Our School teaches the Yang Style Short Form as developed by Professor Cheng Man-Ch'ing and handed down to us by Patrick Watson, one of his most senior students in the west.

Our School

The London School of T’ai Chi Chuan has been offering classes and supporting the teaching and study of T’ai Chi Chuan in London since 1979. Our teaching body currently consists of 18 teachers teaching T’ai Chi in two London locations, Soho and Blackheath.

We are part of the T’ai Chi Foundation, an international T’ai Chi school with over 200 teachers in 30 cities. Our London T’ai Chi school follows the teaching philosophy of our international school: preserving the lineage and tradition of this ancient art while presenting it in a modern, easy-to-learn method.

The mission of our school is to promote and spread the study and teaching of T’ai Chi Chuan in order to bring health and consciousness to humanity.

Cheng Man Ch'ing​

Grand Master Cheng Man-Ch’ing (1901-1975) is known as master of the “Five Excellences”: painting, poetry, calligraphy, medicine and T’ai Chi Chuan.

As a physician, Cheng Man-Ch’ing had the opportunity to cure the great T’ai Chi master Yang Cheng-fu’s wife of a serious illness, and as a result Yang Cheng-fu accepted Professor Cheng into his inner circle. For several years Professor Cheng studied T’ai Chi daily with Yang Cheng-fu, putting in long hours. He emerged a master.

In the 1930s, Professor Cheng saw that his nation needed the health benefits of T’ai Chi Chuan so, to make it accessible to everyone, he shortened the T’ai Chi form and, breaking a long tradition of secrecy, published a book describing the movements and principles. In the 1960s, he brought T’ai Chi Chuan to the West, opening a school in New York City. The Professor’s form has become the most popular T’ai Chi form in the West.

Patrick Watson​

Patrick Watson (1935-1992) already had a long history with martial arts, Hawaiian swimming, and the theater when he began studying with Cheng Man-Ch’ing in 1966. He studied with him for nine years, becoming one of his eight most senior disciples. In 1976, Patrick founded The School of T’ai Chi Chuan (STCC) specifically to train teachers to teach the Professor’s T’ai Chi Chuan form; in 1979 Patrick founded the T’ai Chi Foundation, which now manages all programs including teaching, training, research and development. Over the next 16 years, Patrick guided the growth of the STCC into an international school with branches in seven countries.

Patrick was a master teacher, always teaching and taking every opportunity to illustrate T’ai Chi awareness in action. Patrick realized that in order for this teaching to flourish, it would need to transcend the limitations of his individual personality as well as his genius. He saw beyond his own ego gratification and encouraged his more senior students to teach his beginning students in order to build a bona fide school and developed our team teaching method to accelerate the school’s progress.

In 1992, Patrick passed away and left The School of T’ai Chi Chuan and Tai Chi Foundation to continue his legacy. We have both struggled and grown while finding our new identity. Now, years after his death, we still share a strong sense of continuity and community. We enjoy working together in a historic community of many teachers instead of one. We are very aware of the responsibility handed to us to uphold our part of this lineage. And we seek to embody T’ai Chi principles to honour the spirit of this exquisite art, and to share what we know with others.

 

The T'ai Chi Foundation

Founded in 1976, The School of T’ai Chi Chuan (STCC) reflects the vision of our founder Patrick Watson, who set out to create a school of T’ai Chi teachers to preserve and transmit the movements and principles of the T’ai Chi form developed by his teacher, Cheng Man-Ch’ing. Our unique team teaching method has allowed the school to grow through the years following Patrick’s death in 1992.

The Tai Chi Foundation, founded in 1979, is the non-profit educational umbrella that initiates, sponsors and provides financial backing for STCC’s trainings and new course development. More information on our international school can be found at www.taichifoundation.org

Our Team

The School has been teaching in central London for more than 40 years, with many of our teachers practising the art, and teaching, since our formation in 1979. In the summer of 2019 teachers past and present gathered together to celebrate our 40th anniversary.