Chris Chi

Tai Chi for health & wellbeing

 

 

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Seven Stars

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Here’s my ‘two bobs worth’ (opinion) of the Tai Chi seven stars posture from a self defense viewpoint.

  • seven stars refers to seven points of the body – head, shoulder, elbow, hand, hip, knee, foot – each can be used to deflect or strike
  • the seven stars posture in the form is also used as an on guard position

For this post I’ll talk about the on guard position.

The seven stars on guard position is a good way of keeping an unarmed opponent, at arms length. This was one of the techniques I taught in my women’s self defence short courses. I modified the technique to be less aggressive looking.

I wouldn’t recommend the seven stars posture against an armed opponent, especially one with a knife.

In my earlier years of training in Tai Chi we experimented with defending against a knife attack. Obviously we didn’t use real knives for safety reasons but we did use rubber knives.

We had fun with it and ‘died a thousand deaths in the training hall’ but then we decided to try something different. We had the attacker use a black texta. The defender used the seven star position. The result? A lot of texta marks on our arms.

This had a strong impact and we quickly learned that sticking your arms out in front of you against an armed attacker was not the best option.

Personally I think the best self defense against a knife is to run. Run fast and long. In the opposite direction, preferably.

Anyway, for a more detailed explanation of seven stars check out Wang Peisheng’s talk below.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2v8C33f1mw[/youtube]

Where Egos I Go

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We all have egos – ‘sense of self-esteem or self-importance’ – and a healthy ego is vital for our wellbeing.

Recently I ran our Pozitive Kidz are happy kidz workshops for grade five and six students at a primary school. The workshops focused on building self esteem from a Tai Chi perspective.

After the workshops the wellbeing teacher emailed me the following student feedback and gave me permission to use it.

  • “We have had 3 sessions with Chris Bennett. He taught us relaxation techniques to help calm us down. He came to teach us how to have fun through relaxation”. Callum
  • “Tai Chi has involved movement like belly breathing and the meaning of Yin & Yan. Yin means calm, Yan means active. It is used to calm us down like meditation”. Kellie
  • “Chris is a wonderful Tai Chi expert. He has taught us many things such as preventing ‘monkey brain'”. Jon
  • ‘Each time Chris teaches us more about the history of Tai Chi and its different uses. He is a funny and joyful guy who is very entertaining and makes sure we all have fun’.  Sam
  • “Tai Chi is fun and calming. It is calming because when we meditate, it is relaxing”. Josh

It certainly boosted my ego, as it’s not often I get feedback from students after a workshop. Usually teachers are too busy to do so or they have a policy that prohibits publicly giving student feedback.

Usually I can assess, during the workshop, if the students are enjoying themselves. Most of the time they do.

This student feedback caused me to reflect that, like children, adults need positive feedback to build and maintain a healthy ego.

One way of doing this is by using the Toastmasters’ method of commend and recommend.

Commendations should be earned and we should always look for opportunities to give them.

Recommendations should be couched in positive language and given only where it is important. Too many recommendations can be overwhelming to children and adults.

What I do in the Positive Kidz workshops is always look for opportunities to commend good behaviour. You should see the reaction from the children. Very positive!

When I need to recommend the desired behaviour I do it with a smile without criticising the poor behaviour.

This takes a lot of patience but it is vital to help build healthy egos because I know ‘where egos I go’.

How Embarrassing

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The hall was narrow and all eyes were watching my every move. I jumped across the floor and lunged with my sabre, raised it and then it happened.

As I rotated the sabre around my head the metal guard clipped my forehead and a trickle of blood appeared.

The audience was stunned.

I was embarrassed.

I’ve practiced the sabre form many times over the years and given many demonstrations and this was the first time I drew blood (my own). It was only a minor cut and when I finished the audience applauded loudly. Probably more loudly than usual because of the dramatic effect.

The great thing about demonstrations is that you have only one chance to get it right. And I enjoy that pressure because it does make you focus on your form internally rather than the audience or environment. If you are distracted by what is going on around you, nerves and/or poor form occur.

I don’t know why I mistimed my move but errors do occur and when they do it is important, where possible, to continue and finish your demonstration as if  nothing happened.

The sabre is my favourite weapon form and I use it occassionally in our conference energizer presentations or our speeches as a way of ending on a high note.

It’s not only a dynamic form to watch but it is also very handy for potential hecklers in the audience.

And for some strange reason I have never had a heckler during one of my sabre demonstrations!

Footnote: The Tai Chi sabre blade is not sharp. Just as well as decapitation could be fatal.