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!
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.
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’m pleased to announce we will be hosting a workshop for Wudang Practical Tai Chi Chuan practitioners at Portslade Sports Centre (BN41 2WS) on Saturday 11th June 2022, 2-5pm. Open to all who recognise the Yang Lu-chan, Wu family, Cheng Tin-hung, Dan Docherty lineage.
I have been nagging Peter to restart the monthly workshops in Horsham for a while and he and Barbara suggested we alternate venues between Horsham and Hove. Peter was going to host the first in May but found Forest School was no longer available on a Saturday afternoon. He will hopefully be able to find an alternative venue for July.
Format and cost will be much the same as usual – £5 per hour. 1st hour Warm up & Hand Forms, 2nd hour Pushing Hands and Applications, 3rd hour Weapons Forms & Applications.
If coming by train I may be able to arrange a lift from Portslade Station though there are frequent buses.
Hope to see old friends and make new ones on the 11th but please let me know if you are coming so I have an idea of numbers.
I have been neglecting this blog and chatting to regular students through the WhatsApp group but I thought I should explain what is going on, during the Covid-19 pandemic, here in case anyone is looking to Tai Chi Chuan, for help in these difficult times.
We started with a class outside on the prom on Thursday 19th March as the King Alfred closed. When that was proscribed we moved on-line and had our first Zoomcast class at our usual time, 8pm, on Thur 26th. It was a bit chaotic but everyone seemed to think it was well worth doing so I shall persist – I have ordered a headset!
If you want to join us, contact me and I’ll tell you how.
I am also thinking of running an introduction to Baduanjin, the qigong set I teach. I usually recommend it particularly to the elderly and infirm as it is both easier to learn and less strenuous than Taijiquan but I have personally found it useful when recovering from illness. It is also ideal under current constraints as you only need enough space to stand and swing your arms. If there is interest I will start this after Easter in place of Tai Chi in Wish Park on Tuesday evenings.
Finally, if you want to find out a bit more about my credentials to teach I am proud to say my sifu, Dan Docherty invited me to join the Featured Instructors on his website last year :- https://www.taichichuan.co.uk/where-to-learn/featured-instructor.html
Put the date in your diary NOW!
As you all know these are always interesting and informative so be there or be square!
It will be at Forest Boys School as usual and cost will be £45.00 from 2.00-5.00pm
I love Radio4! Just been listening to The Museum of Curiosity (Series 13 Episode 1) in which Benjamin Zephaniah gave an impassioned case for donating Tai Chi. It was great even though some of what he said was disputable!
Yang based styles, for example, are not always slow. Yes, the hand form is mostly done in a slow and controlled manner but some moves, such as Double Hand Sweep Lotus Leg, are quick and besides I do the whole form much quicker on a chilly winter morning than a warm summer’s evening!
As for it not being an effective martial art and “you would be better off doing Kick Boxing or Karate”, that may be true of his Chen style but my Sifu Dan Docherty, his Sifu Chen Tin-hung and several elder brothers in Tai Chi have demonstrated that a full system of Wudang, Practical Tai Chi Chuan is. (N.B. WPTCC is in the Yang/Wu family lineage NOT Chen family despite the name – see ‘The Complete Tai Chi Tutor’ by Dan Docherty for detailed lineages etc.)
Also listened to Start the Week with Andrew Marr interviewing Yuval Noah Harari, the author of Sapiens and Homo Deus. Well worth a listen though they don’t mention Tai Chi!
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.
This site has a little information about Tai Chi, the classes in Hove that I teach and an occasional blog. I see no point in reproducing what you can find elsewhere on the web so I have just included a page of links to relevant sites.
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!