Paul Mahoney, Founder and Head Instructor, Great Bay Tai Chi

Paul is the founder of Great Bay Tai Chi. He is a Taijiquan and Qigong (Chi Kung) master and an expert in martial Taijiquan which includes Pushing Hands and Chin Na as well as other related practices. 

Paul spent a decade studying hard style martial arts, including Korean Tae Kwon Do and Okinawan Uechi Ryu in the 1970’s before discovering the internal martial arts. After attending a seminar with Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming in Boston in 1982 he was hooked and has been fascinated with the internal styles ever since, and now has been a practitioner of the internal martial arts for well over thirty years. He was an assistant instructor of Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming (founder of Yang’s Martial Arts Association) for Tai Chi and Shaolin Chin Na for many years. He is a former winner of the USA championship push hands competition for the 170 lb division at the 2000 “A Taste of China” tournament in Winchester, Virginia.

Paul has had the good fortune to have trained with some top internal martial arts masters.  He incorporates these experiences into his teaching style. Because of Paul’s connection to YMAA he had the opportunity to take many seminars and classes with Master Liang Shou Yu, Wei Lun Huang and others. 

Paul was a regular Taijiquan and Qigong student of Master Ramel Rones for several years and has had the well known Master Rones visit Great Bay Tai Chi to offer qigong seminars. 

Paul also studied Xingyiquan with Tai Ngo through YMAA. 

In 2009 Paul studied Wudang Natural-Style Martial Art under the late 25th generation master Shan Gui Wen when master Shan spent the summer in NH to teach Great Bay Tai Chi students his arts including   Wudang Taijiquan, a blend of Taijiquan , Xingyiquan and Bagua Zhang with roots that go back 600 years. 

Paul has taught classes in many locations under the name Great Bay Tai Chi since 1996 including Salem, Hamilton, Newburyport, and Amesbury, Massachusetts, as well as New Hampshire classes in Stratham and Newmarket.  

These days Paul is semi-retired from teaching. He serves as a mentor and teacher to the Great Bay Tai Chi MA instructors and students. He teaches a limited number of classes in Woodstock, Vermont, and Lebanon, New Hampshire, under the name Great Bay Tai Chi North.