The Tai Chi Notebook
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The Tai Chi Notebook features Reflections on Tai Chi, Xing Yi, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and martial arts studies. Author Graham Barlow is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ), and a teacher of Tai Chi and Xing Yi based in the UK.
The Tai Chi Notebook
4d ago
Things have not worked out well for the author of the book that got me started with Tai Chi… The reason I got interested in Tai Chi in the first place was a combination of watching Kung Fu, the classic TV series starting David Carradine, in my early childhood, which primed to be receptive towards ..read more
The Tai Chi Notebook
4d ago
Nabil Ranné is a Chen style teacher living in Berlin who offers classes and online training at CTN Academy Nabil is a student of Chen Yu, who is the only son of Chen ZhaoKui and grandson of the famous Chen Fake. Listen here. Here’s what we talk about: Timestamps: 1.00: Nabil’s background in martial arts ..read more
The Tai Chi Notebook
2w ago
There are lots of tigers in Yang style Tai Chi. There’s ‘Bend Bow to shoot Tiger’, which is a pretty obvious punch, and each section of the forms ends with the classic ‘Carry Tiger to Mountain’. Today we want to look at ‘Retreat to Ride Tiger’. In Yang Cheng-Fu-like forms it looks like this: It ..read more
The Tai Chi Notebook
1M ago
By Josh Rosenblatt Amazon link. When Josh Robenblatt got to the age of 32 and realised he wanted to fight in an MMA match, he had to confront a lot of physical problems as well as inner demons before he set foot inside the cage. While the physicality of fighting is explored, this book is ..read more
The Tai Chi Notebook
1M ago
This is a nicely made video about Tai Chi Push Hands: Some quick observations: 1) I quite like the emphasis on feeling where the opponent is during push hands instruction – I think this is bang on. 2) “Sensei Seth” correctly identifies very quickly that push hands competitions are very, very, similar to Sumo. And ..read more
The Tai Chi Notebook
1M ago
This post is going to start somewhere you don’t expect – over 1,000 years ago in Song Dynasty China during which we find the legendary founder of Xing Yi, Yue Fei, a general in the Song Dynasty army, mulling over the advancing (heavily armoured) Jin cavalry, and wondering how his foot soldiers are going to ..read more
The Tai Chi Notebook
1M ago
There is a phrase in Tai Chi that the whole body is a fist. I think it actually comes from Chen style, but applies to all styles of Tai Chi. Now, you can interpret that in different ways, but I think all of them are valid. Let’s look at a couple. Firstly, it’s saying that ..read more
The Tai Chi Notebook
1M ago
I’m always on the look out for interesting bio mechanical things and that search recently lead me to a character called David Weck, who is known as the ‘Head over Foot Guy’. Of course, that’s not his only idea about biomechanics- he’s got loads of them – but this video is a good introduction to ..read more
The Tai Chi Notebook
2M ago
I always find the labels ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ misleading because something that’s current and popular, like Brazilian Jiujitsu, is actually quite old in comparison to some of the martial arts we would call traditional, like Aikido or Taekwondo. But even recently created martial arts are built on older traditions, so where do we start dating ..read more
The Tai Chi Notebook
2M ago
I’m always fascinated by British martial arts, because, well, it’s where I’m from. Some of them have survived in small communities – mainly wrestling – and a lot more of it has been recreated from old manuals, which is mainly the weapons systems, which HEMA has promoted. The most famous one is Catch Wrestling, which ..read more