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 49 and 63 Sword forms
Shaolin Cane
Kung Fu Fan
Tai Chi and 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 his continuing private Tai Chi students, Joseph Laracuenta is teaching a course in the autumn of 2019 in the Adult Continuing Education program of the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District in North Merrick on Long Island.  His “Introduction to Tai Chi” highlights its many health benefits, including reducing stress, promoting stamina and improving physical condition.  Register here:  http://www.bellmore-merrick.k12.ny.us/Assets/District_Information/073019_reg_form.pdf?t=637000787840330000  The eight-week course is limited to 25 students.  It begins September 26, 2019, and takes place in Room 50 of the Brookside Building on Meadowbrook Road, which is one block south of Exit 23 on the Southern State Parkway. 

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. 
 


 

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 the teacher training when he introduced his latest Tai Chi program for health, and gave accreditation to Joseph Laracuenta, as he had 10 years earlier for Tai Chi for Arthritis.  Joseph teaches them both. 

 

 

 

     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.


 

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.

In 2001, Joseph was a winner of the
U.S. Chinese Federation's Gold Medal in Tai Chi.