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Tiger Claw 2014
Thursday, May 22, 2014 2:16PM
The Tiger Claw Elite Championships was this last weekend as was San Jose's Tai Chi-Kung-fu Day.There were nearly 300 competitors and many old friends on hand to Judge.
I t was always great to see the elegant Master Grace Wu from Kansas, her grandfather was the great Wang Zi Ping, an important contributor to the development of Modern Wushu.
Coach Han Ming Nan, Wu Bin and Emilio were on hand. Emilio and Matt Wong revised all the Wushu rules we use.....including those used for CMAT and the Collegiate Nationals. Good job!
Coach Wu also performed this year! We are at the Ceasar Chavez Plaza getting ready for the 24 Tai Chi big group performance. Coach did the Tai Chi form too!
Grandmaster Jiu ji Ling's Team did the lion dance to open the festivities.
Everything ran smoothly this year, tho there is still some parents and coaches who are not clear on the difference between traditional and contemporary Wushu. Especially schools that are hybrids that teach a mixture of forms or create there own "traditional forms". Traditional forms must have a lineage and be combat applicable. I once asked Grandmaster Jackman Wong about this question. He noted that actually each generation masters often modified or changed forms. But he said that one should not change the intent of the move nor change its name. It's ok to add moves but not subtract them. In many forms I teach I have not changed the move only changed the take off from a traditional one to a contemporary one. But the form has not changed.....a jump front kick is still that, just the take off is from modern Wushu.
Well I am winding down this semester and getting ready for finals.....have a good summer......
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Crossing Over
Saturday, Sep 7, 2013 12:54AM
I had to go to Berkeley to East Wind Books of Berkeley to pick up books for my Tai Chi class...kool thing was I got to go across the new span of the Bay Bridge....
Coming out of the Treasure Island tunnel.....it took nearly 45 minutes to get to this point....
traffic is incredibly slow...too many gawkers!
Coming out of the tunnel you can see the old span of the bridge...the new span is wide and
spacious...you don't even feel like you are on a bridge. Where's the traffic??
Once I got this far traffic was sparse and quick....what is going on?? Trip time total ! hour each way!!
On the way back...took just as long,,,,,
Got my books....and found some interesting Bagua books....two volume set on Zhang Gong Bagua Zhang.....a style I had not heard of. Cheng Style Bagua is very well known in Beijing and concentrates of being fluid, Zhang Gong Bagua is from the South Districts of Beijing is is an off shoot of Cheng Style and instead concentrates on static postures and incorporates a lot of Xing-i elements. Also if you haven't seen the movie Grandmasters, check it out a nice rendition of Bagua......it's not a movie about fighting , but about the tradition and philosophy of Bagua and Martial Arts. In the credits....Coach Wu, is listed as the Martial Arts Consultant......which would account for the heavy emphasis on understanding the importance of Wu De in Martial Arts. Without Wu De you are just a thug......you might be physically strong, but you can't reach higher levels of understanding without transforming your outlook on life.....you must live Bagua, not just do Bagua. Which the books on Zhang Gong Bagua spend a few chapters translating and explaining what that means. Good readings!
Well I am going to have to crossover again as Calwushu begins today hope it's faster!!
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Taiji in 2013
Saturday, Aug 31, 2013 4:38AM
I have been busy this summer trying to comply with much of the new CCSF requirements for courses and revising the outline for my Tai Chi for Health Course. Its a different way to teach Taiji..it is now necessary to track each students progress with metrics to show statistical results..certainly not the way of traditional sifus.....But it did give me some pause to examine how Taiji is taught nowadays. Most training today emphasizes learning form not function, and practicing sets and not basics or Gung. Grandmaster Feng always said: If you don't practice Gung when you get old all you will have is empty (Kung)! Yes, practicing silk reeling is essential...but so is stretching, kicking, punching the bag, and some taiji tuishou and shanshou. Why the emphasis on form?......Master Zhou my Bagua teacher answered this question in two ways....one it's easier to teach form than Gung, and that's not what China is doing so everyone goes along with it. So Taiji becomes a competitive sport......goal then is to turn out athletes as quick as possible, and not worry about little things like Qi flow and meditation.
Having to do metrics made me think though most of what I had been teaching was Taiji Forms and not Tai Chi.........learning how the energy flows, how to move it, how to connect the body. mind, and qi.......But, all this has to do with the bigger question of how to popularize Tai Chi and Chinese Martial Arts. So with this in mind I had a reunion with members of the US Wushu Team from the 1st World Wushu Championships, in which I had the privilege to be the US Team Coach. In the era of USAWKF, it was the best US Team we have ever sent to World competition. The best btw was the US Team we sent to Tianjin in 1986. It was great to see Andrew, Amy, David, and Bobbi. David Ross, however, was the one to ask me about teaching Tai Chi and what I thought about our methods. One of the important conclusions was that Wushu and Tai Chi are just too complicated and that in order for it to become mainstream...we have to simplify yet offer a good workout, and not get away from the principles of Tai Chi. David interestingly, is working with Jet Li, to promote Tai Chi using a new program called Tai Chi Fit. The idea is to not teach any form perse, but to teach students about the flow of Tai Chi, and to keep students constantly moving. The posture and techniques all come from Tai Chi....but are connected and linked to
provide movement in all directions, and teach the student how to align their bodies. Jet Li feels that Tai Chi has a much better chance of becoming a mainstream form of excercise than Wushu which is for a very limited number of Elite athletes.
Well, I will continue my thoughts about this another time....now for some pictures of recent events........
Dinner with Gigi and Tiger Claw Judges.
Rhonda and Helen helping with scoring and timing...great Job!
My fellow classmates at Tiger Claw, Sifu Robert Louie, Herb Leung from Grandmaster Jackman Wong's Jing Wu School, and Sifu David DeJesus from Tibetan white Crane.
Gene Ching presenting us( Chris, Emilio, and Myself) with awards of appreciation...Thanks!
World Tai Chi Day in San Jose. I did not expect to see Yu Shaowen from Beijing Team and his lovely wife, World Tai Chi Champion, Gao Jia Min. Jia Min I actually had not seen in more than 10 years..it was good to see her.
Jiamin and Zhou Yin Jian lead the 100 or more Tai Chi Practioners in 24 Tai chi to open the days performances. If you were around then, the first World Tai Chi Day we opened at CMAT with 100 students and Masters performing 24 Tai Chi also.
Also, in front the group performances were led by many famous Tai Chi Masters, including Canada's Liang Shou Yi, Grace Wu, and Yang Jwing -Ming.
It makes you realize Tai Chi is slowly gaining momentum, though its important to notice, that Wushu and Tai Chi are still dominated by Chinese, and we need to reach a broader audience and put these arts within everyone's reach.
Have a nice day.....anyway some food for thought.
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Still Hanging Out
Saturday, Aug 31, 2013 1:18AM
The second leg of our Star Wars Trek took us back to the Presidio to ILM......which I must admit had a lot more movie props and posters.....this is where all of the video editing is done. Lots of artists and projects going on here......So first order was to get our security passes while we were waiting Ely found a couple of familiar villans,,,,,
Ely gets done in by Darth..........
I am a fan of Bobo........as long as he's not hunting for me.....
But everyone's favorite has to be R2-D2.
And of course his buddy can't be far behind........C3PO.....
Though I thought these guys were pretty fun, but I thought the first one was better....but this neat as it was an autographed poster.....
But Ely just has to side with the Evil side of the Force.......it's the vegetarian side of him....haha....
Ever wonder what happened to Jar jar Binks....easily Luca's most annoying character...well they Carbonized him!
But I thought the Street Art Festival they were having at the ILM Campus was the most fun...you get to see how many great artist there are....they were drawing right on the ground with chalk....
And since it is ILM...the topics reflected the place.....
It was also fun to see artist directing kids on drawings too....you never can tell one of them might turn out to be exceptional..........would be a great place for SJ Wushuer Kevan to do some art work!
Had a great time wanted to thank Kai for arranging this and making it possible. Of course you can tell I am a fan of Star Wars. I am curious to see what direction Disney will take things....I was sadden they cut Clone Wars,,,,,,but there are new projects on the horizon..so we'll see.
Have a nice day!
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Hanging out
Friday, Aug 30, 2013 10:15AM
Had a chance to hangout with Kai, Emilio, Ely, and the Mars.......which was made possible since Cal Wushu has not started yet....got some time to relax.......
So we trekked to North Bay.......looking at this building can you guess where this is?
Nice working area!? A great place to work......relaxing and comfortable........
Well,.....here's a picture of Ely in the sound library.......if you guessed this has something to do with Star Wars...you are right!! We went with Kai to the Luca's Ranch in Marin County..where sound for many of your favorite movies is added.
Ely and lots of Indiana Jones props.........Hat and whip..........also the Holy Grail!!
Me I like Light Sabers...........
This is the Luca's reference library.....contains books on every subject. You can see where they
get their inspirations from....History, Art, Architecture, Science,,,,,etc.
Every Library has to have a spiral staircase!
We checked out a few other buildings....all very cool, lots of old movie posters....it's just too
bad the props for many of the major pictures were kept in a separate barn that is off limits to the
public. But the highlight of the visit was getting to eat lunch with George Lucas....well right at the next table pretty neat.......Also, thought it was neat overheard a table discussing the hot San Francisco topic,,,,,where is CCSF going and what are people doing about it.......good to see people everywhere are concerned. Anyways had a great lunch.....this concluded the first leg of our Star Wars Trek......second part we went to ILM...Industrial Light Magic......next time upload picture from that......cya, time for class!
Stats
- Wushu Coach, Taiji and Bagua specialist, loves tech when it works, prefers a Taoist point of view,enjoys Lion Dancing.....loves watching a good Magician.
- Occupation: Martial arts , Coach
- Gender: Male
- Total visits: 88,188
