Eye-hand coordination of elderly people who practice Tai Chi Chuan

Remember the scene from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon where Yu Xiulian (Michele Yeoh) \"accidentally\" knocks her teacup off the table next to Yu Jiaolong (Zhang Ziyi) who \"happens\" to catch it? What was that all about? The fact that Xiulian was testing an aspect of Jiaolong\'s gong (gong being hard to hide in an accident or emergency) probably went over the heads of most American viewers. Some people I have asked don\'t remember the scene at all. Taiji practitioners might find this scene more memorable because we make the occasional uncanny save, catching tea cups, cell phones, and other fragile gravity sensitive valuables, before realizing what we have done. While it is easy to pass this kind of incident off as dumb luck, a recent study published in the Journal of the Formosan Medical Association showed that experienced taiji practitioners had significantly better hand-eye coordination than controls.

The study involved 42 healthy older adults, 22 taiji practitioners with more than three years experience, and 20 controls. Both groups were subject to a targeting test that required them to make sudden hand contact with targets ranging in size from 1-2cm. Pause time, movement duration, peak velocity, start and end positions, and number of submovements were all recorded. The taiji group had significantly better accuracy, efficiency, and reaction time. While both groups had similar peak velocities the taiji group achieved peak velocity faster and demonstrated better control of force. This result resonates with the findings in Christou and Yang\'s (2003) study, which also showed better force control in the taiji population. So next time you are in the antique store, or china shop, walk with confidence knowing you won\'t have to pay for anything you didn\'t mean to buy.