Instructors - Tai Chi for Health

Elva Arthy

Elva has been a professional teacher of movement, dance and exercise for over fifty years. She runs her own training and consulting school – Tai Chi Qigong for Health, which is geared towards the health and fitness industries as well as the community and corporate areas. Over the last thirty five years, she has been a community based Fitness Instructor pioneering the specialised field of Gentle Exercise for older adults. She is a an Exercise Professional with AUSactive (formerly Fitness Australia) accredited as a Personal Trainer, Group Exercise Instructor and Older Adults Trainer. She is accredited with Alice Liping Yuan’s Exercise Medicine’s Tai Chi for Health and Falls Injury and Prevention Program; an accredited Fitness Trainer with Fitness Australia; and Master Trainer with Gentle Arts of Self Defence, affiliated with Sakurakan-QUBBA (Queensland United Black Belt Assn Inc), an accreditation body in the martial arts established in 1960.

As Master Trainer for Dr Lam's TCA program for twenty years, she has conducted and taught in numerous TCA Instructor Training Courses in Australia, New Zealand, USA and Korea, and in Queensland has trained more than one thousand people as Instructor/Leaders in various Tai Chi for Health courses. In addition, she has assisted Dr Paul Lam in the training of new Master Trainers of the TCA Instructor Training program for Australian and Korean TCA Master Trainers in January 2005 Sydney and in December 2006 Korea.

Elva has taught Tai Chi for Health at beginners to advanced levels at International Tai Chi Workshops and Conferences in USA, New Zealand, Korea & Australia. From 2003 to 2007, she taught the Sun 73 Form at Tai Chi Workshops in Australia and USA for Dr Paul Lam. She also presented the paper she co-authored with her husband Dr Denis Arthy on how to teach Tai Chi for Health effectively at the First International Tai Chi for Health Conference held in Seoul, Korea in December 2006. She is the Tai Chi Instructor and presenter on the DVD titled INSPIRE - Tai Chi and Yoga for Adults with Bleeding Disorders produced by Haemophilia Foundation Australia and distributed in Australia and overseas including Europe, India, USA, UK and Canada released April 2005.

She is also the author of Raging Ageing Gentle Exercise Manual for Design and Delivery, a manual used as a resource for health and fitness professionals and carers of older adults. The manual is also a suitable and effective program for other persons in the community who have some health limitations or who may simply wish to exercise more gently. This has been a set text in the training of community-based carers. Through her school - Tai Chi for Health & Community Fitness - Elva pioneered the Tai Chi for Health, Advanced Instructor Training course to provide an extension and alternative pathway for TCA Leaders and others who do not wish to pursue the martial arts Level 1 Coach accreditation for instructor training. This new course, which commenced in July 2007, has competency based levels of progression (from Levels 3 to 5) focussing on a modern, secular and scientific understanding of safety principles, teaching methods and an In-Depth Study of Sun Style Tai Chi at an advanced level. Also in 2010, Elva co-authored and published with Denis – Tai Chi Dreaming: A Scientific Study of Tai Chi for Health as Mind-Body Exercise for Health, Fitness & Wellbeing - the textbook for the Tai Chi for Health Advanced Instructor Training program.

Dr Denis Arthy

Denis has been involved with the "gentle" or "yielding" martial arts since the early 1960s firstly in Judo and Jujitsu, and in later years he began training in the traditional Okinawan hard / soft style of Karate-Do known as Go-ju Ryu. Denis has his black belt, third Dan Instructor's certificate (Shidoin) in Karate-Do registered in Japan, his black belt first Dan in Judo and first Kyu in Jujitsu and has trained for over a decade in traditional Yang style of Tai Chi Chuan through Sakurakan-QUBBA and is a registered Martial Arts and Tai Chi Instructor with that organisation.

Denis began to explore the nexus of traditional martial arts with a modern and scientific approach to health, exercise and movement and also began to examine the commonalities of various styles of "internal" or "yielding" martial arts. He has also studied other styles of Tai Chi including Sun and Chen from both martial and health perspectives. Over seven years ago, Denis completed the Level 1 Coaching course with the National Martial Arts Industry Association and the Australian Sports Commission and formed his own school called Gentle Arts of Self Defence and teaches Tai Chi for Health and Relaxation as well as Karate-Do for Self Defence incorporating aspects of Judo, Jujitsu and Tai Chi Chuan.

Denis has assisted his wife Elva in her role as Master Trainer of Dr Paul Lam's Tai Chi for Health Courses, in her Tai Chi for Health classes in the Redlands and in the Tai Chi for Health Advanced Instructor Training course. He is an accredited Instructor with Alice Liping Yuan’s Exercise Medicine’s Tai Chi for Health and Falls Injury and Prevention Program and with Dr Paul Lam's Tai Chi for Arthritis (TCA) program. In addition to the paper he co-authored with his wife Elva, he presented a paper on the origins of a modern Tai Chi for Health at the First International Tai Chi for Health Conference held in Seoul, Korea in December 2006 and he also assisted teaching in the advanced workshop “Explore the Depth of TCA” for Master Trainers and other Korean students at the conference in Seoul.

In 2010, Denis co-authored and published with Elva the textbook – Tai Chi Dreaming: A Scientific Study of Tai Chi for Health as Mind-Body Exercise for Health, Fitness & Wellbeing.