121s in Aberdeenshire

I have spaces for 121s on Monday 2nd July, please contact me if you'd like one.
Mark has spaces on 2nd and 3rd August, please let me know if you want to book one of these.

Taichi Caledonia 2008

Extremely early notice, I know, but next year's event will be 11th-18th July. So get in touch with me over the coming 10 months or so if you'd like to be part of a posse for 'a week of internal arts in Scotland'. Hamid and I both had a great time. You can see hundreds of photos of the event by going to www.flickr.com and seaching for the tag 'taichicaledonia07'.

Late night push hands and ta lu with James, Wang Hai-Jun's assistant over the week. http://www.jameslangcaketaichi.com/ A lovely man.

Master Wang Hai-Jun teaching the Chen style 18 Movement Form last week at Taichi Caledonia.

Henk Janssen teaching sticking and sensing hands last week at Taichi Caledonia.

Aberdeenshire class enrolment details for September

The enrolment night for both the beginners/improvers Wednesday class and the Long Form Thursday class is planned for 4th sept 6.30 to 8pm at the Garioch Com Ed Centre in Inverurie. Anyone who cannot manage to get along can send someone else in their place or apply by post. Postal applications will be looked at on the 5th sept. The classes are planned to start mid September, if viable.

I do not yet have enrolment details for Turriff yet, contact the Gateway Centre for how to join the Monday class, all are welcome.

Contact me for phone numbers to call Ev regarding possible Huntly and Elgin classes as well as for Paolo and Davina re possible Alford classes on a Tuesday night and /or weekends. Neil also teaches in Finzean, near Banchory.

Classes will continue by arrangement between the students all Sumer. I expect Sundays will continue to be open drop-in sessions, and there may be an evening get together for those who are keen.

Taichi Caledonia was a real eye-opener and I met some great people. Several attendees told me that at their T'ai Chi schools there was either no pushing hands / sticking at all, competitive push hands with little explanation of why they were doing it, or else a culture where there was some great partnerwork, but it was a bit too vigorous for new folks to feel they had a way in. What strikes me about my teacher's school, as well as with my own students, is how the solo work and partner work support and inform each other. Although the odd student here and there does not continue as they would rather only do form, the vast majority find a gentle and personal introduction to push hands allays their fears. This enables even the most timid student to find a safe way to start moving out of their comfort zone. One student who had trembling hands and tears in her eyes the first time she did sticking is now one of my top students in partnerwork.

I seem to have alot of energy for my own T'ai Chi again after 18 months of relative upheaval. I plan to study and do more workshops with my teacher, and hopefully attend the push hands event in Hannover next February.

Aberdeenshire Workshop Venue & 121s next weekend

If you need direction to Heather's, give Caro or Davina a call.

I am free to teach 121s on Friday 29th June 11am-5pm as well as all day and evening on Monday 2nd July. Please email or call if you are interested in a 2 hour or 1.5 hour slot.

Summer Workshops with Mark Raudva in Aberdeenshire

Summer weekend workshop- all except sabre are held at Heather's new T'ai Chi studio, 10 mins from Inverurie, contact me for details.
Friday 29th June, 7-10pm. Ta Lu, Wapu, knocking, etc: all welcome
Saturday 30th June, 2-5pm: Short Form workshop, all welcome who have done at least a term's T'ai Chi classes.
Saturday 30th June, 7-10pm: Foundation in Sabre. We will be using wooden bokkens to practise with, and you will need one for this class. This class is at Kemnay Village Hall.
Sunday 1st July, 2-5pm: Long Form workshop, for all students who have begun Yang Style Long Form. Also welcome are students who finished Short Form and could not make it to class this term.
Sunday 1st July, 7-10pm: Push hands and other partner work. with emphasis on softening and yielding, all welcome.
Each class costs £15 / (£10 concs) Call 01467 651488 to book.

Summer 5 Day T'ai Chi Workshop -all at Heather's studio.
(Friday 27th July 7-10pm. The regular Ta Lu, Wapu, knocking practice session: all welcome £15 / £10)
Workshop: Saturday 28th July - Wednesday 1st August 2-5.30pm & 7-10pm daily. Come on the first day and then for as many days as you can come to subsequently. £30 / £20 per day. We all bring food to share at the dinner break. There are spaces for Mark's or my London students as well as other people to stay with students in the area if you are coming up from London or from elsewhere. These weeks are wonderful times to work deeply in a friendly group with exceptional teaching in a beautiful peaceful part of North East Scotand.

All students are welcome to these workshops, including those from different schools or styles. Please enquire by email or call 07732 659104 for availability and suitability.

Hackney Round Chapel Class

Apologies for the sudden cancellation of Tuesday's class. I was informed at the last ninute of a mix up with the bookings. I am sure it won't happen again. We are there until the end of July (except 31st) and will return the first week of September. There may be a class or two with a 1/4 hour later start over the next few weeks but I will inform students the week before. This is to help accommodate the Hackney Schools Music Festival which runs during the day time.

Leaving Stirling

Tonight is the last night of Taichi Caledonia and I am off to the chalet to pack as it's an early morning tomorrow. I've had an excellent week and would highly recommend it to my students, and anyone who is interested in exchange of ideas, widening their horizons and seeing what other styles and approaches to T'ai Chi are like. I will write a bigger entry when I get home next week, but a few things stand out from the last few days.

I have been pushing hands, learning rooting exercises and generally having a really productive time with a wonderful german guy called Walther. I was delighted to find out that he had studied with Dr Chi in Germany for a week-long intensive many years ago, and we have talked about how Dr Chi felt when Walther pushed him. I will gather the stories he told me today and write them up very soon...

During the mornings I have been studying with Henk Janssen, a great teacher from Netherlands. Last night we were the last folks to go into the chalets (it is light until midnight here) as we were sharing our slightly different versions of Ta Lu and sabre form, as well as me being given plenty of pushes I could not yet yield to. For the two evenings of pushing hands, free pushing and the like, I have always been half of the last pair to stop for the night. It has been a good challenge to engage in the free pushing techniques more customary to some of the other players here, but really rewarding. I'm in a mode where I see more similarities than differences, and without exception all the patnerwork I saw was cultivating something of use or interest. I'm looking forward to sharing a couple of things from Henk and Walther, in particular, with my students. The whole week has been great, but I am also even more appreciative of the depth and quality of my teacher's tuition, and will be happy to get to class on Sunday.

In the afternoons I have been training with renowned Chen Style Master Wang Hai Jun who has been teaching a short form of 18 moves taken from the original 'Old Form'. The stances are very low and dynamic but the silk-reeling is very strong and drives all the movements. Master Wang's teaching is very direct and clear with emphasis on internal relaxation and ward-off energy coming right round from the back. A side effect of 3 hours' low stances every day is that my upper legs are now quite a different shape.

Lastly, I have been practising alot of sabre form and spiralling. The intermittent sunshine suddenly became hot today and I got a bit burnt. However It is just so nice to be surrounded by trees and seeing lots of other T'ai Chi folk practising whatever they are working on. The campus is also overrun by rabbits and squirrels as well as there being a noisy blackbird outside my window every morning which is having a turf-war with the resident thrush. Oddly there is just one jet black wild rabbit, which appears to have leopard-like brownish-black on black fur markings and sleeps with its ears down outside my window all day. I have tried to photograph it for the blog, but it's pretty reclusive.

Back to Tooting tomorrow. Totally missing going to Mark's classes, doing The Dance with David and eating my own home cooked food.

Taichi Caledonia

I have managed to get internet access in the library for the next few days, so will post a few short things. I have met some great people here already and had a good morning of pushing hands today. This afternoon I will be starting to learn the Chen style short form with Wang Haijun. Hamid was here for the weekend and I wish he could have stayed. There's certainly a good atmosphere, and some very genuine people, as well as teachers with skill. More soon.

Back to London

It's been a productive 6 days' teaching in Aberdeenshire, and the first time I have been staying with students, rather than at my own home. I haven't taken any photos except of the new room where we will be having workshops and lessons over the coming months. Thanks to Paolo and Davina for putting me up and to Heather for all her work in getting the new space ready. My love goes especially to all the students I couldn't see on this visit for whatever reason. I hope to see you at the forthcoming weekend workshops later in June.

On Friday I am off to Taichi Caledonia, which is a gathering of many different practitioners of varying styles in Stirling, held annually. I am on a busman's holiday and really want to get my hands on a many people as possible. I have signed up for sensing hands / sticking, etc. with Henk Janssen for the morning sessions. In the afternoons I will be studying with Wang Haijun, a renowned Chen Style Master. The weekend will be a series of (too short) short taster sessions, and Hamid from Mark's school in London will be there for the weekend with me. We will try to stay out of trouble. If you do hear that we have got into trouble then it is most certainly 'always somebody else's fault'.

http://www.wanghaijun.com/

http://www.taichicaledonia.com/

http://www.henkjanssentaijiquan-qigong.nl/page5/page5.html

http://www.xs4all.nl/~hjek/ (He is also a musician who plays percussion, guitar and ukelele...)

David Knight (www.shoreditchtaichi.co.uk) will be taking my Hackney and Tooting classes for the week that I am away. On my return I will revamp the website with all the new pictures and list the new class times as well as sign-up details for the new Aberdeenshire classes planned for September.

I may be off-line a bit for the next few days.

July Partnerwork Day with Master Mark Raudva In London

This photo is from the the first of this year's workshops in Tooting with Mark. 23 students came together to practise partnerwork; a real treat to push hands with students old and new. The next one is planned for a Saturday 14th July, 1-7pm. All students with experience of basic single pushing hands are welcome, and there is instruction for more senior students too. The next session will last a little longer, with a break for a snack.

The T'ai Chi Centre

Some more pictures from Mark's recent partnerwork day in Tooting, London.

Aberdeenshire 121s with Mark 2nd & 3rd August

There should be 5 slots for private tuition with Mark this Summer and both Sara and Ev have been unable to have their lessons due to injury, so I would like to prioritise them, if they are free and fit. Please do get in touch. I guess we'll have to have a lottery for the other spaces... We'll sort it out in June when we're up.

David Knight's T'ai Chi School Website

My dear freind and T'ai Chi brother David Knight is known to many of you from Mark's classes and also from his six months living in Aberdeenshire with me and helping me with Great River T'ai Chi. He comes up to Scotland to assist Mark Raudva with the workshops whenever he can. We both began studying at The T'ai Chi Centre at almost the same time in 2000, and continue to study with Mark as well as assisting together at all the classes we can each week. David has also been studying weekly with Grand Master John Kells for a year. His teaching is clear; he has a direct and gentle manner and I highly recommend his classes. Any of my Hackney students who would like to attend another class or two per week should contact David and go along. Whenever I am free I will go along to assist, as I have at least six months' worth to reciprocate...

http://www.shoreditchtaichi.co.uk/index.html

Mobile blogging

I am now in Scotland and soon am off to teach the Inverurie beginners. Also, this laptop appears to work... so expect pics and words over the next few days. Bring bokkens to Sunday class this week, it will be at Davina's. These pictures are from the workshop with Steven Moore last month.