Master Gohring’s Tai Chi & Kung Fu

I have been meaning to update this for some time. In the meantime, Master Gohring has become Grandmaster Gohring, and the quality of instruction just keeps on improving. Everyone improves the more they play tai chi, and the instructors do likewise. I have been attending classes for the best part of three years now, and I continue to be pleased with the quality of instruction and the challenges of the programs. There is always something new to learn and conquer in tai chi. Once you learn Yang style tai chi and get a black sash, the next challenge is learning chen style, which is quite a bit different from Yang. It is, for me, far more challenging. There are lots of weapons classes, and since each rotation of classes happens about every seven weeks, there are lots of opportunities over the years to learn them. It does take more than one set of classes to learn any of the weapons, but they are a lot of fun to learn.
It takes a LONG time to learn tai chi and be good at it. Moreover, it takes a lot of dedication and practice to be good at it.
I highly recommend this school because the teaching is excellent, the instructors are patient and kind (even when I screw up repeatedly) and they gently correct and guide one to be better than before.
Master Gohring is truly a gifted teacher and a stellar martial artist. His instructors are awesome as well.

I have been coming here every Tuesday and Thursday for about 3 weeks. My first impression was great. Master Gohring himself is very nice. They offer many different flexible class times… I chose to take the 8:30 PM class with with a couple of my friends so that we could go and eat after a good workout in class at China Palace next door.
Overall a wonderful experience in general, I look forward to staying in business here for a long time.

Let me begin by saying that I’ve spent most of my life being the «bull in the china closet». My nickname in High School and College, an adaptation of my last name was… wait for it… Spills. Yep, I WAS that guy. After learning about many different forms of martial arts and even studying Aikido for a short time, I finally discovered the beauty and grace of Tai Chi. I thought, if I could learn a great form of self-​defense, lower my stress level AND become graceful, that would truly be an amazing thing. One year in I have a report to offer. First of all, my blood pressure has dropped from a chin dropping ¹⁵⁸⁄₁₁₀ to ¹⁴³⁄₆₈. Admittedly, I’ve been watching my diet in conjunction with Tai Chi but there’s no doubt that I’ve learned to better control my stress as a direct result of studying with Master Tom Gohring and his staff. I’ve yet to be really tested on the self-​defense end of things and frankly, hope I never will. However, today, I stand far better suited to accept that challenge that I did one year ago… that I can assure you. For me, the most shocking development has been the development of grace and coordination. What I never fully understood is that the slow-​moving, learning method helps you to slow down and FOCUS on where you are stepping, moving, shifting so that you can become more AWARE. What really blew me away is the impact that focus and awareness has had in my everyday life. In personal interactions, business dealings, traffic… you name it. I honestly believe that this is one of the driving factors in the stress reduction that I’ve experienced.
Now, take all that life changing impact that I’ve received studying Tai Chi and add the magic formula. Master Gohring and his staff. He has multiple instructors that work with all levels of students. Friendly, engaging, encouraging and involved would be how I describe them. I started in the Beginners and Intermediate Course with Instructor Cochran and now also study with Instructor Figg (of Octopus Project fame for you music geeks, like me). Master Gohring regularly takes over a class, or comes by for individual comments, suggestions or tips. I also really like the stories he tells, often at the end of class, of his background, Masters under whom he has studied or of the history of Tai Chi in general.
For me, Tai Chi has become a path I will travel for the rest of my journey. Maybe all this grace and coordination will lead to dance lessons next?

I wish I could give the school zero stars. Count me and my family among those feeling ripped off by the school. It’s been about 8 years, and I *still* have a bad taste in my mouth.
We were tied into a year-​long contract for our then-​5yo son for their kids’ program. At first, we didn’t mind, because things were great. His teacher, who had a son of his own, was great, and worked really well with kids. My DS *loved* going, so we didn’t mind paying the fee.
But then, after about 8 or 9 months, the teacher left, due to other responsibilities in his life. Another teacher, who shall remain nameless, but his initials are TG, took over, but he didn’t have the same rapport with the kids. At least not with my kid. Kung fu went from being fun to being dreaded. We had to struggle with DS to get him to go. It stopped being worth it.
We spoke with the school to see if they’d be willing, given the circumstances, to let us out of the contract. I know that, many places like this and gyms, expect a large dropout rate over time as people lose interest. But that wasn’t the case here. Had the teacher not changed, we would have happily continued.
We spoke with them, but they would not let us out of the contract. It was more important to them to get our monthly payment than it to meet the needs of the student (i.e. customer service). And, because of our experience with this school, we wound up keeping our son out of martial arts until recently, when we found a school that was offering a two-​month, no-​contract trial. (They’ve since discontinued contracts entirely.) And, from what I can tell from other reviews here, the cost is also more reasonable. You can read my review of that school elsewhere. But, the difference to me is day and night.

I was a student at Master Gohring’s school for about 3 months. I saved the receipts and can prove I have first-​hand knowledge of this business.
Pros: I actually enjoyed the class material and the location of the school was convenient. Although the beginner classes I attended were very crowded, the advanced level classes had a good student to teacher ratio and looked pretty fun. There is free parking, also a plus.
Cons: I feel like I got scammed. I was pressured into buying a really expensive uniform and signing an expensive contract for a whole year’s worth of lessons before I really knew what the classes would be like. Seriously, the pressure to buy a lot of stuff up front was really intense! I attended the beginner classes in the evenings and they were very crowded. I never felt like I got the individual attention I should from Master Gohring, and the level of instruction did not meet my expectations. After three months of lessons I didn’t see any improvement in my skills and the classes kept getting more crowded. Furthermore, I was sick of feeling guilty for not buying more merchandise and other extra lessons from the school. I decided to quit, but I was still stuck paying over $ 100 a month for crappy lessons. After I decided to quit I got about a million auto-​generated emails from the school asking me to come back and still trying to sell me more crap! Arrrrghh!
Bottom line: this school feels like a cult. You have to write a testimonial (like the ones on Unilocal) in order to graduate to the next belt, and there is a ton of pressure to buy merchandise and extra private lessons.
I would avoid taking classes here unless you are a huge fan of commitment and have money to burn.

To start with, I didn’t join Unilocal to do this. I joined Unilocal because Unilocal is just, well, cool. With a K. Or something. I have written other reviews, and will continue to do so as time goes on. Secondly, I am an experienced martial artist; I have studied varied forms of Tae Kwon Do, shotokan karate, and mixed martial arts. I have recently taken an interest in capoeira, and will be taking classes in that as well. I’m 28 years old, and I’ve been doing this since I was in elementary school. Third, yes, I’m a student of Sifu (that’s the Mandarin term for Master). Yes, I’m in the Certified Instructor Training.
This is an honest review. Some of it is glowing, some of it isn’t.
Yes, Sifu is good. Extremely good, actually. He is a natural teacher, and has an inherent understanding of people’s needs, sometimes even when they don’t. He knows who to pay attention to, who to praise, who to scold, and how to do it. He is a good TEACHER, and that is something that is all too rare in the martial arts world.
His own level of expertise, martially, is fairly beyond reproach. I don’t mean to say that he doesn’t make mistakes (he does), or that his knowledge is infallible (it’s not). Rather, I mean to say that he is a martial artist, not just a martial arts instructor. The arts are his passion in life and his actions reflect that. He has a Sifu himself, and there are many instructors who skip that part, and continues his learning as part of his daily routine. This means that he is constantly pushing himself in the same way he pushes the students, challenging his skills, understanding, and abilities on a regular basis. It also insures that he is not too far removed from the experience of being a student, which often results in arrogance and a lack of empathy. He also understands that you cannot teach what you cannot do; another rarity amongst instructors. Additionally, he teaches EVERY CLASS himself. Not assistant instructors, though they will occasionally lead the warm-​up, not «senior students», but Sifu himself. EVERY TIME. And that’s just HUGE.
When I started, I wanted Jet Li, not Bruce Lee — flash over substance because it LOOKED cool. I didn’t know much about kung fu (and really, there’s so much to know its scary), and no one volunteered to explain. As is common at most studios, the majority of students do not know much about the art they’re learning. Very few will sit through the history or lineage of a style, even when the information is presented for free, much less when its paid for. Over time, I found out through asking Sifu and various conversations.
Sifu teaches hung gar kung fu (a southern Chinese style) and t’ai chi. I don’t take the t’ai chi classes, though I have considered it, so I will not comment on it. Hung gar is rather different than I originally envisioned «kung fu» being. Hung gar is far more Bruce Lee than Jet Li, if you know what I mean. Lots of heavy stances, strong movements, and hard strikes. Now, I’m not complaining — these items are essential in the martial artist’s inventory. Too few arts spend enough time conquering the basics, and Sifu definitely does not skimp on it. You will not realize exactly how much time you spend in horse stance until you’ve progressed to the point where you begin to analyze your training instead of blindly accepting it. And then you realize that it’s a LOT.
As I’ve previously mentioned, I’ve studied all kinds of martial arts at many different schools. Some of these schools are very formal. Some of these schools are very casual, reminding me more of a gym or aerobics class. Sifu’s school is definitely on the formal side of things (though I have seen worse). There are advantages and disadvantages to this. To recognize these, you must understand the psychology of the average entry-​level student at a martial arts school. Generally, beginner adults are low in self confidence and esteem, physically unfit, and sometimes impaired by a medical condition. This does not breed the most aggressive student, as I’m sure you can imagine.
The formal environment can help foster a sense of self worth. For example, students address each other by last name, using Mister, Miss, or Misses, as well using «sir» and «ma’am» regularly, both to each other as well as the instructors. You may not see it, but if someone calls you «sir» often enough, and addresses you with respect long enough, you begin to believe them. Unsurprisingly, this tends to correlate directly to the student’s progress in the art as well. It also removes the ambiguity — erring on the side of caution — in dealing with teachers and students from other schools at tournaments and competitions.
REVIEW CONTINUED AT

Ok Unilocalers. Fasten your seat belts or something.
I didn’t wanna enter the fray. My hands are bugging me again. Red Warrior needs food, badly. Isn’t there some way to jack into this thing yet? But why not. I definitely know a bunch about (Master) Tom Gohring’s school, because I took lessons there for 7 years.
First, let me say Tom Gohring did not put me up to this review. I didn’t know he was on Unilocal.I wouldn’t have noticed if it wasn’t for the chatter in the Talk section about the self-​serving-​spam-​like reviews that are cropping up around here. But I’ll get to that later.
I left the school a year & a half ago because I did not want to continue to pursue the curriculum he had decided upon for his advanced students. This does not mean that it was not worth the cost, nor that the current advanced curriculum is not good. It just wasn’t what I wanted to do.
In any case, I learned quite a lot from Tom while I was there. I am not a very quick learner when it comes to body movement. In fact I’m really damn slow. Something about that part of my brain just sucks. Tom was very patient and was willing to show me how to practice the movements, repeatedly. He also has a knack for noticing right away whether your posture is correct for a particular movement. Additionally, I had been ill — as are/​have been a bunch of his students — and I was unable to do much exercise. But I kept going back, because it made me feel better. I’m not saying it cured me of all my ailments, but it was definitely something I could do when I couldn’t do anything else. Tom’s programs do motivate a lot of people to get moving.
Anyhow. This means if you can at least stand for a bit, or walk a bit, you can likely benefit from the kind of Tai Chi practice Tom offers. This includes standing posture work (commonly known as Qi Gong or Nei Kung), the short and long Yang style forms, and weapons forms. I’m not sure whether you could do this with a prosthetic limb, or if it would have the same health effects, but it is good to know that even if you are 90 years old, and are mobile with all your limbs intact, you can still practice.
Now, tangentially (word?), you may be wondering, since it’s primarily known for its health benefits, and lots of slow old people can do it, WTF? How is it a martial art? It’s for defending against slow attackers, ya? No. Tai Chi is an very smart martial art, in that you can use an extremely small amount of energy, by comparison to other martial arts, to fend off attackers. This doesn’t mean you instantly gain some kind of magic bullshit power instantaneously when you walk into the Tai chi studio, or that having a black belt (yes, Tom has belts now) means you are Bruce Lee. And it takes a long time to become really, REALLY good at tai chi application. The technique is not very obvious compared to other martial arts. But there is plenty of scientific evidence supporting that practicing Tai Chi does a bunch of good stuff for you, health wise, even if you haven’t got to the level where you can levitate and balance Yoda on your foot, or smack Jet Li down. ;) Also cool: you can still practice tai chi when you are quite a bit older, which is not necessarily true of some other martial arts that may require a lot more sheer muscular strength.
Can Tom utilize this stuff? Hell yes, he can. He also has a 6^th? 7^th? degree black belt in Hungar kung fu, but I cannot comment much on those classes since I never took any. I saw more kids and teens in the Kung Fu classes than adults, is about all I can say there. They looked pretty cool.
Now — Re: the glowing reviews by many people besides me. I am pretty sure I know at least 3 of those people, and they are not kidding when they mention their litany of medical problems. Did the awesome power of tai chi fix them right up? I do not know. I’m not much for the spiritual portion, apparently. I do know from personal experience that having some kind of exercise you can focus on sure beats having no exercise. Tai chi has also been called ‘moving meditation’, which between y’all and me, is way easier to focus on that plain sitting meditation where you just attempt to stay conscious and think of nothing.
I did not give Tom’s school five stars because while I do think he is very knowledgable and a good teacher, the fairly recent more formal atmosphere (which is not unlike many other martial arts schools where uniforms and other formalities must be observed) and contract requirements are not something I like very much. However, you will note if you do some research that many other martial arts schools that stay in business follow a similar model.
I still practice tai chi and qi gong every few days, and it still makes me feel better. Gracias, Master Gohring!
p. s. I can’t get behind the spam-​like links to the business in peoples’ reviews either, if it is against the common policy of Unilocal

I would first like to say how much of an honor it has been to study under Master Gohring for the past two years these have been very eye opening years. I have challenged myself in so many ways and have over come a lot of fears, there is still room to grow.
I have been a student for two years at Master Gohring School of Tai Chi and Kung Fu in austin, tx and I am having a great time. The staff is great the students are like family. I am currently enrolled in Tai Chi as well as Kung Fu, Master Gohring has an excellent curriculum in both programs. You will never get bored as the classes change up to keep you interested. The great thing about Master Gohring’s School is that you are learning the martial art you sign on for, you want to learn Kung Fu that is what you get no watered down system. master Gohring has an excellent understanding of martial arts not just Tai Chi and Kung Fu but Martial arts as a whole, which I belive makes him a better teacher. He is a very calm man and clearly enjoys teaching this art he has spent much of his life perfecting. I have told him many times how I get tired just thinking of all the classes he teaches. Everytime he teaches a new move to a student, be a new student or a veteran I always get the feeling like he is teaching it for the first time. He never seems to be bored with the same moves over and over, I absolutley love his enthusiasm.
The classes are never over crowded and asking questions is a good thing. You may feel overwhelmed at first but we all did, the great feeling comes when it just clicks and all starts to make sense, the feeling of accomplishment is celebrated by yourself and Master Gohring has been know to give a terrific ‚“Great Job!”
If you are looking for a school that you can enjoy with your spouse children or both a school with an excellent curriculum friendly staff and a classroom filled with friends then I do recommend Master Gohring“s school of Tai Chi and Kung Fu. Fun, relaxing and very good for your body and mind. See you in class.