Club website and Tim's Blog
For those of you with some experience, an event not to be missed:-
The Inaugral OZYMANDIUS TAI CHI CAMP!!!!
Venue: The College of Richard Collyer, Horsham RH12 2EJ
Date: Early Spring Bank Holiday Weekend 4th-6th May
Three whole days of Wudang or Practical Tai Chi Chuan. Obviously you don’t have to do all of them.
Sessions will be lead by a number of Dan’s best known students from this country and abroad.
Click on the King of Kings above for details.
I can’t wait!
At last the trees are bursting into leaf and the evenings are staying lighter longer so it’s time for Taiji & Qigong in the park to re-start for the summer, even if it is still a bit chilly.
So, next Tuesday, 16th April, we will be in Wish Park 6.45-7.45pm and every week thereafter until Septemberish. The class is open to all abilities including complete beginners. If you want to find out what these mysterious Eastern arts are all about just come along and join us, no booking required, cost just £5.
If you want to know a bit more first look at the About & Classes pages or contact me via the email/phone number thereon.
I’m looking forward to meeting old friends and making some new ones. See you there, just remember to dress for the weather!
After the disappointing early closure of the King Alfred, we have had our last class of the year and I have started planning for 2024. We will start back on the first Thursday after New Year.
I shall run a 6 week Beginners Tai Chi Course alongside the regular weekly classes starting on the 4th January. If you are looking to try out a full system of Tai Chi then this is the course for you. We will cover the first few moves of the Short Hand Form, some Pushing Hands drills and a bit of History and Theory but don’t worry, there is no exam at the end! Email, text or call me to book your place and/or ask any questions.
The next Advanced Workshop in Horsham will take place on Saturday 6th January – ask me , or see Peter’s site for details.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all, including those I haven’t seen for a while – it’s never too late to re-start!
I’m looking forward to the usual monthly Advanced Workshop in Horsham this Saturday, 4th November.
Usual format:
Cost:
Location:
In case you don’t know, there is a Nei-gong session beforehand for Menren, ‘inside the door students’ of PTCC.
The Nei-gong exercises require a degree of effort not everyone can commit to and are not taught in open class. There are 12 Yin and 12 Yang exercises some quite demanding, and some more meditative. Each set can be done in under an hour, at the basic level, but should be done daily initially. If you would like to find out more speak to me or Peter.
After another great workshop with Peter in Horsham at the start of June we are back in Hove on Saturday 1st July. It was particularly good to see a few people I haven’t seen for ages.
I know I don’t have Peter’s depth of knowledge, and it is a bit further for many of you to travel, but I do hope more of you can make it south of the Downs this time as it is so good to train with experienced players and exchange ideas – we all learned some things slightly differently from Dan.
Usual time, venue, format and cost see Peter’s Site for details. Unlike Peter, I can’t include a Nei-gong session beforehand but all ‘men-ren’ are welcome to join the Wish Wudang twice weekly Zoom sessions from 7.45-8.25am . Yin set every Tuesday and and Yang every Friday (Alternating between sets 1&2 and 2&3 because all 12 take longer than a free Zoom!). Just DM me for login details.
Qi-gong/tai-ji in the park is not proving that popular this year – a few ‘newbies’ have tried it but none have stuck as yet. So, if you have just stumbled on this site, and are looking to try Tai Chi or Qi-gong this summer, feel free to come along and give it a go. We meet in the middle of Wish Park/Aldrington Recreation Ground at 6.45pm on Tuesday evenings up until September.
The next advanced workshop will be at Hove Park School, Neville Campus BN3 7BN, on Saturday 13th May. (Moved from the usual first Saturday of the month as it clashed with a certain event in town!).
Usual format & cost, £10 per hour but only £20 for the three:
2-3pm Hand Forms – ‘Not Tiger Stretching’ to warm up followed by Short, Advanced Short, Long plus mirror forms if we have time,
3-4pm Push Hands and Applications – let’s concentrate, this time, on the 9(?) within Grasping Birds Tail after Parry and Punch and before Single Whip,
4-5pm Weapons forms and Applications – prompted by Mattias Nyrell’s Facebook post on Sword Form 88 and the discussion that followed I would like to go over the apps that appear later in the form starting with Support the Beam to Replace the Column. WOODEN WEAPONS ONLY for applications.
Looking forward to it. Hope to see you there.
P.S. Anyone fancy coming to Rencontre Jasnieres this year? Godfrey, Saar and Albert are leading sessions so would be good to support Dan’s Wudang Style.
I was looking forward to continuing the outdoor sessions in the park this evening but have decided it is just too grim out there, even with a hat!
Looking forward to next week!
By the way I am also trying to change the date of the next Advanced Workshop in Hove. The first Saturday of May is the 6th which I’m told clashes with a certain national event so I am negotiating with the School to move to the following Saturday, 13th May. I will confirm here and on WhatsApp in due course.
I’m looking forward to hosting the next, monthly, workshop on Saturday 4th March.
Usual venue – Hove Park School Sports Hall on the Neville Campus.
Usual time and format:- 2-3pm Hand Forms, 3-4pm Push Hands and Applications, 4-5pm Weapons including Applications (Wooden/plastic de rigueur for apps)
Contact me for details or visit:
https://www.horshamtcc.co.uk/where-to-learn/advanced-workshops
See you Saturday
I know Richard posted this on the WhatsApp group but anyone who practices or is thinking of practising Tai Chi should have a listen to this episode of Just One Thing by Dr. Michael Mosely. It looks briefly at the growing evidence for the health benefits of the martial art of Tai Chi admittedly without any actual reference to the martial side!
There is a “taster” video on the BBC Make Your Move webpages. It is simplified but gives an indication of one element of Tai Chi, the hand form, though it is not a style I recognise and shows no martial intent. Michael also mentions a video on the NHS website but I cannot find it. Please let me know if you can.
If you want to see what our hand form looks like I suggest you visit Peter Ballam’s website or come to the King Alfred Leisure Centre any Thursday evening from 8-9pm and see it for real.
The health benefits are also real and it is a practical and effective martial art but you don’t have to do any actual fighting unless you really want to. ; )
Jade Rabbit pounding the Elixir of Life for the Moon Goddess Chang Er.
To celebrate the new year we will have a meal out on Friday 3rd February. Details on WhatsApp Group.
2023 has started well with very good attendance on Thursdays at the King Alfred. However, disappointingly, only one new player so far this year, despite 3 indications of interest in a new beginners class. Never mind, we have a good little group learning the Short Form some of whom are close to the end of ‘Square Style’. I’m looking forward to rounding off their form in the coming months.
The monthly workshops for experienced practitioners re-started on Saturday 7th January and all, I think, found it really useful. I certainly did, in particular discovering I had changed an angle in the sword form! I am now struggling to correct this but it has inspired me to train harder. Next workshop is in Horsham on 4th February hosted by Peter Ballam – put it in your diary now! Lift available from Hove as usual.