Tai Chi will Debut at the 2025 National Senior Games. Here’s Why All Athletes Should Try It.
By Andrew Walker, MPH; NSGA Director of Health & Well-Being
During the 2008 Summer Olympics in China, the beauty and wonder of Tai Chi Chun were displayed for the world during the opening and closing ceremonies. Often called “meditation in motion,” this martial art utilizes slow, controlled movements that connect the mind and body.
When practiced for health, Tai Chi Chun is known as “tai chi.” This activity has gained popularity among older adults in recent years for good reasons. Tai chi is widely recognized for preventing falls, managing arthritis and helping seniors maintain their abilities. It also provides benefits for athletes in all sports.
Physical Benefits for Athletes
Some professional athletes use martial arts training to enhance their sports performance, and senior athletes should take note. Strong evidence shows that tai chi for health improves sports-related skills like balance, flexibility, mobility and mental focus. Additionally, activities from tai chi warm-ups will help you prepare for any kind of exercise.
Like in sports, self-defense and martial arts skills are developed by repeating basic movements. Tai chi skills are developed by practicing a sequence of hand forms that require a deep body awareness in relationship to things and people in your environment. This creates a refined internal sense of balance and strength, which can benefit any athlete.
Mental Strengthening
Tai chi also helps individuals build strong mental focus, an essential skill in sports. When we practice tai chi for health or martial arts, we develop a deeper sense of how we move and use our bodies to manage external forces. We are more mindful of our movements, which enhances our concentration, resulting in greater mental calmness.
Resources to Get Started
Ready to try it out? These two videos will introduce you to basic tai chi movements.
- Traditional Tai Chi Elements (Harvard Medical School)
- Tai Chi for Beginners (Dr. Paul Lam)
Tai Chi to Debut at the 2025 National Senior Games Competition
As a practitioner, I’m thrilled that competitive Tai Chi Chun will debut as an open sport at the National Senior Games in 2025. That means anyone ages 50+ can participate!
I practice Tai Chi Chun because of how it makes me feel – it creates a deep, abiding sense of calm and relaxation. I can literally feel the circulation changing in my hands. I also enjoy the meditative movement and sense of flow that comes from coordinating my movements, mind and breath.
The benefits of tai chi for health or as a martial art will be displayed during competition at The Games in 2025. This exciting showcase will allow participants to explore and display their martial arts skills. See you there!
- Published in Health & Well-Being, News and Events
Now Playing: New Video Player Showcases Athletes 50+
Move over, YouTube. There’s a new stream in town showcasing some of the most fascinating and inspiring people – senior athletes.
The National Senior Games Association and our Official Media Partner, Growing Bolder, are excited to debut a video player on the NSGA website where viewers can watch a playlist of inspirational video features on Senior Games athletes, 24/7, for free. The playlist will be refreshed regularly from Growing Bolder’s extensive library of content from the National Senior Games, so check back often! All you need to do is go to NSGA.com/Video.
These stories show how real people are improving their health and well-being, finding community and pushing boundaries after age 50 through sports.
“The best way to understand what the National Senior Games is all about is by watching and listening to our athletes,” shared NSGA President & CEO Sue Hlavacek. “This playlist featuring participants from all walks of life will spread positive messages on aging and help motivate more older adults to be active.”
Athletes from the more than 20 different NSGA sports will be featured on the player. The curated video collection is made possible through Growing Bolder’s new active lifestyle streaming platform for adults ages 50+, Watch.GrowingBolder.com.
“Senior Games athletes are not only changing their lives, their inspiring example is changing lives far beyond the National Senior Games movement,” says Marc Middleton, CEO of Growing Bolder and a National Senior Games competitor himself. “The takeaway from watching these videos is that more is possible, hope is eternal, friendships are critical and everyone of every ability is welcomed, encouraged and supported.”
If you want your family and friends to know more about the National Senior Games, and hope to inspire others to join in the health and well-being movement, these Growing Bolder video stories are a great way to share The Games experience and showcase why investing in your own fitness level can be so rewarding.
Click here to watch these stories, and continue on your journey to the 2025 National Senior Games in Des Moines, where you might find yourself in a Growing Bolder video feature!
- Published in News and Events
Elite Swimmer, Coach Draws Inspiration from Others
April 2024 Athlete of the Month
By Del Moon, NSGA PR Specialist
Susan Ingraham, 64
San Antonio, Texas
Susan Ingraham makes waves in the pool in more ways than one. The sleek elite Texas swimmer has stacked up medals and accolades since she returned to competitive swimming 21 years ago after a long break. However, she is equally an innovative and passionate teacher who is sacrificing some of her personal training time to coach all ages, especially seniors.
She says it’s worth it.
“People say I’m an inspiration, but I think it’s the other way around,” the nearly 65-year-old says. “I coach masters swimmers in the morning and teach kids to swim the afternoons. I also hold clinics and help stroke victims and amputees adapt to do the kind of exercise they can do and love. The seniors are special to me because I see people in their 80s, 90s, even 100 years old still going for it. It is just so inspiring to know that it’s part of my future I can look forward to.”
Elite athletes do not always make for expert coaches. Susan helps her students “get it” through effective communication and found unusual ways to teach. “It’s hard to get feedback in swimming. When you’re breathing left you have no idea what your right arm is doing,” she explains. “So I place mirrors made out of polished aluminum sheets on the pool bottom so they can see what they are doing as they swim over. They can make corrections because now they see themselves.”
Getting Back in the Swim
Susan has already carved an impressive masters competition history, as evidenced by the long list of credits on her US Masters Swimming bio page. Her involvement in Senior Games was a cornerstone of her experience.
When her family moved to San Antonio, Susan became aquatics director for the Jewish Community Center working with swimmers of all ages and abilities. The center also hosts the Texas Senior Games, and she was recruited to chair the swimming events, which she still does today. Susan also created the Masters of South Texas swimming club, which she estimates has brought more than 35 older swimmers into Senior Games.
“I was 40 when I started as aquatics director,” she says. “When I turned 50, I told them it’s my turn now to join in Senior Games. The director, Cathy Pottorf, told me she needed me to do both and stay on as the chair. I do it because I love what it was all about. I totally understand the core emphasis of getting people over 50 to be active.”
The former physical education teacher felt she could be competitive again when she got back into training after two decades. Susan was still pleasantly surprised how quickly her body remembered how to race. She participates in both indoor and open swim masters events here and abroad and is building an impressive National Senior Games career where she is usually on top of the podium.
Susan with fellow National Senior Games swimmer Sara Sievert.
She “only” earned two gold, three silver and one bronze in Pittsburgh at the 2023 National Senior Games presented by Humana, but says it was not unexpected.
“I was at the top of my age group, plus I had been training to swim the Strait of Gibraltar for a couple of years,” she explains. “My emphasis was on long distance swims, and I was working on the muscles that help with endurance. So it took a good nine months to get my speed back.”
Awards are not an obsession in her mind. “If I get up on the award podium, that’s fantastic, but if I don’t that’s OK too,” she shares. “To me, it’s always about my friends and enjoying where I go. It’s not all about winning.”
Born to Be in the Water
Susan learned to love water growing up on California beaches and took swimming lessons largely to do it with her young friends. “Then, when I got to high school I grew up and realized that if I tried and practiced hard, I could get faster,” she recalls. “I was a multi-sport athlete but I really, really enjoyed being in the water.”
Next was a scholarship to the University of Arizona where she became captain of the swim team. It was there Susan met her husband Corky, a football athlete who would later have some time in the pros. After college she left the pool and focused on being a PE teacher, coach and mother of three children. When she dove back in after two decades it was with a different mindset than college. “You would think it was the competition that I missed, but for me it was the practices and the challenges I face every day. I was missing that.”
What keeps her going? “The two things that motivate me most are finding challenging swims and competitions, and then enjoying the destinations where I go to compete,” she says. “This summer I am going to Trinidad, so that’s a motivation for me to swim well. I just want to stay in shape and see where this takes me with my friends.”
- Published in Athlete of the Month