Beginner's Class:  9AM T/Th

Plan:
   
Teacher to observe students doing Tai Chi.

Teacher to evalutate student's performance.

Teacher to give individual attention to students as time permits.

Video tape the FINALE.

Introduction Class: 10AM Thursday

Review:  High Pat on the Horse

New Movements:  Serpent in the Grass, Golden Cockerel

This summer, Hawaii football player Dee Maggitt worked on his flexibility.

He remains inflexible in being pushed aside.

The Warriors spent the past eight months seeking to add competition at cornerback. In the end, Maggitt, who will be a third-year sophomore, remained in the rotation.

"He's the fourth corner," UH coach Norm Chow said. "He's had a really nice camp."

Maggitt, who backs up Mike Edwards on the left side, received a check list during his exit interview in the spring.

"They wanted me to come back heavier, more physical, arrogant," Maggitt said. "As a corner, that's a good thing. I wouldn't say I was too nice, but if you look at Mike Edwards' style and my style, they were different. I took from that. I wanted to be more aggressive, like Mike Edwards."

Maggitt said he spent a month this summer in Washington state, where he trained with UH safety Bubba Poueu-Luna. He worked on weight-training, speed drills and flexibility. Both bought yoga mats.

When Maggitt returned to Hawaii, he practiced tai chi.

"Coach TK wanted me to work on my man coverage, shuffling and not opening up," Maggitt said of instructions from defensive coordinator Thom Kaumeyer. "I wanted to get my hips more flexible so I could play in this system."

Maggitt said the slow movements of tai chi are more difficult to perform than they appear.

"It's about balance," Maggitt said, "and getting your mind and hips in the same line."

Daronte' Jones, who coaches the secondary, said Maggitt has fulfilled the requests.

"He took our exit interview to heart," Jones said. "He definitely improved from the spring. He came back a little thicker. He hit the weights. He came back ready to play."

Maggitt said: "Coach TK told us, straight up, the best players are going to play. It doesn't matter who recruited them. I took it as a challenge."

In a study recently published by the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, it shows that in a clinical trial, Tai Chi was proven that it actually helped seniors to grow their brain size. Improvements also were observed in several neuropsychological measures, which are indicative that the onset of the Alzheimer’s disease may be delayed with Tai Chi practice.

A representative sample of 120 non-demented, aged 60 – 79, selected from the same district in Shanghai was randomized to four groups (Tai Chi, Walking, Social Interaction and No Intervention) for 40 weeks. One of the exclusion criteria is that participants could not have prior Tai Chi experience. Two MRIs were obtained for each participant, one before the intervention period, one after. A neuropsychological battery was administered at baseline, 20 weeks and 40 weeks. Each Tai Chi session included 20 minutes of warm-up exercises (lower back and hamstring stretching, gentle calisthenics, and balance training), 20 minutes of Tai Chi practice, and 10 minutes of cool-down exercises. Each Walking session consisted of 10 minutes of warm-up stretching, 30 minutes of brisk walking, and 10 minutes of cool-down exercises. The Social Interaction session included one-hour discussion on topics chosen by the participants. Each group met three times a week. The No Intervention group got phone calls four times during the 40 weeks from a study coordinator.

MRI data collected in Shanghai were transmitted to Dr. DeCarli’s laboratory at UC-Davis for analysis. As expected, the No Intervention group’s brain size shrank as an average person in his 60’s or 70’s. The Walking group’s brain shrank as well, except not as severe. The Social Interaction group’s brain size grew, but not as significantly as the Tai Chi group’s growth.
The Mattis Dementia Rating Scale is designed to measure and track mental status in adults with cognitive health. While the No Intervention and the Walking groups had no change in this scale and Social Interaction had some improvement, Tai Chi group enjoyed a significant improvement.

The Trail-making tests are neuropsychological tests of visual attention and task switching. It can provide information about the speeds of visual search, scanning and processing, mental flexibility, as well as executive functioning. It is used to detect several cognitive impairments such as Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia. After 40 weeks, the No Intervention group took more time to complete the task, both Social Interaction and Walking had no change in time and Tai Chi group became “sharper” and used less time.

The Tai Chi group registered improvements in other evaluations, including the Auditory Verbal Learning Test, the Verbal fluency Test, the Initiation score, Attention score and Memory score.

Dr. Mortimer said that Tai Chi, which has been described as a type of moving meditation, requires continuous and sustained attention to maintain posture. The higher level of intellectual involvement in this activity in comparison to walking around a circular course may have been a factor in leading to the disparity of the two groups’ result. This result is consistent with early research conducted by Stanford University, which shows that regular aerobic exercise does not provide the same benefits as Tai Chi to combat memory loss.

The Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease is an international multidisciplinary journal to facilitate progress in understanding the etiology, pathogenesis, epidemiology, genetics, behavior, treatment and psychology of Alzheimer’s Disease. It is the authority on the disease and ranked the 24th on the Top 100 medical journal list.

Click on: Kilauea District Park Fall Classes

Please note:  if you know anyone who might be interested in an evening class, we are thinking about beginning a brand new class on Monday at 5:30 PM.  Please send me an email or talk to me asap.

Beginner's Class T/ Th 9AM

Review:  Tai Chi Walk,  Flash Arms, Turn-Deflect-Parry-Punch

New Movements: Beginning movement: Parting the Horse's Mane

Focus: Hip alignment, Shifting of weight, Rotating your waist