Jay and Hummers – 7/25/22

Monday Morning Tai Chi Training Tip # 378 Jay and Hummers Up on the top of the Summer House. Perfect weather – low 70’s, clear blue skies. I put out peanuts, and along came a singular Stellar Jay. It was almost ready to pick one out of the 20 I placed on the...

Summer House Thoughts – 7/18/22

Monday Morning Tai Chi Training Tip # 377 Summer House Thoughts As I have shared with you in the past, I so enjoy sitting on the top of the outbuilding, at our house, which we call the Summer House, feeding the Stellar Jays, and letting my thoughts run around like the...

Words of Advice/Class Sequence – 7/11/22

Monday Morning Tai Chi Training Tip # 376 Simple Words of Advice/Tai Chi Chuan Class Sequence Simple Words of Advice: Imitate (learn carefully from your teacher and those that have gone before). Assimilate (practice diligently and take the principles into your core)....

Fourth of July Memories – 7/4/22

Monday Morning Tai Chi Training Tip # 375 Fourth of July Memories When I was about 13, my best buddy, Mark, who lived across the street form me, and I heard there was a shop in Chinatown, San Francisco, where we could buy fireworks, which was illegal in San Francisco...

Visiting Pai-an Pavilion – 6/27/22

Greetings. This week I want to share something special with you. Sam Hamill, a good friend of the Studio and creator of Cooper Canyon Press in Port Townsend, translated this ancient poem from the Chinese. It seems to me to reflect the spirit of a life that includes...

Increase Awareness – 6/20/22

Monday Morning Tai Chi Training Tip # 373 Increase Awareness One of the best exercises to increase your awareness of each movement in your Tai Chi form is to break it down, one movement at a time, and explore all the possibilities for that movement. Do it slow and...

Learning From Everything – 6/13/22

Monday Morning Tai Chi Training Tip # 372 Learning from Everything I was so fortunate to grow up where and when I did. I was raised in San Francisco, and just up the block from my house was a playground, containing a baseball diamond, grassy field, basketball court...

Same Name-Different Applications/Class Note – 6/6/22

Monday Morning Tai Chi Training Tip # 371 Same Name – Different Applications Last week in the park we worked on Needle at Sea Bottom. In the Yang Style Long Form, there are two repetitions. As I evolved my form, I gave a different application to each repeated...

Time and Space – 5/30/22

Monday Morning Tai Chi Training Tip # 370 Time and Space It is interesting how we mark time and space. In Tai Chi, we have a form composed of movements (from 34 to 108) that appear as one as they flow from one move to the next. In our school, the Traditional Yang...

Meditate on Simplicity – 5/23/22

Monday Morning Tai Chi Training Tip # 369 Meditate on Simplicity The higher the skill, the simpler it is. This seems to contradict all we have ever learned, but think about this in relation to internal energy. Don’t we want the thought and action to be one? In...