The week-long National Day (国庆节) holiday is one of the longest public holidays in the mainland Chinese calendar, and traditionally is both a time when people make longer trips at home and abroad. Also in Read more…
As part of my ongoing quest to improve my pushing hands, at the tail end of the summer I made contact with a teacher named Liu who is well known for his push hands and Read more…
After a long summer hiatus, I have to admit my goal of posting at least once a month has fallen by the wayside. After all, it only makes sense to post when there is actually Read more…
In lieu of my May training update, I’d instead like to share a fun interview between myself and Robbie Coons, a long-time practitioner of the 3 internal arts (taiji, bagua and xingyi) and also a Read more…
Apart from continuing with my own training, due to the relatively long (3 day) public holiday for Labour Day in China, I was able to take advantage of the break to meet two taiji teachers Read more…
Training-wise don’t have much to report for March due to being sent to Henan for a work project for several weeks (nowhere near taiji’s fabled Chen Village or Shaolin temple unfortunately!). However, I did manage Read more…
Having recently moved to Beijing for work, I have decided to start a training diary, mostly as an exercise in self-discipline. As most of the month was taken up with the miscellaneous yet important errands that come along with Read more…
In traditional CMA, there is a saying “the teacher observes the student for 3 years, the student also observes the teacher for 3 years” (shifu kaocha tudi san nian, tudi kaocha shifu san nian). Obviously, Read more…
Just thought I would write a note on my impressions coming to the end of my first year in China (3rd year overall). Of course, all opinions are based on my experiences in one city Read more…
A happy coincidence led to this note. A few weeks back, when chatting after class with my xingyi teacher, he mentioned that if one wanted to fight with xingyi, reaction drills were very important. I Read more…