Finding your inner balance

By Kristin Burr, contributing writer
Posted on September 24, 2007

Take a deep breath, find your center, and get ready, because this semester Tai Chi is being offered at UREC.

Holly Wade, coordinator of group fitness and wellness at UREC, decided to add Tai Chi classes to the list of more than 80 group fitness classes at UREC after discovering student interest in a survey conducted last spring.

Tai Chi instructor Lolly Miller will be leading the classes. She also teaches Tai Chi at the Reading Memorial Hospital Wellness Center in Harrisonburg. Wade said UREC is lucky because the interest in Tai Chi matched their resources.

Tai Chi is a martial art, but Wade said it requires thought as well as action.

“[The] idea is balance,” she said. “Not just physical, but emotional, and understanding give and take.”

Graduate student Erik Moellering said he joined the class because he is interested in Chinese medicine.

“The class was fantastic,” he said. “The instructor is knowledgeable and moves at a good pace.”

There is a short form of Tai Chi and a long form. Participants in the eight-week-long UREC course will be studying the short form, which is easier to master but still takes time to perfect. Wade said mastery isn’t the main goal.

“The idea is that we’re utilizing our bodies in new ways,” she said.

Wade said that the $30 charge for the class is due to an outside instructor being brought in. The eight week class schedule was chosen as a manageable time frame for the Tai Chi students.

“Eight weeks is a doable amount for people,” She said. “They can commit to that.”

Wade said there was a good turnout for the first class with 10 people signed up out of 20 available spots. She hopes that the course will continue to be offered at UREC.

“It excites me to see students participate in [mind and body] activities because as they go into the workforce they can use what they learned from these activities to be able to manage stress,” Wade explained.

The class this semester consists of more faculty than students. Wade said this may be due to the 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. time slot. However, moving the time around for next semester does not seem likely because of the many classes that are already offered in those time slots.

Freshman Jenn Steinhardt said the class appealed to her because it was a different way to stay active.

“I needed something to keep me from sitting on my bum all day,” she said. “[I] don’t like weight lifting or many sports but I wanted something that would keep my mind and body moving. Tai Chi and its aspect on the mind and body has always interested me. It seemed like a perfect fit.”

Registration for the semester ends Thursday.