Tai Chi

1 April 2022 As you all know, what we do in class takes a predictable form: This is pretty much like every class everywhere.  What I’d like to address in today’s post is what parts of the class I think the students ought to have some choice in, now and in the future. The first…

24 February 2022 Yesterday during class, I was honored by a visit from a fellow teacher here at the studio.  He came in and followed along with the last half of the class.  After class he asked me a question, and a valuable one, which I think deserves a better answer than I gave him. …

9 February 2022 You don’t get any awards for winning “Stump the Grandmaster.”  What you get is embarrassment, an awkward shrug, and (hopefully) the inspiration to find the answer – or the route to it – for yourself. I know this because this is exactly what happened when I asked Grandmaster Yang Jun a question…

Questions January 2022 New Years symbolizes optimism, potential, hope and expectations.  It’s my hope that 2022 will be a year of growth and enrichment for all my students. I’ve said before that my goal as a tai chi teacher is to get my students to a point where they need a better teacher than I…

16 December 2021 No one needs to be told how to breathe.  It’s automatic.  What I didn’t know before a week or two ago, however, is that humans are one of very few creatures who can override our automatic breathing and control it consciously.  I don’t know why this is so and if anyone else…

21 November 2021 “If my opponent does not move, I do not move.  The instant he moves, I am already there.”EXPOSITIONS OF INSIGHTS INTO THE PRACTICE OF THE THIRTEEN POSTURESby Wu Yu-hsiang In his book “The Martial Arts Teacher – a Practical Path for a Noble Way,” author Jonathan Bluestein advises that the teacher should…

This morning my students took a lot longer to get started than normal.  I showed up early and was finished with an entire qigong routine before any of them had arrived.  They spent a great deal of time chatting and catching up – it’s been several weeks since we were all together, and it took…