Browsing Archive: October, 2014
Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, October 31, 2014,
By regular *slow* practise of tai chi and chi kung, your stamina will improve. This was demonstrated this week by students in two different classes that I teach: One was sweating after doing slow tai chi form, and the other was surprised how much work he was doing in the chi kung sequence, since it just seemed like a bunch of slow easy movements...
When you look at the stereotypical people doing tai chi or chi kung in the park, it looks like nothing, because it's all slow motion. But it's the ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, October 31, 2014,
Recently the Grandmaster came over to the UK as part of the celebrations for Wu's Tai Chi Chuan Academy's 25 year anniversary, and he has written an introduction to the anniversary book.
The book is a real treasure trove of tai chi history, with many photographs and articles, a really interesting read! Not only that, but there are some real thought-provoking nuggets in there, which certainly got me thinking about various issues, to help me improve myself...
The book is available through
http:/... Continue reading ...
Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, October 31, 2014,
When you're a beginner, you don't see the full curriculum of tai chi stuff in action, so I was really pleased to get hold of the 25 year anniversary video from Wu's Tai Chi Chuan Academy shop
http://www.wustyle-europe.com/shop.html This gem includes footage of all sorts of tai chi activities, including my own favourites of
- Sifu getting people to jump from a height down onto his stomach, as he lay flat on the floor, then they bounce off and he gets up unhurt - simply amazing!
- pushing hands of v...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, October 30, 2014,
As regular readers know, I go to practise in the parks, because I like the trees and natural-ish surroundings... This blog takes extracts from an article that originally appeared in Slant Flying (the club magazine for Wu's Tai Chi Chuan Academy in Bethnal Green) about my park practising experiences abroad:Using the Bad Homburg tourist office, I booked into an incredibly cheap dive near the main park, so that I could get some tai chi practise in the morning, before doing touristy stuff. Then t...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, October 30, 2014,
I hear this a lot, as I do most of the Beginner gradings at the Academy, but really *no-one* ever feels they're ready to grade. However, I've graded so many people, that if I say you're ready, you really are!
One of my friends put it very well, saying that once people have taken the plunge and done their grading, then they grow into their belts. I think that's such a nice way to express it!
Gradings are on my mind just now, as a whole bunch of people are coming up to be graded soon, due to the...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, October 30, 2014,
I'm always pleased when people ask me questions. It shows they are thinking about what they are doing and it also means that other people who may be wondering the very same thing are helped too!
Recently I was asked "what speed should we do it at?"
This is a great question! When you're learning a sequence is the only time to do it at a fast speed. If you know the sequence then you should definitely do it slowly, so you can feel what you are doing. With Wu style in particular, the slower you do...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, October 30, 2014,
I am teaching my Chinese (and others - non-Chinese welcome too!)
class up to form 30, so now filming it is scheduled for this weekend, after which that film will go up on this website, in 4 versions:
Front view, back view, at normal speed
Front view, back view, with each movement broken down for the details.
My own teacher is in the process of doing the definitive version for the whole 108 form, which I will advertise as soon as it's available - that version is really something!...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, October 29, 2014,
This post is in response to a question from a student: "how can we train to be in a formation, when we can't see each other all the time?"
Well, the answer is you need to train on the very first warm-up exercise (swinging arms), that your instructor will show you. This exercise isn't just to loosen joints, but also trains your peripheral vision, which is essential to developing all round awareness.
There are other things that help with team formations:
- everyone chooses a spot in the formation a...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, October 29, 2014,
'Tis the season to be grading, tra la la! (g)
Doing gradings is one of the true pleasures of teaching tai chi! Gradings are as different from school exams as it is possible to be:
- When you have reached a certain standard in your learning, your instructor will tell you that you will be grading. It could take several months, it could take a lot longer, it doesn't matter how long it takes. The only thing that matters is that your instructor thinks you're ready.
- You will be told what is in the gradi...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, October 29, 2014,
Though most of the time I just do what I do, occasionally I have the opportunity to visit other tai chi groups, doing their practises. This is always a great experience, as I get to meet new people and learn new stuff.
One very memorable visit took place a while ago, when I visited with a group doing Lam style chi kung. It was very different from the chi kung I'm used to, but that was all part of the attraction - since tai chi and chi kung have been developing for hundreds of years, there's l...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, October 29, 2014,
I love it when the magazine (*) pops through my letterbox, as it's a really interesting read!
(*) Tai Chi Chuan magazine, which your instructor can easily get some recent issues for you, or which you can join the Tai Chi Union for Great Britain, to get your own copies as part of your membership.
This months issue no. 46 has an interview with Grandmaster Wu Kwong Yu, which is obviously of interest to all Wu style players. Also included are articles on meditation, qigong (chi kung), event reviews...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, October 29, 2014,
When I first started tai chi, I had great difficulty remembering anything at all, no matter how little or how simple. 8 years later, this has changed dramatically, so that I now remember all sorts of sequences (the chuan, 6 different partner forms, sabre forms, sword form, spear form, chi kung (qigong) sets...)
So how did I move from little or no memory to being able to remember so vastly much?
Well, the simple answer is little chunks at a time. Learning the tai chi form is best done in tiny ch...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, October 29, 2014,
This is a really important question!
All tai chi styles are excellent. The differences between the styles are all for good reasons - nothing is random in tai chi, as it has been developed over hundreds of years, by the masters of all the various styles.
In Wu style, everything you learn that seems basic stuff, is actually going to become vitally important as you go up through the levels. This is because tai chi is an internal martial art, not an external one. Thus anything you do that seems an ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, October 29, 2014,
When I first started learning tai chi myself, I had no idea what to expect in a class... Nowadays I teach all over London, for various organisations or individuals, so my classes vary wildly, depending on what clients are looking for. Since tai chi is a huge subject, it is very adaptable to pick and choose what will appeal to clients with quite different requirements:
Some classes, people like to just follow and copy, so for them I do mainly warm ups, tai chi walking, single form exercises and...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, October 23, 2014,
The head is important in two ways - the physical and the mental:
Physically, I see an awful lot of people with their head too far forward, or looking downwards, or whatever else. If you are having difficulty balancing and you've checked out your posture and shifting your weight, then it may well be down to your head being too far forward or leaning sideways. If you really can't move to straighten your neck, then it's time to see a chiropracter - your neck is really that important, not just for...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, October 23, 2014,
Ok, you've been working on feet, then on posture, so the next thing is the hips. Most people are unaware of their hips, but tai chi requires you to move your hips to become effective.
The first thing is to practise the warm up exercises frequently. Tai chi warm ups are different from general sporting warm ups, in that they are designed to help you loosen up all your joints over time. After doing them for a couple of years, you will feel quite different in your body, because of this. Some exerc...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, October 23, 2014,
Well, after you've been practising getting your feet sorted out, then you can start on your posture. Many people when they first start tai chi suddenly become aware of what is wrong with their posture... From being unaware of the habits of years or decades, now they are confronted with the result of those habits.
Tai chi posture improvements involve feeling these:
- the top of the head pushing up, to stretch the neck,
- the chin tucked
- the tongue behind the top front teeth, on the roof of the mouth
- th...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, October 23, 2014,
One of the things I am constantly telling people, is not to worry about the hands, because the feet are much more important! People come along obsessing about how their hands look, or if their arms are in the right place and it's really irrelevant, until the feet are sorted out. The feet are like the cake, the hands are like the icing (g).
One thing we do is teach "tai chi walking", so people really get to know what their feet are doing, where they are pointing, where the weight is at any step...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Monday, October 20, 2014,
In the next couple of weeks, we will be adding new videos to this site:
Form 30 at normal speed - 2 videos to show view from front and rear
Form 30 showing the breakdowns of each form and naming each form - 2 videos to show view from front and rear.
the Kick Form at normal speed - 2 videos, front and rear
the Kick Form showing breakdowns and names - 2 videos front and rear.
As always, feedback and comments should be directed to our email address taichilondon@instruction,com
...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Monday, October 6, 2014,
One of the great things about tai chi, is that you meet people from so many different walks of life.
Karen's article below seems at first glance to be something quite out of the tai chi range, yet by the end she has shown how living a life with simplicity can lead to accomplishing the things that really matter... read and enjoy!
No big deal
It was an honour and a privilege to work for the sheikh, to assist in his
charity work and to shine a light and help alleviate suffering rather than
cursi...
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