At last this great book is available in English: Toyo and Petra Kobayashi's 'Tai Chi Chuan: Becoming One with the Tao' (Tuttle Martial Arts) ISBN 0804837643. The Kobayashis were students of Dr Chi Chiang Tao, and still live and teach in Germany. We use their excellent 'Classical Sword Form' as a guide when studying straight sword (Jian). The empty-hand book is full of concise writing, clear illustrations and photographs as well as the best diagrammatic system for showing weighting and direction of movement that we have seen in any Form book. It is ideal for beginners as well as those further along in their study, and it includes writing by Dr Chi himself. The Short Form illustrated is Prof. Cheng's original set, rather than Dr Chi's revised set, which we teach, where Turn and Kick is replaced with Needles at the Sea Bottom, followed by Turn Body Chop and Push. Despite this, it is still a great reference. We have photos of Mark doing all the postures and now plan to make a supplement for these different postures, before cracking on with a full hand out booklet over the winter. Thanks to Scott for finding this book and bringing it to the workshop last week.
The Kobayashis were the teachers of my second T'ai Chi teacher, Kajedo Wanderer, who still lives and teaches both T'ai Chi and meditation at Findhorn Community, Scotland. Only last month we were looking through his old German language books by the Kobayashis and enjoying their clarity, wishing they were available in English too.
For students who in the meantime 'must have' a set of pictures of the whole form which we study, there is a book available. Angus Clark's 'Illustrated Elements of T'ai Chi' shows our whole Form, and as a reference for posture order and general shapes it is fine. However, the Kobayashi book is much closer in spirit and in detail to what we teach.
The Kobayashis were the teachers of my second T'ai Chi teacher, Kajedo Wanderer, who still lives and teaches both T'ai Chi and meditation at Findhorn Community, Scotland. Only last month we were looking through his old German language books by the Kobayashis and enjoying their clarity, wishing they were available in English too.
For students who in the meantime 'must have' a set of pictures of the whole form which we study, there is a book available. Angus Clark's 'Illustrated Elements of T'ai Chi' shows our whole Form, and as a reference for posture order and general shapes it is fine. However, the Kobayashi book is much closer in spirit and in detail to what we teach.
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