Archives by Tag 'Martial Arts'
Tai Chi Chih: Princess In The Valley
Welcome to another installment in the Tai Chi Chih “Joy Through Movement” series. I apologize for the long delay between installments, but life here has been the far side of hectic. But, we are back in stride now!
So, without further ado:
So far in the series (in order) we have:
Rocking Motion
Bird Flaps It’s Wings
Around [...]
Tai Chi Breathing
A couple weeks back, Esther left a comment on my video showing the Tai Chi Chih move Bass Drum. She wanted me to mention something about the breathing pattern in Tai Chi. So, today after class at the Sunroom I had her film me giving the answer.
Here it is!
Sorry the sound quality is not so [...]
Tai Chi Chih: Princess On The Mountain Top
Here we are with the latest installment in the Tai Chi Chih “Joy Through Movement” series. Today we look at: Princess On The Mountain Top.
One thing I failed to mention in the video – The hand position is gender specific. For men it’s right hand passing in front of left. For women it’s left hand [...]
Tai Chi Chih: Bass Drum
Here we go with this week’s installment in the Tai Chi Chih “Joy Through Movement” series. This time we look at Bass Drum.
*drum roll*
(Get it?)
Some key points:
Do what you can. Push yourself, but not your limits.
The hand flutter in the left hand comes usually after about two years of regular practice and is a confirming [...]
Tai Chi Chih: Around The Platter
Alright, time for another installment of Tai Chi Chih!
This week we go over “Around the Platter.” This is the first of the general set of motions after the two warm ups we went over, Rocking Motion, and Bird Flaps It’s Wings.
Some keypoints:
The breathing pattern is not strictly one way, but should be consistent within a [...]
Tai Chi Chih: Bird Flaps It’s Wings
Here’s the next installment in the Tai Chi Chih series. Bird Flap’s it’s Wings.
A few points for this exercise:
Build up the knee flex slowly(!!), and make sure the knee moves along a line guided by the inside edge of the bone process leading up to your big toe. Take it nice and [...]
Tai Chi Chih: Rocking Motion
Welcome to the first installment of my Tai Chi Chih series. Tai Chi Chih is a simplified version of basic Tai Chi Chuan movements developed by Justin Stone, and was what kicked off my first 1,000 day vow, and is what helped me to lose over 200 pounds.
In this video I demonstrate the first [...]
My Yondan Test – A Thankfully Great Day
Earlier this year I took the Yondan (4th degree black belt test) in Aikido. Below you will see the first of 20 videos that were filmed during that test. It was a good day, and I am very grateful for all my dojo-mates who worked with me for six months previous to the test (especially [...]
Aiming For The Wrong Look
One of the issues I had to deal with when starting my quest for personal fitness and health was a mistaken idea of what healthy and strong looked like. My body-image was horribly skewed and a source of a great deal of shame and self-loathing. That much was pretty obvious from the start. What I [...]