Tai Chi...

[fajrdrako]

I joined the Taoist Tai Chi Society of Ottawa today, and had my first lesson.

It was very cool.

Our teacher is about twenty, a student named Jessica. There are about eight in the class, a variety of ages and types - though only one man. The class took an hour, and was pretty intense. Good, though. And not quite as difficult as I feared.

I'm doing it with Beulah, so I have an ally. We came back to my place and visited maaseru and Yolande, and I showed them some music vids from Vividcom, especially ones from fandoms we know and love - Doctor Who (the one I linked to earlier today), Torchwood, and, particularly, Slings and Arrows, which maaseru, Beulah and I love, but which Yolande has never seen.

Comments

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Yay tai chi!!! What style are you learning?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It's the style developed by Master Moy Lin-shin. There's information about it here (http://www.taoist.org/content/standard.asp?name=TaoistLineage). I like it... so far... and hope to continue on to the forms with swords.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

No, no - do Chen Style, it is much more fun.

I argue with my Dad about this all the time - he's so into Taoist Tai Chi that he is now a beginner instructor, and I've been doing Chen style for several years and think it is much better.

Chen style has several sets of weaponless forms to learn, push hands, actual contact fighting if you choose, qigong breathing technique and weapons forms for sword, saber, spear, staff, fan (one of the more vicious ones) and halberd.

(And only old people do Taoist style in China.)

Anyway. Tai chi is good no matter what style you do, I suppose. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

do Chen Style, it is much more fun.

I would, but they don't seem to have it around here. The Taoist Tai Chi place is only a few blocks from my house - I don't even need to take the bus to get there, which is a distinct advantage.

What I really want is "Tai Chi with Sword", but they offer that, too.

I assume I can do other styles later on, if the occasion allows?

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Ye-es, but the styles are not very similar at all to each other - I believe Yang style is closer to Chen, but I've seen what my Dad does and what I do and even the moves that have the same name have a completely different execution in terms of limb placement and weight balance and when it shifts.

Eg. the move repulse monkey (yes, that is its name) in Taoist style has the weight on the back foot initially, the other foot slides back and then the weight shifts onto the new back foot. In Chen style, the weight is on the front foot, there is a weight shift to the back foot as you bring your arms up and around and then the front foot slides back leaving all the weight on the (new) front foot again. So it is almost the complete reverse.

It might help that you have practice in picking up a sequence of moves, but it is just as likely to trip you up by being not quite the kind of movements that you expect. Chen style is also more intricate in how you orientate your arms and hands while from what my Dad says, Taoist tai chi isn't - it seems a simpler design of forms in some ways to me when I've watched it and I think that was purposeful on the part of the founder.

Personally, I find Chen style more graceful and even objectively it is more dynamic. Which admittedly isn't for everyone.

This is Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei doing Chen sword form (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdjbPBSWJm4) and what I think is mixed form (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YyvrLdZpLU) (it's not the 83 form I do, but it starts off very similar).

What is really funny is a lot of the vids I found of him have the exact same music that my master always plays during sessions - must be the offical Chen music!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Official Chen music - that's cute. Nice music, too.

Your Dad does Yang?

Thanks for the link showing sword form - I love it!

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I put that a little confusingly.

My Dad does Taoist, and that is the only other style I've seen much of apart from Chen.

I was speculating that Yang would be closer to Chen because the guy that developed Yang style originally trained in Chen style.

I've met the man doing the sword form - he's one of the grandmasters of Chen style (and a member of the Chen family). Though I learned for 2 terms from another grandmaster, Kong Jie Gou, and he was absolutely lovely, spoke virtually no English except numbers, worked us to death and laughed at how bad we were a lot. That was fun.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That sounds wonderful!

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

Interesting. My parents were just starting Tai Chi before their health failed, so I have been aware of it for many years.

If I do decide to take it up, it may not be till I have more time ... if *that* ever happens. [Sorry, I've been feeling rather depressed today for reasons unrelated to you or my parents. I'm also annoyed at the latest political news (thoroughly a-poll-ing), which I'll skip over here.]

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I get dpresed (and sometimes angry) when I think about politics, too. So I try not to think about politics.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

If I were starting tai chi classes, I'd also want to go to them with Beulah. I hope you both benefit greatly from them, and find new balance and joy in your physical selves.

(dang, I lost that one)

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

I read in the news briefs today at work (Saturday) about Harper choosing to dissolve Parliament this Sunday. I knew it was coming, but still yelped in surprise to see it there in black and white. Then I got silly, and decided to casually mention to the next person who came through the break-room door that Canada's Parliament was being dissolved. Heh. I indeed got a very American reaction. As in, Jody had no clue that this only meant that an election was being called.

And... good luck.