Introduction to Shodo Taichi
Shodo Taichi is called Thư Đạo Thái Cực in Vietnamese.
Taichi has long been well known around the world for its health benefits and its ability to help develop Ki.
Ki (氣) means the life force energy. Ki is a Japanese term. It is called Chi in Chinese and Khí in Vietnamese.
Shodo Taichi is a new and unique style of taichi. It was created by Master Quang Van Tran and has been taught around the US, Asia and Australia.
Besides Shodo Taichi, Master Tran has also been practicing Aikido. The year 2019 will mark his 50th year of Aikido. Along with Dr. Jeff Nicholson and Dr. John Yang of Oklahoma, Master Tran is also one of the three co-founders of the Oklahoma Acupuncture Association.
Shodo Taichi was designed based on the principles of Aikido, Acupuncture and Taichi.
The training of Shodo Taichi will relax the body, help the body to fight effectively against ache and pain, and enhance the energy level.
What is Shodo?
Shodo (書道) - Thư Đạo in Vietnamese - means artistic calligraphy or devine drawing.
In Shodo Taichi we perform the drawing of the Yin-Yang Logo through hand movements.
Yin-Yang Logo can be drawn in one of the following two forms:
and
In the simplified form, these two logos become:
and
Placing one on top of the other, we get the following picture. Note that the picture actually has two circles and one mathematical infinity symbol:

Rotating the picture 90 degrees, we get the following picture:

It is this picture that we draw with our hands in Shodo Taichi. The hands are open and the palms are facing each other. Holding a ball will help keep the hands in place.
The following steps are performed in order:
  1. Draw the surounding circle
  2. Draw the infinity symbol.
  3. Draw the surounding circle again
These 3 drawings form a building block of Shodo Taichi. With a close look, we will see that it actually has 2 distinctive components: a circle and an infinity symbol. The second circle is just a repetition of the first one.
With only these 2 components, Shodo Taichi is therefore the simplest Taichi style that ever existed.
Hand Movements in Shodo Taichi
There are 2 major hand movements in Shodo Taichi:
  1. The Circle.
  2. The Mathematic Infinity Symbol (aka Figure Eight).
Each of these major hand movements has 2 versions
  1. The Horizontal (aka the Low).
  2. The Vertical (aka the High).
Shodo Taichi therefore have four distinctive hand movements:
  1. Circle Low.
  2. Circle High.
  3. Infinity Low.
  4. Infinity High.
Follows are the graphical descriptions of these hand movements:
Circle Low
Circle High
Infinity Low
Infinity High