INSTRUCTOR -
Jerry Punzal
| Instructors Name: | Jerry Punzal |
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| Suburb: | Honolulu | |
| State: | HA | |
| Postcode: | 96819 | |
| Country: | United States | |
| Phone: | 255 2943 | |
| Email: | cels@hawaii.rr.com | |
| Instructor Profile: | Jerry is a 59 year old native of Oahu, Hawaii. After a few years of college in Ventura California, Jerry enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, and served 3 years in South East Asia. Following military service, he returned to Hawaii and completed his AA degree. Jerry studied Tai Chi Chuan for about 10 years, then was asked to instruct at the Institute of Zen Studies of Hawaii. The curriculum was Yang style short form, application, push hand practice, and sitting meditation. In following his teacher’s philosophy of “no pain no gain”, the program was very regimented and physically taxing on participants. Jerry heard of Dr. Lam’s program, and attended a workshop led by Troyce Thome. The training methods and the overall approach that the TCA program took toward Tai chi practice and teaching was very comfortable to him. He became certified for TCA in 2004, and with great support from the local Arthritis foundation, now instructs 7 hours of TCA classes a week. To date, 7 of his students have gone on to become TCA certified. In 2007, Jerry hosted Troyce in Hawaii, and her workshop produced 15 more TCA instructors. He has attended 2 of Dr. Lam’s weeklong workshops in Monterey and Sarasota. Though Jerry continues to train in Yang and Chen styles for personal growth, he has decided to concentrate his instructing efforts to health based programs like TCA. He has come to embrace the concept where staying within each individual’s comfort zone is key, and modifying movements according to each person’s needs and abilities. Students are mostly seniors with some form of arthritis, fibromyalgia, Parkinson’s, or recovering from surgery, accidents, or stroke. Observable improvements in the areas of range of motion, balance, strength, pain and stress management in participants convinces me to continue to study and promote this important program in my community. Jerry recently spent a week at Harvard Medical School where he learned a Tai chi protocol that was developed by Doctors Gloria Yeh and Peter Wayne of the Osher Center for Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies. They have been studying the effects of Tai chi on various ailments and are presently doing a clinical study with chronic heart failure patients. Jerry was sent by the Queens Medical Center in Hawaii to learn and teach this protocol which will be used in a randomized controlled pilot trial to study the effects of Tai Chi on morbidly obese North Pacific Islanders. He will be integrating TCA teaching concepts and methods when instructing in this study. |
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| Instructor Qualifications: |
 Senior Trainer |
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