Tai Chi Blog

12 May 2022 Tai chi as a traditional martial art is similar in many ways to every other martial art.  We use the energy in an opponent’s action against him – this is no different than jujitsu or aikido.  We have blocks, punches and kicks – so do hapkido, karate, xingyi quan and the Shaolin…

1 April 2022 As you all know, what we do in class takes a predictable form: Qigong Review of what we’ve learned New instruction Practice of new instruction 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…

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…

A few years ago, I was talking with someone about tai chi and she said she couldn’t do it because she was clumsy and had no balance.  I told her, “This is exactly what tai chi improves, which is why you should consider it” but she dug her heels in deeper – she was clumsy…

One of tai chi’s distinguishing characteristics is the challenge it presents communicating all the subtle concepts contained within it.  You’d be hard-pressed to find a tai chi blog or book anywhere that doesn’t have some version of the sentence, “This concept is difficult to describe.”  A direct example of this challenging aspect of tai chi…