Whether you are enrolled in our courses via the Online Resource Membership, or prefer to purchase courses individually, it is important to learn progressively in order to develop your skills properly.

This page has been created to outline the course progressions suitable for different interests and areas of focus.  These are organized into "training trajectories" designed for optimal learning.  We highly recommend taking courses as they are ordered, as the skills from one course build to the next.

You can start with any area of focus that you wish.  If you complete one section and would like to progress to other material, you can simply refer back to this page and explore where you might like to go next. 

Of course, there is overlap in many areas of training, as the same fundamentals are essential for many of our offerings.  Please do not neglect the fundamentals, as this is the basis for all further training, and you may find later courses confusing if you do not practice these thoroughly.

Our online education platform is still growing.  Our system is quite large and always evolving.  We are looking forward to continuing to build a comprehensive online course program to cover as many facets of the internal martial arts as is possible in this format, and provide a well-rounded and thorough education for all who are interested.

To learn more about our system and access videos and articles authored by us, please visit the Resources page.

For members, these training trajectories and other resources are also included in the "Membership Portal" course on your dashboard.  These training outlines are updated as new courses are added to the platform.

Qigong Focus

The Qigong Focus is best if you are interested in more mellow, Qi cultivating practices.  This focus is good for people who are interested in health.  This focus contains Qigong exercises and practices that are simpler, and any form training is short and light.

Chen Style Tai Chi Chuan Focus

The Chen Style Tai Chi training provides an excellent and important foundation that is extremely helpful for any training in our curriculum.  For those who still want gentle training but are ready to go forward into learning a form, the Tai Chi form is an excellent next step.  For others who are interested in Baguazhang, Tao Style, and beyond, Tai Chi is an essential building block that will greatly enhance understanding of any further training.

The Tai Chi form is important for proper learning of Tai Chi principles.  Its linear structure makes it ideal for development of stances, posture, rooting, intention, balancing yin & yang, cultivating softness, and building Qi.  All of these are core skills to internal martial arts training.

Baguazhang Focus

The Baguazhang focus is for those who want to develop more fluidity, strength and dexterity in their practice.  Baguazhang is excellent for Qi cultivation development and is built upon circular footwork training that is both extraordinarily versatile and practical from a martial art perspective, but also deeply alchemical from the Taoist internal arts perspective.

Tao Style Focus

Tao Style is Sifu Paolillo's personal transmission of kung fu.  This style contains aspects of the various traditional styles in our curriculum:  Tai Chi Ch'uan, Baguazhang, and Praying Mantis.  This is the most versatile, unique, and free flowing movement that we offer.  The Tao Style focus will contain aspects of Baguazhang basic training.  The forms in this section all contain specialized methods that build both the martial skill and the Qi body.

Weapons Focus

The weapons focus is for those who have a solid grasp of their empty hand training and would like to go to the next level.  In this focus we cover the basic techniques of the four major weapons.

Weapons training is available on Tier 2 of the Online Resource Membership.

Lectures

These lecture courses are not associated with any specific training trajectory and can be viewed anytime.  Lectures cover topics that pertain to all levels of training and are recommended for understanding the philosophical and theoretical side to practice.

Instructors

Sifu Frank J. Paolillo

Founder & Master Instructor

Sifu Frank J. Paolillo is the Founder and Master Instructor of the Tao Institute. With over fifty years of daily dedication and study in the martial arts, Sifu Paolillo brings a wealth of knowledge and depth of experience to his teaching and creative martial art work. Sifu’s focus is on cultivating the Tao as a way of life through internal martial arts, meditation, and qigong, and imparts to his students a true transmission of Tao through the training of form and formless.

Mela Carreira

Assistant Instructor

Mela is a dedicated student and assistant instructor to Sifu Paolillo. A martial arts practitioner since 2001, Mela was called to the internal arts and Asheville area in 2011, where she first began training at Tao Institute. Over the course of her training, Mela has come to understand, live by and deeply respect the philosophies of the martial arts and Tao in every day life. Mela teaches the entry level classes at Tao Institute and is a main assistant under the direct supervision of Sifu Paolillo in classes throughout the curriculum.