Tai Chi takes root on island
by Marli Guzzetta
Seeds work because they travel, sometimes over long distances, to perpetuate growth. A

seed for the ancient Chinese martial art of Tai Chi, Nantucketer Kristofer Feeney lived in China for nine years, earning a college-level certification in Tai Chi instruction and then studying with masters around the country, before returning home to establish the Hai Tien Tai Chi School of Nantucket with fellow instructors Michael DeHeart and Doug Baier, who also teaches Tai Chi at the Salt Marsh Senior Center.

Tai Chi is a therapeutic martial art formalized in the early 19th century by the Chen family. Master Cheng Man Ch'ing (Feeney's Tai Chi "idol"), who moved to New York in 1964, was the first man to teach Tai Chi in the United States to people who were not of Chinese origin.

After studying Japanese martial arts since childhood, Feeney took up Tai Chi at age 19 and even went to Florida to study Yang Tai Chi before returning to Nantucket. In 1993, he joined with DeHeart and Baier to form a Tai Chi club before heading overseas to study.

What began as a little club on Nantucket is now a substantial force in the study of the martial art.

While Feeney was in China, DeHeart also studied with different teachers in America. Now that the trio has regrouped, they have also prepared Ursula Austin and Andy Buccino to act as assistant instructors for Hai Tien.

"Hai" means "ocean" and "Tien" means "sky" - two elements of our surroundings that are as limitless as the potential the school has already shown for success. In September, Hai Tien traveled to the mainland for the Wong Fei Hung Kung Fu Championships.

"The competition was amazing, because I thought we were these small town country bumpkins; everyone was in silk suits, and here we are, thinking 'Wow, we've never been to anything like this. What's the protocol?'" remembered Ursula Austin, in her late 50s, who won the gold medal in the forms division - a division that was open to all ages and genders. Buccino took the silver.

Overall, the group came home with nine medals, proving it is just as proficient, if not more so, than any other school on the mainland.

Hai Tien specializes in the Yang style of Tai Chi. Derived from the original Chen style of Tai Chi, it is slower and more focused on the student's connection to the ground.

"The Yang style is most appropriate for the most people," Feeney said. "It's open, balanced, relaxed and steady. And it has the most therapeutic benefits that come right away."

According to DeHeart, those benefits include increased balance, stress reduction, increased flexibility and increased circulation. "It's good for people who have mild to moderate arthritis," DeHeart said. "Tai Chi movement helps to lubricate the joints and helps to increase bone density."

Austin, who was immobile due to an injury from a car accident and has struggled with the long-term effects of Lyme Disease and cancer, is the first to advocate for the reparative powers of the martial art. She calls Tai Chi "the oldest and most broadly applicable healthcare system in the world." "I became interested in Tai Chi as a health thing. had a truck go through my windshield and I broke my leg, and I was really discouraged," said Austin, who became sedentary after the accident. "My physical therapist at the hospital, who was wonderful, said, 'You have to find something you can do for the rest of your life.' So I started seeing Michael and I started feeling better and better. I felt better in my mind and body."

Though the benefits come right away, Tai Chi is like any other discipline: the longer it is studied, the more the student achieves, according to DeHeart. "Chris, Doug and I used to go to a place in New York run by an 82-year-old man whose sole purpose in life was to give this gift of Tai Chi to other people," he remembered. "And after going for some time and seeing what strengths these people gained from their Tai Chi, that was enough for me."

People come to Tai Chi for many different reasons - not all medical - and the benefits they receive are certainly not limited to the physical.

As a young man, Feeney saw infinite growth. "When I started Tai Chi, I sensed that it was so deep, you could keep going and never reach the end. You could keep cultivating yourself for the rest of your life; there was this certain way about it," Feeney said. "After six months, that was it, I knew what I wanted to do. Tai Chi was my calling."

DeHeart said he turned to Tai Chi to "quiet himself down." "For years, I tried meditation, different types of yoga, and I could sit there quiet and still, but my brain was going like a freight train." Tai Chi's state of "moving meditation" was ultimately what stopped the train in DeHeart's head. "In order to focus on your structure, everything else has to go away," he said. "That allowed me to find a place to go where I could be quiet."

Though Buccino said Tai Chi relieved in three months an aikido back injury he'd had for years, he believes that the "deep coordination" he's acquired because of Tai Chi is the most important development.

"Tai Chi has allowed me to acquire this deep coordination with my environment," Buccino said. "As a carpenter, I do things far differently now than I did when I first started training."

In addition to increased circulation and immune function, Tai Chi has elevated Austin's "confidence function" as well.

"If you had said to me I would go to a competition at my age and under my circumstances - never mind win a medal - I would have laughed in your face and said, 'impossible,'" said Austin, who stressed that Tai Chi is "an internal art" - an art of self-cultivation.

"As a woman, I've had a lot of setbacks and obstacles in my life. I've encountered prejudice, and I find in Tai Chi, I have a lot of equality," added Austin, who said she enrolled in online college because of her

betterment through Tai Chi. "I think it's the mindset

that Tai Chi puts you into. You start to see your strengths, not just in Tai Chi but in your everyday life, and then life becomes completely different."

Austin said her goals now are worlds away from what she thought they would be, if you had asked her before the accident. Said the woman whose world was shaken after a truck went through her windshield: "It is my absolute dream to achieve a certain level, or to meet a master who can fling me against a wall with the point of his finger."

DeHeart explained that internal arts differ from external arts, like karate, in that they are not based on size and physical strength. "They are non-invasive. Anybody can do it, because they're not based on, 'Go ahead. Hit me. I can take it.' They're more like, 'Go ahead. Hit me if you can find me,'" he said. "It's based on yielding and gathering your opponents' energy, rather than resisting it."

Hai Tien is also offering instruction in other internal martial arts, like mindboxing - which is akin to meditative karate. ("You have to see it," Feeney said. "It's hard to describe.")

Tai Chi can also be a lot of fun. Austin said she and Buccino got a thrill out of doing their sword forms in the snow banks on Children's Beach last winter.

"It's a good test of progress - if you can do these forms in the winter and stay warm," Buccino said. "Ursula can melt snow under her feet, she gets so hot. With Tai Chi, your body creates tangible heat that comes out naturally. If you do the postures properly, even if you're in the snow, by the end of it, your fingers are fine." Not wearing any gloves, neither Austin nor Buccino had frostbite after doing their forms in the snow, they said.

"I've only done Tai Chi for two-and-a-half years now, but I'm starting to sense where it can go and I'm inspired by that growth," Buccino added. "Like these guys say, there's no end in sight."

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HAI TIEN TAI CHI SCHOOL

BEGINNER'S CLASS

Rolling admission; everyone is welcome to drop in
When: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6 p.m.
Where: Preservation Insitute: Nantucket,
  upstairs at 11 Centre Street.
Cost: $15 per class