Tai Chi

Darkwing Duck

Morning all,

Not sure if this is the right place for this, but here goes. I'm looking for tai-Chi classes in Dublin, and was wondering if anyone had been before and had any advice on whos the best to go, what classes are like, pricing and so on...

Any help is much appreciated..

yomchi

Darkwing Duck wrote:

Morning all,

Not sure if this is the right place for this, but here goes. I'm looking for tai-Chi classes in Dublin, and was wondering if anyone had been before and had any advice on whos the best to go, what classes are like, pricing and so on...

Any help is much appreciated..

I PM'd you the number of a guy I used to do it with. Classes vary but will usually involve some sort of Chi Qong, standing or sitting. Some short and long forms and if you're good enough some push hands. All in all a very relaxing session.

What do you hope to get of it?

kenpo_dave

http://www.ymaa.ie/html/Taiji.htm Try this place.

Great Kung Fu club too if youre interested in that at all.

Good Luck,

Dave.

Darkwing Duck

Thanks for those lads, I'll definitly check them out.

Want to get into it to help with stress and relaxation in general, to help with balance and mind, and to learn about the art, been interested in it for a long time. I'd love to learn the Kung Fu as well, but after I've a solid grounding in the Tai Ji first....

smacl

Darkwing Duck wrote:

I'd love to learn the Kung Fu as well, but after I've a solid grounding in the Tai Ji first....

Taijiquan is a style of kung fu / gongfu, no need to learn the two seperately. Taught properly it should include as much martial content as any other style of kung fu, or any other martial art for that matter. IMO, going to a taiji class that just teaches hand forms and light qigong will never give you a good grasp of what taiji is all about.

If you would like to try out a taiji class with a strong emphasis on practical martial arts, we have a class in Renelagh Multi Denominational School, 8-10pm. The class features a lot of push hands drills and free practice, taiji self defence and fighting techniques, hand forms, and addionally shuai jiao (a chinese jacket wrestling system taught in many styles of kung fu).

Best regards,

Shane

Dyr

One of the guys I train with was also doing tai chi in Trinity with a chinese guy that he rated very highly, I'll ask what the story is when i see him next

Nothingcompares

i'll try and grab a flyer for that next time i'm up in the gym bambi

Roper

Hey, I was asked about some sort of MA for someone who has a bad back. They wanted to do some sort of Kata based MA, I warned them off most hard style sort of things like TKD and Shotokan on account of the twisty jerky movements which would be awful on a back injury.

Whaddy'all think about some form of Tai Chi? Suitable or not?

Dyr

If i recall rightly i was told that the chinese lad i mentioned above reckoned tai chi was a bad idea if you had a dodgy back. From what i head he didnt do "housewives" tai chi and focused more on the martial stuff so who knows

spiral

No expert but I 've done Tai chi in UCD in the past most of the time in the form you are trying to keep your spine neck included relatively straight. You may have a slight lean but the spine itself is still straight.
But if he wants to do it as MA you have to practise push hands which progresses to wrestling and then if you want to sparring and a lot of conditioning exercises squats , handstands , rolls, throwing drills, striking drills, takedowns, kicks etc so he may be just better off not doing any MA or just telling people he cant be thrown or getting his back sorted first.

Nothingcompares

couldnt find much info other than the guys name is sam sun ( i think).

kenpo_dave

Some of the soft qi gong exercises are supposed to be excellent for the health of the spin and other parts of the body. Dr Yang has published several books and videos on the topic. See www.ymaapub.com to find their titles and then go look on ebay for a cheaper price

smacl

Roper wrote:

Hey, I was asked about some sort of MA for someone who has a bad back. They wanted to do some sort of Kata based MA, I warned them off most hard style sort of things like TKD and Shotokan on account of the twisty jerky movements which would be awful on a back injury.

Whaddy'all think about some form of Tai Chi? Suitable or not?

Depends very much what is wrong with your friends back. If they haven't had a diagnosis, and are in a lot of regular pain, I would advise a diagnosis before taking up any new exercise. If the pain is not too bad, get them to check out http://www.spine-health.com/ for some self diagnosis and advice. Taiji forms emphasise keeping the shoulders and hips aligned most of the time, which helps protect the back, as do most of the soft push hands drills. Free style push hands and shuai jiao may include trips, throws, locks and other techniques liable to cause further damage to the back. Common sense is for your friend to let the instructor know the full details of his condition, and avoid the wrestling oriented bits.

As kenpo_dave says, Dr Yang has some good soft exercises, very suitable for those in recovery. My girlfriend had spinal surgery last Christmas, and I got her on of the ymaa qigong DVDs, http://www.amazon.com/Eight-Simple-Qigong-Exercises-Health/dp/B00016USR8/sr=8-2/qid=1161672409/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-6435887-9447346?ie=UTF8&s=dvd. Good stuff, and much easier to work from than a book.

To the OP; Dr Yang also does occasional taiji seminars, hosted by YMAA in blackrock, which are well worth a look in. The last one on joint locks (qinna) was both highly informative and entertaining, excellent event all in all. Our own chief instructor, Dan Docherty, will also be giving a 2 day seminar in November, which would be a good way to get an insight into what a comprehensive martial taijiquan system is all about. I'll post the full details when I get them.

Niall Keane

Tai chi is the name of the yin yang symbol, both martial and intellectual, or to put it another way emphasizing both the physical and strategic. Softness gives us the ability to change, to aid hardness or the issuing of power. The classics themselves tell us that not to practice in this way "is a waste of Gung Fu" (time and effort).
The Chinese themselves have a term for Tai Chi in which only the soft side is taught - "TuFu Chuan" - Bean curd Boxing.
Without practicing the martial, the form degenerates into waving your hands aimlessly about, "drawing circles". when I look at such "players" everything is wrong, sure some of them know a few orthodox techniques for a certain part of the movement, but there is no jin (educated force), often you can see the body weight being moved forward before the issuing of a punch etc.
Hands move up and down, or forward and back with no twists, totally ineffectual martially, and losing the health benefits of more complete movements. Transitions from style to style are ugly and square, no concept of guarding, fainting and drawing is considered.
This is o.k. for an Old Folks Home, but so is passing a beach ball to each other!
Make no mistake, all the old masters were fighters, Zhen Chuan or true transmission is a phrase constantly reiterated down the history of Tai Chi Chuan.
Real Tai Chi Chuan is a serious undertaking, full of concepts and methods that must be understood, but also further than that internalized.
Ceaseless exertion is the method of self-cultivation!

www.freewebs.com/sanshou

Darkwing Duck

Thanks for all the info. I'll be paying a visit to the class up in SCR (http://www.traditional-taichi.com/) Its closest and handiest for where I'll be coming from at that time. I'm looknig forward to getting started and trying all the different aspects, and if that one doesn't work out, there's always others to try!

edges

There is Tai Chi starting in the Martail arts academy, pearse st at 3pm sundays.

The instructor is Zhenjuan Liu, she was the chief unstructor of the Capital College of Physical Education, Beijing, before defecting over here!

I did a couple of Dao Yin chi gung classes with here and found here excellent.

For more about her call Robert Bannon, you'll get his contacts and her background on www.ucd.ie/shaolin

As for your back, I trained with several Tai Chi guys including one purely martial fella, I found all the training theraputic for my back. There is such an emphasis on correct physical alignment, but still get it checked out first.

Best of luck

Dave
www.wildgeesema.com