Roy Moy, Senior Instructor

Certifications

Energy Gates Chi Gung - Level 2
Longevity Breathing - Level 1
Wu Style Tai Chi Short Form - Level 1
Heaven & Earth Chi Gung - Level 2
Wu Style Tai Chi Long Form - Level 1

Bio

Front stance, back stance, one-legged stance, tai chi walking ... Martial Details and Push Hands instructor Roy Moy breaks the tai chi Short Form down into postures and drills the basics "before all the folding and turning gets more complicated." "If you establish your center line and stabilize before you start moving at 45 degree angles, then you're cruising." The form will eventually feel consistent, he says, if you practice each separate posture "enough." To get the principles down so they work when practiced with a partner—neutralizing a force coming in at you, is his central teaching focus and the way to test your tai chi. "Wishy washy isn't good for martial arts," he says. "You're moving for a purpose, to redirect a force instead of fighting it and avoid being harmed by someone larger and stronger." His students leave class finally having figured out how to sink their weight, drop the elbows, and turn from the waist, the things you hear over and over but often don't actually do.

Roy started learning tai chi in the mid-1970s with Bow Sim Mark and participated in 1984 in the first international exchange/demo of tai chi in Wuhan, China. He has studied with B.K. Frantzis since before BTC was BTC and recalls in the '80s trying to line up enough students to make it worthwhile for Frantzis to come teach what he then called "Core 1." "Bruce hadn't started the Energy Arts school yet." Wednesdays he commutes from Worcester for his BTC teaching, including Heaven & Earth chi gung. Elsewhere, he teaches chi gung and Wu tai chi at the Worcester YWCA and studies and teaches Chen tai chi from Shifu Stan Tabor at Mantis Kung Fu in Millbury, MA. He has more time for his own practice now, too, since cutting back on the many small businesses he ran for years -- a futon store, various retail outlets, and real estate management. "I calmed that side down so I could increase the study side," he says. At the moment, he tries to focus at least an hour a day on standing with dissolving in all directions, and then some Heaven & Earth, and Wu and Chen forms. After 30-some years practicing, "there's always something I find to improve on." Like jade sculptors in China, you keep polishing and refining the art, he says.