Wilson Pitts leads a tai chi practice on a recent weekend at Maymont. (Photo by Jay Paul)
On most days, the lawn of Maymont’s Dooley Mansion would never be mistaken for a Taoist monastery. But every Saturday at 10 a.m., it resembles one as a group of more than a dozen regulars gathers to practice tai chi with Wilson Pitts, who has led a free class in this ancient Chinese martial art at the estate for the past 40 years.
“Tai chi is much subtler than calisthenics,” Pitts says. “We’re not just doing jumping jacks. I’ve heard people say, ‘It’s a good stretch for your calves.’ Really, it’s much deeper than that.”
Tai chi focuses on movement and meditation, and the atmosphere in Pitts’ class is calm and focused. Attendees meet in the parking lot near Hampton Street and follow Pitts to the cozy location, nestled under a tree in the shadow of Dooley Mansion. Throughout the summer, Pitts will demonstrate 12 postures. Attendees mimic his movements and ask questions during the hourlong session, and Pitts assigns “homework.” Beginners are always welcome.
“It’s important to be consistent,” Pitts says. “You should find a time and place — the same time and place — to practice for 10 minutes a day. If you come to every class, by the end of the year, you’ll have seen all the postures. Once you know the moves, it’s not about memorization, but practicing the process.”
Pitts began studying tai chi in Bethesda, Maryland, in the 1970s under noted American martial artist Robert Smith. In 1982, he advertised his first class at Maymont around the Virginia Commonwealth University campus and in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Two hundred people showed up, and 40 years later, he still has a following.
“Tai chi was developed in a monastic setting,” he says. “Group meditation is extremely powerful. Imagine hundreds of people together, meditating for hours. That’s the kind of mindful environment in and for which tai chi was developed.”
Tai chi focuses on self-defense, yielding to an opponent and changing positions to counter an attack rather than meeting force with force. Pitts demonstrates a “loop,” a simple, evasive motion to be repeated rhythmically in practice. Solo work is only a part of tai chi — more advanced students can practice with a partner and with weapons. The movements are also sped up in intermediate classes.
“All kinds of elite athletes today use video and slow it down to watch their motion,” Pitts says. “Well, hundreds of years ago, they had no video, so they would slow the motion down to study it deeply. What they found over time was that it produced glowing health.”
In addition to tai chi practice, which he does for several hours each day, beginning at 5 a.m., Pitts eats foods and herbs prescribed by traditional Chinese medicine. He has also been influenced by Taoism and Buddhism, two religions that were popular in China when tai chi was founded.
“Tai chi has always been unique among martial arts,” he says. “There’s only so many ways to move your body efficiently. I don’t care what language you speak or what you call it, but tai chi has a set of martial ethics that most other arts don’t have. You don’t want to harm anyone. Can you have compassion for the opponent even as you defeat them? You’re not defeating them with pain, or injury or cruelty — you defeat them with skill.
“The philosophy of it is that you have power with the opponent, not power over them. The more strength they put into the equation, the more comes back. But you don’t add any cruelty to the mixture.”
The class attendees, many of whom are well-versed in tai chi, lead warmups and encourage newcomers to the front. Every once in a while, Pitts will get a question about a movement or a philosophy related to tai chi, such as whether practitioners should focus on their breath or let it go. There are different schools of thought, Pitts says — after all, tai chi has a documented history dating back 400 years and is thought to have roots in the third century B.C.
One important aspect of his tai chi class is that nobody gets hurt, even during partner work. “Everybody goes home laughing,” he says, “but this is a warrior art. A warrior must banish fear and summon courage. In the face of having to fight someone at arm’s length, you’ve got to find some courage. In today’s world, we have to banish fear and summon courage to face the world we live in.”
Kevin DeCamp, who has been coming to Maymont for several years, is one of Pitts’ many devoted students. “I got into it for the health benefits,” he says, “but I never expected it to be as deep as it has been. I knew it would be meditative, but I didn’t know it would be so powerful.”
“With tai chi, the more you do it, the more you love it,” Pitts says. “I’m happy I get to share it with people. If there weren’t deep benefits, people wouldn’t have been doing it for so long.”
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