Tai Chi: Not Just “Old People in the Park”
My first foray into the “internal” arts was when I took up Taijiquan around five years ago. Learning Tai Chi has taught me how to move from the inside out…
Multitasking? The Mind, Attention, and Intention in Taijiquan
When trying to focus on more than one task, we rapidly switch our attention from one task to another. Although it seems instantaneous, switching from one task to another is neither fast nor smooth. There is a significant lag of up to 40% longer than when focusing on a single task
Lou Reed and Tai Chi
The late Lou Reed was mostly known as musician, however, one of his passions in life was practicing Tai Chi Chuan. Lou Reed was famous as the principal songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist for the band The Velvet Underground and later for wonderful work in his solo musical career.
Teaching Yourself
If you want to learn Tai Chi you need to have a teacher, hopefully a good one. You can’t simply copy the movements from a video or read about the principles in a book and expect to gain any skill whatsoever. Once you have found a teacher however, you need to practice what you’ve been shown on your own and this is the only way to learn Tai Chi.
Six-Direction Force In Taijiquan
Six-direction force includes the balance of opposing directions for up/down, forward/backward and right/left ( yang and yin pairs), which will be presented
Master Wei Lun Huang Passes Away
Master Wei Lun Huang passed away at 11:25am on July 24, 2016. He was admitted to hospital on July 4th for a perforated colon. Unfortunately, it is reported that infection from the perforated colon spread leading to a kidney failure. Wei Lun Huang fell into a coma and never recovered. Master Wei Lun Huang was … [Read more…]
Hitting Taijiquan’s Sweet Spot
(A New Commentary on Wang Zongyue’s Treatise) The sweet spot in Taijiquan (太極拳), as I understand it, is the fine line between yin (阴) and yang (阳) [traditional characters 陰 and 陽 respectively], i.e., between excess and deficiency, between resisting and collapsing, etc.; or visually, being on the “s-curve” line separating the yin from the … [Read more…]
Northern Wu Style Taijiquan
Northern China gave birth to many styles of martial arts, most notably the internal martial arts of Taijiquan, Baguazhang and Xingyiquan. These arts were invented and developed in North China. Many martial artists were trained, gathered, challenged, and exchanged skills in the northern part of China. Especially in Beijing, where the royal family hired the … [Read more…]
Tai Chi Master Y.C. Chiang Passes Away
Grandmaster Yun Chung Chiang (1922 – 2016) passed away this last week. Y.C. Chiang was well known as a grandmaster of the Guang Ping style of Tai Chi Chuan. At the age of 28 he started training with the famous Guang Ping master Kuo Lien-Ying, where he learned the Gauang Ping style of Tai Chi … [Read more…]
Be the Ball
How the Circle/Sphere Generates and Differentiates Yin and Yang in Taijiquan. An image I find useful is that of a properly inflated ball floating on water.