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TaijiBoxing - Joe Laracuenta Tai Chi
Individual
instruction at home
Group classes on Long Island
Yang Tai Chi - 24 form and others
Yang 32 and 42 Sword forms
42 Combined-styles Competition form
Chen 13, 21 and 35 forms
Chen 56 Competition form
Chen Broadsword
Chen 63 Sword form
Shaolin
Cane
Kung Fu
Fan
Qi Gong
for martial arts
Qi Gong for health
Tai Chi for arthritis
Physical therapy, in conjunction with
client's physician, for conditions ranging
from multiple sclerosis to Parkinson's
Tel: (917) 841-3211
Email: TajiBoxing@verizon.net
In addition to a small handful of private students, in
the spring of 2019, Joseph Laracuenta is teaching four
courses in the Adult Continuing Education program of the
Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District in North
Merrick on Long Island. All his classes take place in
the Brookside Building on Meadowbrook Road, which is one
block south of Exit 23 on the Southern State Parkway.
Joseph teaches an introductory Yang Tai Chi class in
both morning and evening sessions. He is also teaching
two of Dr. Paul Lam's programs for health through Tai
Chi: Tai Chi for Arthritis and Tai Chi for Improving
Memory, a new course for which Joseph received personal
training by Dr. Lam in 2018.
In 1986, Joseph began to study Tai Chi and Qi Gong from
Grand Master David Lin and under the supervision of
Master CK Chu. This brought him to the Chinese Internal
Martial Arts, and he became a senior disciple of Grand
Master David Lin and Dr. Chi Wai Wong. Joseph then
became an assistant instructor to Grand Master Lin and
subsequently, head teacher for the school. To deepen his
understanding of the health benefits of Qi Gong, he
attended the World Medical Qi Gong Conference in
Beijing, China.
Joseph's teaching style is simultaneously relaxed but
energetic, exemplifying his passion for transmitting
these Arts. As an instructor, he is down to earth and
easy to understand. He is now an instructor emeritus
of the New York Health and Racquet Club, where he taught
for many years, and he is an adjunct faculty member of
the NYU Graduate Center in Manhattan.
Joseph is a longtime member of the American Qi Gong
Society and participates in local demonstrations of the
US Tai Chi Qi Gong organization and the Tai Chi group of
a Flushing, Queens, senior center. He is a member of Dr.
Paul Lam's Tai-Chi for Health Community Organization and
a Certified Tai Chi Instructor for Arthritis and Tai Chi
for Memory, a certification earned in 2018. Joseph
first medaled in a tournament in 2001. More recently,
he participated in Sitan and Lynn Chen's Tai Chi
Competition in New York, where he placed in several
events in both 2017 and 2018.
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TAI CHI for MEMORY
Lightly massaging the Fengchi or GB-20 (Gall
Bladder) acupuncture point, which has "a
very nice connection to the memory part of
the brain," is one of the components of Dr.
Paul Lam's Tai Chi for Memory program. Done
with dan tien breathing, along with
familiar Tai Chi moves, such as Cloud Hands
and Brush Knee, "it clears your mind and
helps you to be more serene," he says, "and
it helps you relax and think better." So
Dr. Lam explained in his teacher training
last autumn, when he introduced his latest
Tai Chi program for health, and gave
accreditation to Joseph Laracuenta, as he
had 10 years ago for Tai Chi for Arthritis.
Joseph is teaching both this spring on
Long Island.
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Joseph
was among those honored in December, 2017, when Master Yuan Zhen Xu
created a 13th generation of lineage holders in the tradition of her
teacher, Ma Hong.
She presented each recipient with a passport with embossed seal and
identification
number, and a decorative certificate from the official Chinese Tai
Chi genealogy
heritage "compilation" group, complete with bar code stamp and
listing of
teachers in this Chen tradition right up through himself.
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Master Yuan Zhen Xu,
above center with students Juan Ongsiako and Joseph,
invited Joseph to demonstrate at a Chinese New Year’s
Party in Flushing, Queens, the Chen 2-Minute Form she
created from the 21 Form. At right, Joe does the Yang
24 Form at the first Times Square celebration of Chinese
culture, May, 2016. |
September 2013 demonstration of Qi Gong and the Fan Form at
CitiField, Queens, NY. Last in column with red fan aloft.
Summer 2014 class in 42 Combined Forms at The
New York Botanical Gardens in The Bronx.
April 2014 Tai Chi Day in Central Park with the
Self-Help Seniors of Kissena Blvd., Flushing, NY.
October 2014 with the Self-Help Seniors'
broadsword group at the USOMAC
(US Open Martial Arts Championship), Queens College, NY.
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In 2001, Joseph was a winner of the
U.S. Chinese Federation's
Gold Medal in Tai Chi.
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