The old year has ended and so have the Tai Chi lessons I've been going to since the fall of 2008. I've learned a lot, though I wish I could have learned more in the time I'd spent there.
The 3 basic Chen courses were really enjoyable I learned a lot and it was fun.
The advanced level was a bit difficult for me though. Not so much because it was difficult physically, it was cause of a language barrier. It was taught in Cantonese, with various students picked to translate the lessons into English for the benefit of us non-Cantonese speaking students. (with varying degrees of success, depending on who was available to do the translation) So I feel that I've missed out on a lot of the context and nuances of the lesson. Sure I asked questions when I didn't understand something, but often, I get the feeling that I've missed hearing or learning something, and I don't even know what.
Anyways, I plan to continue to practice it whenever I have a bit of time. The tricky part is where do I practice? The routine actually covers a considerable bit of space if we're talking about a living room or an office cubicle, which is why I guess so many people will go to the open spaces like the park, and practice there. I'll figure something out.
Allen.
Showing posts with label 太極拳. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 太極拳. Show all posts
Friday, January 8, 2010
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Tai Chi 3rd term is coming to a close
Last week our tai chi class finished teaching all the moves for Chen style 1st form. There are enough moves and repeated sections that I'm somewhat confused about which section follows which. It would probably help if the course taught the names of the moves, so we can join moves together by their names, not just by rote action.
The names are available on their website, which is pretty decent. I don't know why they didn't translate Jingang as "Guardian" or "Sentinel", but left it with a Cantonese phonetic "King-Kong". What are we, giant apes and gorillas?
They also have a book that I purchased, that shows the moves along with the name, but the pictures don't really do justice to the maneuvers, sometimes its hard to match up the pictures to them.
I probably should practice more as well. I've been bad about it lately, and have been only doing tai chi while in the class.
This weekend there is a review, then a few weeks off. The Chen Refinement class starts in the fall, where we'll start focusing on fa jing, the characteristic bursts of energy associated with Chen style.
Allen.
The names are available on their website, which is pretty decent. I don't know why they didn't translate Jingang as "Guardian" or "Sentinel", but left it with a Cantonese phonetic "King-Kong". What are we, giant apes and gorillas?
They also have a book that I purchased, that shows the moves along with the name, but the pictures don't really do justice to the maneuvers, sometimes its hard to match up the pictures to them.
I probably should practice more as well. I've been bad about it lately, and have been only doing tai chi while in the class.
This weekend there is a review, then a few weeks off. The Chen Refinement class starts in the fall, where we'll start focusing on fa jing, the characteristic bursts of energy associated with Chen style.
Allen.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Chen Style Tai Chi (太極拳) term 2
This Sunday, our 2nd term starts for Chen Tai Chi. Hopefully we will learn some of the names of the moves we are doing - I like the class taught by Sifu May, but I wish we knew what the steps were called so we could refer to them properly.
Ji Hong Tai Chi had an open house last week. Kathy and I were part of the demonstration routine for the Chen 1 class, to show what you could accomplish in just 1 term. There were also demonstrations for the Yang style beginner class, and advanced demonstrations for Chen and Yang - they looked very nice and we were very encouraged about what we can accomplish in the future.
At first we were wondering if people were going to show up on such a cold day, but they did, in surprisingly large numbers. There were so many people that the benches and chairs were not enough to seat them all. It's nice for the school but I wonder how they are going to manage all the potential signups.
One nice thing about Ji Hong is that the people taking the classes are all relatively young for tai chi people, average age is about 35 I think. Compared to some places where the average age is perhaps 70, Ji Hong feels like a pretty energetic Tai Chi place. (My opinion of course)
Allen.
Ji Hong Tai Chi had an open house last week. Kathy and I were part of the demonstration routine for the Chen 1 class, to show what you could accomplish in just 1 term. There were also demonstrations for the Yang style beginner class, and advanced demonstrations for Chen and Yang - they looked very nice and we were very encouraged about what we can accomplish in the future.
At first we were wondering if people were going to show up on such a cold day, but they did, in surprisingly large numbers. There were so many people that the benches and chairs were not enough to seat them all. It's nice for the school but I wonder how they are going to manage all the potential signups.
One nice thing about Ji Hong is that the people taking the classes are all relatively young for tai chi people, average age is about 35 I think. Compared to some places where the average age is perhaps 70, Ji Hong feels like a pretty energetic Tai Chi place. (My opinion of course)
Allen.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Chen Style Tai Chi (太極拳)
About a month or so ago, the wife and I started taking some tai chi classes at a dojo in Richmond Hill. Ji Hong Tai Chi. They teach Chen, Yang, and Wu style tai chi at that location and it feels like the instructors there know what they are doing. The version I am taking right now is the Chen style tai chi, its the one that appeals to me the most, with it's energetic bursts of motion, as opposed the more stately Yang style.
The class is only for an hour a week, one morning class every Sunday. I think I can handle a bit faster a pace than we're going right now, maybe 2 classes a week would be nice. The school has divided the form into 3 parts and listed them as Chen 1, 2 and 3. I think it might be a good idea to take Chen 2 and 3 at the same time after I'm done with Chen 1. Plus the per-course cost is cheaper for 2 classes in one term, than 1 class per term. Right now we're probably about just under half way through Chen 1.
The instructor we have is a kind of a petite woman originally from Singapore. Master May or Sifu May, everyone calls her. In the class when she is doing the moves, you can see an aura of energy and concentration radiating from her, much bigger than her diminutive frame, and is quite impressive. She is teaching the course in a combination of English and Cantonese. English for the main part, and Cantonese to drive home some points if certain people are not getting things right. On the first day she asked us which language we'd prefer to have the course taught in, English, Mandarin, or Cantonese. We settled on English only, since some people didn't speak Mandarin and some people didn't speak Cantonese... but I guess some of the students need a bit more help in their own language.
Speaking of the students in the class, some of them seem fairly advanced. They nail down the motions beautifully without too much effort or correction from the instructor. I'll guess they've taken another tai chi form before. I feel like I'm learning a bit more by watching them interpret the instructor's moves. On the other hand, there are also students that are absolutely atrocious - stiff armed and stiff legged, doing half or less of each move as it is presented. You can call me elitist if you want, but if we spent any more time on them, we would be learning the form as 6 parts rather than 3 parts. I can appreciate their dedication to learning it though, if not their form.
I'd say I'm sort of in the middle of these two groups. A few problems here and there with width of stance and footing, but nothing glaringly wrong. My body is usually in the right posture and my hands are generally in the right positions. I have taken a Yang style course before a long time ago, and I've always had a passing interest in martial arts, so I think that helps somewhat.
Allen.
The class is only for an hour a week, one morning class every Sunday. I think I can handle a bit faster a pace than we're going right now, maybe 2 classes a week would be nice. The school has divided the form into 3 parts and listed them as Chen 1, 2 and 3. I think it might be a good idea to take Chen 2 and 3 at the same time after I'm done with Chen 1. Plus the per-course cost is cheaper for 2 classes in one term, than 1 class per term. Right now we're probably about just under half way through Chen 1.
The instructor we have is a kind of a petite woman originally from Singapore. Master May or Sifu May, everyone calls her. In the class when she is doing the moves, you can see an aura of energy and concentration radiating from her, much bigger than her diminutive frame, and is quite impressive. She is teaching the course in a combination of English and Cantonese. English for the main part, and Cantonese to drive home some points if certain people are not getting things right. On the first day she asked us which language we'd prefer to have the course taught in, English, Mandarin, or Cantonese. We settled on English only, since some people didn't speak Mandarin and some people didn't speak Cantonese... but I guess some of the students need a bit more help in their own language.
Speaking of the students in the class, some of them seem fairly advanced. They nail down the motions beautifully without too much effort or correction from the instructor. I'll guess they've taken another tai chi form before. I feel like I'm learning a bit more by watching them interpret the instructor's moves. On the other hand, there are also students that are absolutely atrocious - stiff armed and stiff legged, doing half or less of each move as it is presented. You can call me elitist if you want, but if we spent any more time on them, we would be learning the form as 6 parts rather than 3 parts. I can appreciate their dedication to learning it though, if not their form.
I'd say I'm sort of in the middle of these two groups. A few problems here and there with width of stance and footing, but nothing glaringly wrong. My body is usually in the right posture and my hands are generally in the right positions. I have taken a Yang style course before a long time ago, and I've always had a passing interest in martial arts, so I think that helps somewhat.
Allen.
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