stay active and participate in the things you enjoy.
What do you want the freedom to keep doing?Mind + Movement
Attention, memory, intention and coordination while your body is moving.
Want a practice that challenges your mind as well as your body?Resilience
Breathing, relaxation, awareness, confidence and how you respond when things feel challenging.
Would you like to feel calmer and less tense?
Recognised methods
We don't simply make up a score.
Capability for Life uses recognised, standardised measures and assessment methods used in health, ageing and movement settings, combined with your own experience, confidence and goals.
We bring this information together within the Shang Tai Chi Capability for Life framework to establish your personal baseline, track change over time and help identify where your practice may benefit from greater focus.
The measures themselves are not proprietary. How we bring them together, follow your progress and connect the findings to your Tai Chi and Qigong practice is the Shang approach.
Numbers are only part of the picture
Repeatable measures can tell us one part of the story. Your own experience matters too.
- What do you want to keep doing?
- How confident do you feel?
- What feels easier or more difficult?
- What changes are you noticing in everyday life?
Measure. Practise. Reassess. Adapt.
Understand
We start with you. What matters to you, and what do you want to keep doing?
Measure
Appropriate repeatable measures help establish your personal starting point.
Practise
Tai Chi, Qigong and focused practice work on the areas relevant to you.
Reassess
At appropriate intervals, we repeat the measures and look at what has changed.
Adapt
What we learn can help guide where your practice needs greater focus next.
Your trajectory
You are not being compared with everyone else.
Capability for Life is interested in your starting point and your change over time.
Are you improving? Are you maintaining capability? Is there an area that deserves more attention?
The purpose is not to chase a score or compete with somebody else. It is to give you — and us — better information to help make your practice purposeful and personal.
Look at the trend, not one day.
Repeated measurement helps us look beyond a particularly good or bad day and build a clearer picture over time.What do you want to keep doing for years to come?
Travelling and exploring. Staying active outdoors. Enjoying sport or hobbies. Keeping up with family and friends. Continuing to work, volunteer or pursue your interests. Moving freely and confidently. Living life on your terms.
Your answer may be completely different from someone else's. That is the point. The framework exists to help connect your practice and your progress with the life that matters to you.
Useful measurement, not medical diagnosis.
Capability for Life is a Tai Chi training and progress framework. It is not a medical diagnostic service and does not replace assessment or treatment by an appropriately qualified health professional.
Where a measure, result or concern falls outside the scope of Tai Chi instruction, the appropriate response is referral — not diagnosis.
What would you like your practice to help you maintain or improve?
Begin with the free 7-Day Introduction, or contact James if you would like to discuss personal instruction and Capability for Life.