Category: Wudang Taijiquan

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Tai Chi in the Park is Blooming

Great to see so many new faces at Tai Chi in the Park this evening. Hope you all enjoyed it.

We covered: Stances, Seven Stars & Four directions Pushing Hands, the first twelve moves of the Short Square Form, Wave Hands in Clouds. I also explained that there are 5 elements in the Wudang System: Hand Forms, Weapon Forms, Pushing Hands, Self Defence Applications and Nei Gong.

If you go to my teacher Peter Ballam’s site through the Links page above you will find video’s of all the Forms and Pushing Hands. If you want to find out more about Tai Chi and the Wudang Style in particular then visit my Sifu Dan Docherty’s site.

I should have mentioned that we shall be at WISHFEST with an information desk in the Health & Wellbeing Area again this year. There will also be a demo at 4pm (England will hopefully be in the World Cup final not the third place play-off!) which you are welcome to join in. If not, I hope to see you all again next Monday.

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Summer Tai Chi in Wish Park 2018

Hopefully that was the last of the winter weather so we can look forward to a beautiful Summer of Tai Chi in the Park starting on Monday 14th May. We shall concentrate on Dao-quan and Tui-shou, that is Hand Forms and Pushing Hands.

I shall put some cards/posters around in the hope of attracting some new participants to the finest exercise system and martial art in the world.  If you are reading this thinking about taking up Tai Chi then please do come and join us. It is a small friendly group you will quickly feel at home in and if you are interested in the martial rather than just the health side please let me know. Check out the pages on this site and the links to my teachers for more information or give me a call on Brighton 276695.

When: Monday Evenings 6.45-7.45pm.

Where:  Wish Park – in the middle on the South side.

Cost: A measly £5 (Discount for members i.e. regulars to the Thursday class)

Weather: If it rains wear a hat, I will be there!

Parking: If you must drive be aware that there is limited Pay by Phone parking in Saxon Rd. The rest is residents only from 7 until 8. You can also park, for free, by Hove Lagoon if you don’t mind a little walk.

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Chinese Characters on Radio 4

I’m really enjoying Chinese Characters (1.45pm Mon-Fri Radio 4) although it has made no mention of taiji or any other martial art so far (Episode 4/20).  It is a series of essays exploring Chinese history through the life stories of key personalities.

Even most of us sinophiles can find getting to grips with Chinese history overwhelming but these bite sized stories give a real feeling for the culture, its length and scope.

There are 20 episodes, so a month of lunchtime radio to look forward to or you can download the podcast :-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09zgd6y/episodes/downloads

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Review of The Truth About Getting Fit with Michael Mosley

Enjoyed program by “Trust me, I’m a doctor”, presented by Michael Mosley on BBC1 on Wednesday night- The Truth About Getting Fit.

It looked at the latest research, staged some ‘illustrative’ experiments and ended up recommending brisk walking (Moving step push hands, weapons forms), weights (Hand stands & Nei-gong) and dancing (Hand Form, applications, freestyle push hands) unless you fancy HIT – High Intensity Training (rolls + Running Thunder Hands!). Interesting that HIT only really works heart and thighs but the effects transfer to all muscles.

Also, Getting Fit does NOT need will power, which will always let you down(!), but immediate enjoyment (Chat and catch up during 7 Stars) as a reward plus the camaraderie of a group (Keen members of Wish Wudang Tai Chi Club always go to the pub afterwards and most attend the Spring Festival meal and Summer BBQ!).

Looks like our system, Wish Wudang Tai Chi Chuan, covers all bases but then it has been refined by trial and error over several hundred years so I am not surprised, just smug!

And how did I do in the tests? 10 in 11s and PR 93 which is OK at 71.

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Enjoyable discussion about Kong jin, Empty Force

There has been a fun discussion on Facebook after someone posted video of a charlatan in a Chinese park bouncing some poor acolyte around using empty force. Dan then posted on his blog http://www.taichichuan.co.uk/blog.html  an account of the famous Water Incident when a certain renowned purveyor of kong jin,  Dr Shen Hongxun, was made to look rather foolish.

I first heard about mt force in a book on karate I read as a young teenager (what is now, bizarrely,  called a ‘young adult’). In it an old master was said to be able to project his Qi by shouting “KAI!!!” and could use this to knock birds out of trees. I was both fascinated by the idea of being able to cultivate such a power yet disappointed at its weakness. Now if it could lift a spaceship out of a swamp…  but this was a long, long time ago before Star Wars was a twinkle in George’s eye and I guess most kids dream of having super powers.

That, of course, is what brought me to martial arts. I quickly found that at Judo a good little’un could beat a big’un but a good big’un was more of a problem and I was a little’un! The answer, of course, is to train harder and longer than the big b******s and so to have gongfu – skill acquired through hard training. By the way the term can apply to any skill not just the martial arts.

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Introduction to Tai Chi Course starting 11th February 2018

Just had first booking for the Beginners Tai Chi Course and it was first proper message to my new email at this new site.  Woohoo! This is often the most popular course of the year as people make New Year Resolutions and look for ways to get fit and work off those extra pounds put on over Christmas.

Many people don’t think of Tai Chi as aerobic enough to burn off the calories but the Tui-shou or pushing hands exercises and weapons forms certainly can. It depends how fast you do them! Continue reading “Introduction to Tai Chi Course starting 11th February 2018”

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Christmas and New Year

Thursday 28th December – the King Alfred is closed in  the evening so no class.

Thursday 21st December – I shall be off to my eldest daughter’s for Christmas but Rik and Will have volunteered to run a session so please come if you can.

Saturday 16th December 8am – this session will be my last of the year but speak to Rik who may be around on the 23rd & 30th.

Back to normal on Thursday 4th January and don’t forget Peter’s workshop in Horsham on the Saturday 6th.

I am advertising a 6 week ‘Beginners Tai Chi  Course’ starting on Thursday 11th Jan. Continue reading “Christmas and New Year”

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Cheng Kam-yan son of Cheng Tin-hung

Jonathan posted on the FaceBook group that he had recently had the pleasure of training with Cheng Tinhung’s youngest son in Hong Kong. Some really good video of various Wudang  tuishou/pushing hands. In fixed step free-style Jonathan got a couple of draws but didn’t score once so said he ‘must train harder’ an attitude I respect!

You can see this at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74LW25_qQkU or just search youtube for Cheng Kam Yan.

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Great workshop with Dan Docherty

Had a really good workshop with Dan in Horsham today. Lots of applications as usual then Short Form Mirror followed by a choice of spear or sabre.

We worked through applications illustrating the eight ways of using the sabre Pi – chop, Ci – stab, Tan – slash up to groin, Tuo – push up with both hands, Ti – divert up, Liao – stir and slash, Chen – press down and Lu – divert to the side. They are often used together as in Ti Pi which is an upward diversion to a stab followed by a chop to the attacker’s arm.

We ended with the Brush Knee sequence that takes you round in a full circle. It is beginning to make sense until I try to do it on my own.

Thanks Dan and thanks for the Song coin. If I keep coming perhaps I’ll earn a whole string!