Cook Ding's Kitchen: At The Edge

Cook Ding's Kitchen: At The Edge: Below is an excerpt from an article that appeared at Zen Habits. It's specifically about practicing "at the edge" in running,...

How to Breathe Like A Taoist

Concept "get the muscle"

Should you use a Punching Bag for Tai Chi?

 Should you use a punching bag as part of your Tai Chi training?

Here's a short article discussing the benefits of different types of punch bags. 

Click https://www.the-tai-chi-way.com/post/should-you-use-a-punching-bag-for-tai-chi

Any thoughts?

Tutorial 5 Cheng Hsin principles

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Budo Practice and the Way of Change

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Budo Practice and the Way of Change: At The Budo Bum blog , there was a very good post on Budo being the Way of Change. Below is an excerpt. The full post may be read here. I t...

8-Minute Qi Gong Routine for Upper Back, Neck, and Shoulders | Tension R...

ZMQ37 Ben Lo Principles: 'Turn the Waist'

Martial Arts Qi Gong (Master George Xu)

Master Chungliang’s Deep Advice for Healing with Tai Chi [Follow Along]

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Rhythm and Flow in Taijiquan Practice

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Rhythm and Flow in Taijiquan Practice: Thoughts on Tai Chi had an interested article on developing rhythm and flow in taijiquan practice, which I think applies to all martial arts...

Finding the Elusive Internal Energy in Tai Chi and Qigong

Meditation with Patrick Kelly: Methods, Mind States, Q&A

Chen Style Taiji compared to Yang Style (Master George Xu)

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Mind Breath Body

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Mind Breath Body: Below is an excerpt from a post on the relationship between the mind, the breath and the body that was posted at Thoughts on Tai Chi blog . ...

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Interview with Ellis Amdur

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Interview with Ellis Amdur: Falling Leaves Kung Fu conducted an interview with Ellis Amdur , a senior practitioner of classical Japanese martial arts, scholar and a pro...

A Solo Push Hands Experience (for Tai Chi Beginners)

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Cheng Man Ching Taijiquan Video Jackpot

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Cheng Man Ching Taijiquan Video Jackpot: Cheng Man Ching was one of the first highly skilled Taijiquan masters to come to the United States and teach widely. Below are four videos I...

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Taijiquan Makes You Smarter

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Taijiquan Makes You Smarter: Below is an excerpt from a post that appeared at Thoughts on Tai Chi on how the practice of Taijiquan makes you smarter.The full post may be...

John Bracy presents Tai chi knockouts LOST KNOWLEDGE 1

September 9th and 10th painting Enso with mindful movement workshop - London

 

Enso painting, Qigong & Tai chi.

My friend Adele Cloony is running some workshops in September.

Click on this link  and scroll down for details and booking on Eventbrite - www.adelecloony.co.uk

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Taijiquan Master William CC Chen Interview

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Taijiquan Master William CC Chen Interview: While Ben Lo was Cheng Man Ching's first student on Taiwan, William CC Chen was his youngest student and he is still alive. To celebr...

Autotelic

 Are you on a autotelic path? 

Do what you are doing for its own sake.

Then you are on the right path.

From "The Surfboard" by Dan Kieran.  unbound.com

Brilliant little book!

Taiji Classics- "Stand Like a Balanced Scale."

Cheng Man-Ching Taijiquan form and pushing hands 1969

Longevity Stick Art with Master Dau

Travelling in Time

 I'm in my seventh decade of life and T'ai Chi Ch'uan has been my constant companion for four of them.

Reflecting on my travel in time I notice how my T'ai Chi has changed, from youthful energy to a more refined expression, from easy flexibility and strength to having to do the work to maintain them, from larger to smaller steps, the importance of softness but not collapsing and sinking my energy and not confusing this with taking up low postures in order to connect to the ground.

So what have you noticed about your T'ai Chi over the years?

Stick exercises by Br. Linh Thu

4-7-8 Breathing

孫劍雲 形意劍 Sunstyle Xingyi Sword - Sun Jianyun

Tai Chi Walking: from beginners to advanced (Tutorial)

Internal vs External Power Explained Simply

Tummo - Strengthening our Self Healing Power | Inner Fire School

The problem with meditation (and how to overcome it)

Counter-Point Neutralizing

 Over on the Slanted Flying website is this interesting article on counter-point neutralizing with a number of illustrated examples.

I remember Dave Martin, my Sun style teacher, showing me an example in response to a lock which was rendered ineffective by placing my hand on his chest.

The article can be read here

So what's the Hopping fuss?

Hopping in T'ai Chi seems to be something to ridicule. The students are just jumping to make the teacher look good. It's all fake.

Or is it. What's really going on?

In his book T'ai Chi Ch'uan for Health and Self Defense, T.T. Liang writes " When one has been struck and is just about to fall over, he must hop like a sparrow". One of my friends likens this to a T'ai chi version of a breakfall.

So it was great to come across a good article on shorelinetaichi.com which addresses hopping, the rationale behind it and places it in a proper context.

The article can be read here. and there are some good links at the end.

Where are your energy centers? Dan Tian Explained by Qi Gong Master, Ken...

The complete works of Sun Lutang

If you are interested in the writings of Sun Lutang you can find excellent translations on the BrennanTranslation website.

The link is here

Here is old footage from Andrew Kluge's Youtube channel of Sun style Xingyi, Ba Gua and Taijiquan.

qigong How to activate the healing power of inner organs

Three Tan Tien in a straight line

 An early lesson was that we aim to line up the three tan tiens in our tai chi form.

Here is a chap presenting this concept in a joyous manner

Confidence Begins in Your Feet: Tai Chi Builds Strong Foundation

Qigong for beginners: raise your energy!

Meditation for beginners: what I've learnt [Guided 10-min Practice]

Peter Ralston: Uprooting and Throwing Skill

Inners, Outers and the 10 Co-ordinations

 A friend of mine who teaches Yang style T'ai Chi once asked me if I knew about the 3 Inners and Outers.

What he meant are the six harmonies, typically divided into the the 3 internal and 3 external co-ordinations. These are:

• The hands co-ordinate with the feet
• The shoulders co-ordinate with the hips
• The elbows co-ordinate with the knees
• The heart co-ordinates with the intent
• The intent co-ordinates with the Chi
• The Chi co-ordinates with the power

I knew these as part of the 10 co-ordinations, which are:

1. The head must co-ordinate with the coccyx
2. The neck must co-ordinate with the waist
3. The shoulders must co-ordinate with the inside of the thigh, where it joins the body
4. The elbows must co-ordinate with the knees
5. The shin of one leg must co-ordinate with the shin of the other leg
6. The toes of one foot must co-ordinate with the toes of the other foot
7. The spirit must co-ordinate with the mind
8. The mind must co-ordinate with the Chi
9. The Chi must co-ordinate with the strength
10. The inner aspects (spirit, Chi) must co-ordinate with the outer aspect ( the external form )

☯️ Nine Palace Step 2/2 : Changing Direction / Neuf Palais avec changeme...

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Wu Style Taijiquan Nine Palace Stepping

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Wu Style Taijiquan Nine Palace Stepping:      

8 Minute Stretching Routine For People Who AREN’T Flexible!

Tai Chi Applications Explained

Five Elements

 

Before you start

 

Before you start your practise, stand or sit quietly and hold your left thumb in your right hand for a while.

Breathe naturally.

Tai Chi, The Watercourse Way A Film by Kai de Fontanay

Stretches for the Kwa

 It's really important to open the kwa to integrate upper and lower body.

Here are a couple of clips on this theme.

A good enough, basic Standing Pandiculation Sequence. Somatics to feel b...

Eye Qigong

In my day job I spend a lot of time looking at a computer screen, so exercises for the eyes are quite welcome and useful.

Here's a clip with some straightforward exercises

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Simplicity in Taijiquan

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Simplicity in Taijiquan: Below is an excerpt from a post by Ian Cameron, a senior Taijiquan practitioner in the lineage of Cheng Tin Hung . The full post may be read...

John Bracy FA JIN internal power striking for internal martial arts

Indestructible Liang KeQuan's 3 Secrets

Do THiS for Tai Chi Rooting

Book Review: Yang Short Form by Sifu Leo Ming and Caroline Addenbrooke

I was recently asked if I might review a book on the Yang Short Form and write a few lines on here.

The book is a nice quality large hardback and is clearly a labour of love, covering the Ch'eng Man Ch'ing short form (with the odd stylistic variation). What makes this book different from so many others is that it captures all the transition moves between postures so it is a useful guide for beginners. It also gives a colour coding for when to inhale and exhale. Most books show the postures and describe the movements but it is a great idea to provide a visual reference of the transitions.

The book is aimed at beginners and includes philosophy, a brief potted history and covers important points from the Tai Chi classics. It's the only beginner's book that I've seen which explains the five bows in the body and shows them in a photo, stressing the importance of the spinal bow which connects and leads the others.

Passages from the Tao Te Ching appear throughout the book to reflect Taoist philosophy. All in all this is a lovely book, well thought out and clearly presented and would be a useful aid to someone studying this form.

You can find the book on Amazon here

PS. I'm not being paid to write this review.

Dr. Michael Mosley talks about Tai Chi

 Listen to Dr Michael Mosley talk about Tai Chi on BBC Radio 4

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001hf9h

How to grow wiser (by just paying attention)

When the Hands lead the Body

When I first started learning the 2 person Tai Chi San Shou or "Dance of yielding equality" as it was called in our school, my teacher John Kells briefly mentioned the hands leading the body.

On the Slanted Flying website there is a post form 2018 which explores this concept in more detail.

 Additionally the article Moving from the Waist from Gerald sharp's Chiflow site also touches on this theme.

The Slanted Flying article can be found at: when-the-hands-lead-the-body-in-taijiquan/ 

and the Chiflow article  Moving from the waist is: https://www.chiflow.com/html/4Q_chiflow.pdf

Tip to beat stress in daily life

OPB Art Beat - Living Tao in Oregon 2009

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Taijiquan Master Huang Sheng Shyan Documentary

Cook Ding's Kitchen: Taijiquan Master Huang Sheng Shyan Documentary:  

Mobility

 

You don't need to be super flexible but you do need to relax and be loose in your T'ai Chi.

Mobility is essential, especially as we get older. This clip is great for improving spinal mobility

and here is a simple Systema exercise for stiffness in the torso