#taichisingapore

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On Practicing Tai Chi

On Practicing Tai Chi

For a beginner it is best to practice at a slower rather than faster pace. And this applies even for those movements that you would typically do fast. When you go fast you may miss out on certain details or perform the details inaccurately. A slower pace also allows you to bring up to speed the more difficult parts of the movement. When you reach an advanced level instead of doing each part of…

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Taking the First Step

Taking the First Step

I normally decline people who ask me to teach them GM Wei’s form. It is not so much out of my desire to restrict the number of people learning or to keep it a secret. There’s already GM Wei’s book and video out there so the cat is already out of the bag. OK, maybe you don’t know how to read Chinese. But this shouldn’t be a problem if you know how to use Google translator. Instead, it is more…

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Tai Chi in a Small Space

Tai Chi in a Small Space

This morning the temperature was warm on the balcony so I moved my practice indoors. The space may be small but I make do with what I have. Practicing in a small space trains awareness of the objects around me so that I won’t run into them or if I come too close to adjust accordingly. A practice of Tai Chi is an adventure; a few lines below summarizing this practice of our Yang style. Due to…

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Step How?

In BJJ, MMA, boxing and FMA I’m told to step this way if my left leg is forward :- a) To step to my left, step with the forward left foot first, followed by the rear right foot b) To step to my right, step with the rear right foot, followed by the leading left foot c) Never step to my left with my rear right foot first. Similarly, never step to my right with my left foot first. This is because…

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Staying in the Past or Moving Ahead?

Staying in the Past or Moving Ahead?

A week or was it two weeks ago I had a brief glance at a quote on a BJJ FB that turned up on my feed. I can’t remember the name of the practitioner that said it but what he said something along the line of if you want to move ahead of the pack you can’t be doing the same thing as everyone else. I tried to find the quote again but can’t find it. Today I read an article “The rise of Malaysian…

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Casual Practice

Seems like I am going to Punggol Park quite a fair bit over the last few weeks, not for leisure but for business. Its warm, sunny but there is just one spot at one of the benches by the pond where there’s some shade. Beggars can’t be chosers. To practice a bit is better than to stare at the phone for an hour that I have to wait. So what do I wanna do? Not the 22-form today. My choice is the…

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Good Description of Intention

Good Description of Intention

I just read something that describes what intention is. I know this is talking about something else but this is how intention works. The key to Braingate lies in translating neural signals from the chip into meaningful commands that can move objects in the real world, starting with the cursor of a computer screen. Donoghue told me that he does this by asking the patient to imagine moving the…

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Seven Insights from Learning Tai Chi

Seven Insights from Learning Tai Chi

Here’s seven insights from learning Grandmaster Wei Shuren’s Tai Chi (in no particular order) :- 1) Learn the steps in carrying out a movement. Keep going through them every time you practice. You will forget some steps but keep revising them and one day you will remember all the steps. However, this is not asking you to do rote learning. Instead, to remember is to ensure you do not leave…

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A Question or is it Questions

A Question or is it Questions

I received a question from a reader. The question is :- I would like to get some insights in the relationstips between Tai chi and Wing Chun. Relaxation, Sung, fajin, forceflow. How intention and relaxation is combined for wing Chun. Actually the above is not one question but many questions which can be broken down into :- 1) Insights into Tai Chi 2) Insights into Wing Chun 3) Insights into…

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Finding Tai Chi via Kali

Finding Tai Chi via Kali

In Kali to train the stick is to train the blade is to train the empty hands. The way we hold two sticks at the shoulder loading position can be used for emptyhand combat. This is why from the start we must learn how to position the double sticks properly at the shoulders. In this way when we take away the sticks we can use back the same posture, same hand position. There is no need to change…

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Correct Sequence, Wrong Focus

Correct Sequence, Wrong Focus

My teacher under the GM Wei Shuren lineage liked to say “don’t anyhow move”. I am reminded of it this morning during Kali practice. Sometimes I think Tai Chi players like to gaze at their own navel. They do a movement without considering what the movement really is. This means they have no sense of enemy. When I learned Shindo Muso Ryu Jojutsu I was taught to always, always keep my eyes on the…

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Correct Problem, Wrong Solution

Correct Problem, Wrong Solution

I wrote about this before – one young chap came to see me as he has health issues. He used to practice Tai Chi. I got him to show me how he do his form. When he finished I said your knee is out. The way he is using his knee adds to his problem instead of solving them. This may not be a common knowledge but the way Tai Chi is typically practice is bad for the knees. But not many are aware of…

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Correct Learning, Wrong Priority

Correct Learning, Wrong Priority

Correct learning but wrong priority. This is the topic of today’s post following this morning’s Kali training. Kali training can teach you a lot about what you don’t know or missed out in your Tai Chi training. In the beginning you might not be able to see the trees from the forest. This is where practice comes in. To be exact, to practice at least 10,000 repetitions for each technique that we…

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Training the Kali Salute

Training the Kali Salute

I am not much for doing salutations unless there is a better reason to do it apart from just being about respect. Fortunately, the salute we do in Kali is not just about respect but is an application as well. Our salute is divided into two parts – bringing up the stick to the forehead as a sign of respect and then lowering the butt of the stick to the heart to denote the respect as coming from…

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Cultish MA

Learned a new term from reading Cultish : The Language of Fanaticism which is “thought terminating cliche” which is a catchphrase meant to use to halt an argument from moving forward. Examples would be “It is what it is”, “It’s all God’s plan”, “Everything happens for a reason”, and “Don’t think too hard about it”. In the context of Tai Chi learning if you asked your teacher what why you can’t…

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Connect The Dots

Insight. Thought provoking process. Connect the dots. It is my opinion that training in iKali can help one to learn Tai Chi better particularly if you don’t quite know what you have learned in your Tai Chi class. For example, in iKali the first thing we learn is how to step along the sides of an open triangle. Now if you have been practicing your Tai Chi and wondering how to use it the moment…