The Lack of Tai Chi Crisis
Everything is a crisis nowadays. We’ve currently dealing with the cost of living crisis, Ukraine crisis, fuel crisis, energy crisis, food crisis. There are probably more, I’ve most likely lost count. Whilst I would never demean the severity of the situations listed, it does strike me that it is manna …
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Warming Up for Tai Chi
I remember being at school in the 80’s and for the first minute or so of our PE lesson we’d do the warm up. It was a case of the teacher shouting something along the lines of, “Okay boys, touch your toes… now you’re good to go!” I would hope …
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Tai Chi Fan
When a student reaches a certain level in their open hand tai chi practice (ie. not with a weapon in their hands), it is time to start practicing weapons! Traditionally, attainment of this level may well have taken up to a decade or more. However, these days it is …
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Martial Qigong
Welcome to another edition of the weekly White Crane Online blog. Over the past few weeks we have been exploring topics in and around the theme of Taoism. Last week I introduced the core concept of Qi (if you missed it, you might want to read it here first) and …
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Breathing for Life
Of all the things which sustain us, our breath is one of the most vital. We can go several days without food and water, yet the world record for absolute longest breath hold is 22 minutes. This is an almost unbelievable time (by a world champion free diver) – but …
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Tai Chi Cross Training
Whilst Tai Chi is a wonderful activity to integrate into your life, there are – apparently – other things that people enjoy doing – so I am told! 🙂 For many people, tai chi becomes their sole activity and for them this is enough to keep active, healthy, fit, …
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Balance and foot strength – the benefits for martial arts and everyday life.
When we think of strength in the West, we will often imagine broad shoulders, prominent chest muscles and thickly set arms. Undoubtedly, such physical attributes will often infer a degree of physical strength but looked at from an Eastern mindset, it will appear top heavy, disproportioned and unbalanced if such …
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