Thanksgiving: United Tai Chi digest 11/24/14

• Oral history –stories, teachings, principles and concepts passed down through the generations– has been a touch point this weekend. In my professional work, I came across a video-taped oral history with one of the early pioneers of qualitative market research, William Schlackman. A popular television pastor was also discussing the generational influences and direction of his father and grandfather, whose hard work and sacrifices had helped pave the way for his current flood of goodwill. And our own local instructor Christian was at a workshop in Boston recently with Master Wei Lun Huang. Sifu Huang can trace his internal arts lineage back to Liao Fo Hi, and Lou Tzi Ling (himself a student of Yang Chen Fu). Many of us will be fortunate to witness some of our own generational oral histories this Thanksgiving week. Internal arts such as tai chi are rife with this kind of oral history. Again part of my “living the art” theme I have explored in previous blogs. I found it interesting that one of Mr. Schlackman’s advice notes was, “the most important interview you do is on yourself”. Yet another concept we find in tai chi. Peace and blessings to you all this Thanksgiving.

• Schedule update/alert: After Tuesday night November 25, we will no longer have a night tai chi class at the Blue Buddha yoga studio in Glenmoore.

 

• Shares/Finds: This Paul Read / Bean Curd Boxer blog on tai chi and snow removal reminds me of Christian’s snow tai chi video last winter. Eagles NFL fans, we all know from The Tao of Chip Kelly football, internal arts (and life) are about adapting to your opponent, humility, favoring the process not the result, flexibility, and empowering your players with equal importance.

 

• Student News & Events: Thank you to those who joined UTC at the monthly Exton Dragon Gym Sunday session this weekend. Birthday shout-out to Janet, Son and Dot. Sorry I didn’t hear about Sifu Huang’s workshop in Boston this past weekend until a few days beforehand. If you were there, report in! Local students, if you received my note about the YMCA’s Angel Tree program to collectively purchase holiday gifts for one child in the Delaware Valley Children’s Charity community, please return your gifts to me or Christian by or before Sunday November 30 (so everything can be wrapped/bagged/tagged and dropped off at the Y, Monday 12/1). And I would be remiss not to mention a certain instructor’s birthday coming up before our next newsletter is out –from your students and everyone you have influenced, have a peaceful and meaningful day Christian. Details on our annual combo holiday + birthday breakfast coming soon.

• Social Media Roundup: Thank you to our new followers, sharers or readers on the following platforms: (Twitter) Daryl @dmuran1, and @WillieWil1 from NYC. (Facebook) Welcome Michaela and Gregg –locals from Chester County PA, Chris K from Oregon, Brandon in Alberta, Ernie in Massachusetts, Alianza in Florida, K Bar from Nashville, Bigpapa from Chicago and Jessica from Nashville. The windy city and music city, representin’. (WordPress) We have reached over 4,000 views since I started publishing there in June 2013. Thanks for our recent growth this month in readers from Europe. And as always, our neighbors to the north continue to be our #2 readership.

• General Weekly Schedule:

DAY	LOCATION	PRICE	TIME
Tuesday	Lionville YMCA, 100 Devon Drive, Exton PA Blue Buddha Studio,  1247 Pottstown Pike, Glenmoore PA ** Last class at Blue Buddha is Tues. Novem25 **	Membership $20 p/hour	4.45 pm 7.15 pm
Wednesday	Lionville Community YMCA, 100 Devon Drive, Exton PA	Membership	7.30 am
Thursday	Lionville YMCA, 100 Devon Drive, Exton PA Kokikai Akido School  1209 Ward Ave, West Chester (2 hour class, at $20 per hour)	Membership $20 p/hour	4.45 pm 7.00 pm
Friday	Student practice session/no instructor:  Lionville YMCA Daytime private lesson available pending schedule, by request	Membership See instructor	7.30 am See instructor

 

• Follow these links to our social media presence on the web:

FACEBOOK   http://www.facebook.com/UnitedTaiChi.chesco

TWITTER       http://www.twitter.com/unitedtaichi

WORDPRESSS weekly newsletter blog  http://www.unitedtaichi.wordpress.com

PINTEREST   http://www.pinterest.com/unitedtaichi

Have a great week, and may all your armpits have tuna sandwiches.

Kathleen Rice       unitedtaichi@gmail.com

Match Point: United Tai Chi digest 6/24/14

• Crosstraining. We talked about this in January in another newsletter. Christian mentioned again recently how some of our tai chi principles have helped golfers with their swing. And that Laoshi book I often quote also repeats “Tai Chi helps with everything else you do.”  Last month I dipped a toe (and arm) back in some tennis practice, which I had been away from for many years. As a current internal tai chi student, I am finding moments in my tennis practice that align with, or benefit from tai chi.  Certainly there is the shoulder, rotator cuff, armpit opening in the circle of an overhead serve. The coil and uncoil of returning to your ready position after a hit only to prep for another shot. And our old friend the ‘bubbling well point’ of our foot, where we are poised always, to maintain a fluid continuous motion. The hip control of the torso turn.  The kidney story as the elbows exchange places. And who would deny tennis’s resemblance to push hands–sometimes referred to as ‘a conversation’. Tennis is not played alone, and doesn’t have quite the same mental feel of a more solo sport such as long distance running. Just as in push hands, you need to be able to intuit where your partner/opponent will be, even before they are there. Reading habits, diagnosing blockages or weak spots, patterns of motion.  On Bill Douglas’s site, worldtaichiday.org, there is also commentary about benefit to the knees –“Tennis players will also often discover less pressure in the knees after practicing Tai Chi. Consciously moving from the dan tien can bring less pressure to bear on the knees when coming to an abrupt halt because when the head or upper body leads the movement, the knees must work harder to stop your momentum.” There is a lovely tai chi tennis video here on vimeo you may want to take a look at and discuss. This is a great time of year to get outdoors with both your tai chi, and other of your favorite cross training activities.

 

• Shares/Finds: This Huffington Post article by Karl Romain that Chris S shared about 3 ways tai chi trains your brain. And this reminder on a summary of Five Principles of Tai Chi.  Number five is the one that our instructor Christian calls Madge/Palmolive hands.   
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• Wrap-up of recent classes: Forgetting yourself and your ego continues to be a main goal to strive for internal arts. Reminder of the yin and yang parts of each posture, elbow and kidney connections, sloshing your water all the way to the fingertips. And be cognizant that there is a little dot of yin in the yang swoosh and a little dot of yang in the yin! Bagua animal qigong. Breathing into your sore or tense spots and tricking your brain, relaxing your body. Welcome 2 new students to the afternoon class. Reminders about quality of practice versus quantity (‘we ordered the macaroni and cheese –there was a lot of it, but it wasn’t very good’).  Defining the edges or boundaries of the self. Left pull down/dragon tongue kick/parry re-direct practice. Weekend Blue Buddha or Dragon Gym classes included Hsing-I five elements, staff stance drills and the Little Dipper form. 

 

• Student News & Events: Welcome back Marcia Z from some time away; and is Ray C back yet soon? Welcome back Steve from his Bikram Yoga studies in California. Thanks Deborah for sharing your story of utilizing tai chi principles while teaching your grandson to climb trees –reminding him to “stay close to his center for strength while climbing, and to grab the branch closest to the center of the tree trunk where it is the most stable, less likely to break or bend.”Hey we talked about Yin and Yang last blog and darned if I didn’t see another sign –the recent film 22 Jump Street had a small scene paying tribute to this integral martial arts principle too. And a pre-emptive thanks in advance for the birthday wishes this week for those of you reading this far, kudos.  Social Media Roundup: In the Twittersphere, welcome new followers @MastrYourHealth, and @RadDad64.  Reached/exceeded 3,000 total views on our WordPress page on June 10, thanks very much for your international support and readership! In this pre-football training season, don’t forget to follow @taoish (Mark Saltveit), one of the reasons I started putting our newsletter online last summer, and author of and Eagle’s fan reading list item, “The Tao of Chip Kelly”.  Welcome Leila W to our Pinterest followers. And hey, thank you Brazilians for your recent engagement or visits to our Facebook page –good luck in Group A (World Cup 2014).  This weekend our “most engaged insights” city was Rio de Janeiro.

 

• Weekly Schedule:

 

DAY	LOCATION	PRICE	TIME
Monday	Fugett Middle School, 500 Ellis Lane in West Chester PA,  pre-pay multi-session class Mon/Wed , through Chester County Night School.   [ENDS June 30]	$52 whole session	7.30 pm
Tuesday	Lionville YMCA, 100 Devon Drive, Exton PA     Blue Buddha Studio,  1247 Pottstown Pike, Glenmoore PA	Membership   $15 drop-in	4.45 pm   7.15 pm
Wednesday	Lionville Community YMCA, 100 Devon Drive, Exton PA	Membership	7.30 am
Thursday	Lionville YMCA, 100 Devon Drive, Exton PA     Lionville Holistic Health Center Natural Pharmacy, 309 Gordon Drive in Exton PA	Membership   $25 drop-in (90 mins)	4.45 pm   7.00 pm
Friday	Student practice session/no instructor:  Lionville YMCA   Daytime private lesson available pending schedule, by request	Membership   See instructor	7.30 am   See instructor
Saturday	Blue Buddha Studio, 1247 Pottstown Pike, Glenmoore PA	$25 drop-in (90 min)	12:00 pm

 

• Follow these links to our social media presence on the web:

FACEBOOK   http://www.facebook.com/UnitedTaiChi.chesco

TWITTER       http://www.twitter.com/unitedtaichi 

WORDPRESSS weekly newsletter blog  http://www.unitedtaichi.wordpress.com

PINTEREST   http://www.pinterest.com/unitedtaichi

 

Have a great week, and may all your armpits have tuna sandwiches.

Kathleen Rice       unitedtaichi@gmail.com