Balance Under Pressure
Here’s a novel way for high-schoolers to build coordination, concentration, conscious energy regulation, and camaraderie, while having a lot of fun and earning phys ed credit to boot. BTC student Eli Gerstenlauer, drawing on his professional mentoring and mediating experience with teens, starts up this session a Saturday energy arts class with a martial flavor.
“Confidence-building is a big part of this,” says Eli. “I don’t have visions of black belts in my head.” With breathing and alignment exercises, he will be using two-person drills drawn from ba gua rou shou—a partnering activity focused on deflecting pressure and building resilience while interacting with someone else. In discussion/“teach back” time, students will verbally describe and physically demonstrate moves for each other, “so that what they’re learning can’t go in one ear and out the other.”
Being able to hold onto your balance under pressure and redirect someone who is pushing on your arms or shoulders has nonphysical implications, too, Eli says. “How often do adults in social situations punch out people who are bothering them? These teens will learn to deflect and defuse.”
The class has cross-training advantages for athletes, dancers, even vocalists. And being in constant healthy motion is counterbalancing “for kids who don’t do well in school because they end up sitting around too much.” Eventually the course aims to add an afterschool time slot.
Tai Chi for Teens starts Saturday, November 7.