Chris Chi

Tai Chi for health & wellbeing

 

 

Martial Arts Cats

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Here are two cats and I mean real cats using Wing Chun and Ju Jujutsu martial arts techniques. It’s hilarious.

I got this clip from my friend, Lawrence from TanDao who’s written a fine post on martial arts using a cat anology. I like the big cat’s Tai Chi strategy of being centred and waiting for his moment to attack.

It was probably doing abdominal breathing but I can’t be absolutely sure. You know what cats are like – they never tell 🙂

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYmDL8e-Fd4&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Tai Chi Breathing

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Tai Chi has two basic breathing methods – abdominal and reverse breathing.

When I teach abdominal breathing in my various presentations and student Tai Chi workshops, I usually get someone who ends up doing the more advanced reverse breathing method instead.

I don’t know why some people do this as the explanation and demonstration is clear and simple to follow. Maybe it’s because some people get confused with the concept  of breathing in and expanding the abdomen at the same time. Usually after a few attempts they get it right.

I thought I’d write a post, in simplistic terms, on the difference between the two breathing methods and how they are used in Tai Chi.

Abdominal Breathing
You simply breathe in through your nose and expand your abdomen. When you breathe in, your abdomen returns to the resting position. Abdominal breathing is the general breathing method for wellbeing Tai Chi.

Reverse Breathing
This is the reverse of abdominal breathing – you breathe in and your abdomen gently contract – breathe out and your abdomen expands. Reverse breathing is used in Tai Chi self defence.

Sometimes I find when I do my Tai Chi form or Chi Kung exercises I alternate between abdominal breathing and reverse breathing without thinking about it. However when it comes to the Tai Chi self defence applications then reverse breathing is what I tend to focus on.

It’s important for beginner students to focus on abdominal breathing before trying reverse breathing.

 

Tai Chi Wrist Exercise

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In a Tai Chi class I teach various Chi Kung exercises to help students increase their circulation and get the chi to flow.

Besides demonstrating the technique I try to select a visualisation technique that will help students perform the exercise correctly.

Here’s a visualisation technique you can use to get your wrists loose and ready for the Tai Chi form.

  • hold your hands  – out in front and away from your abdomen
  • shake your hands up and down slowly and gently
  • increase the speed of the shake gradually
  • Visualise there are small strips of adhesive tape attached to your finger and thumbs’ tips while shaking your hands
  • Now imagine you are trying to get rid of the strips of adhesive tape

Sometimes students shake their hands vigorously which is a mistake. Relax the hands while you shake them.

And you must relax your face, body, arms at all times and maintain the correct body alignment for the chi to flow smoothly in your wrists.

 

Training: 9000 Hours

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The other day someone asked me ‘how long have you been involved in Tai Chi for?’ I said, ‘just over 23 years’.

It made me think afterwards that words such as ‘involved’ or ‘doing’ don’t really reflect an accurate account of my experience in Tai Chi.

What does 23 years of involvement or doing Tai Chi really mean? Well, if I break it down into numbers it means about 9000 hours of training. And that doesn’t include the many hours of research I have done during that time.

That estimate comes from an average of 8 hours training per week – which includes club training and my personal training. And these days I’m no longer in a club environment due to work obligations and I train 9 hours per week on my own.

There are many who just go to a one hour Tai Chi class and do very little if any training. Their hours over a 23 year period would add up to approximately 1000 hours. And that’s okay as long as they don’t expect to improve their Tai Chi skill level.

What I have found with 9000 hours of training is that the work you do between classes will determine how much you will improve your Tai Chi. Now you don’t have to do what I do because we are different. My training schedule exists because I’m passionate about Tai Chi and as a teacher I have the motivation and the responsibilty to improve as much as I can.

The more hours you put in the more you improve. A very simple formula. Obvously your improvement will also be determined by the quality of teaching you receive and the effort you put into your training, besides the total hours of training.

My recomendation to students who asks me how much training should they do is at least 3 hours a week. That’s 30 minutes of training six days a week. Three hours training and a one hour class lesson per week over 23 years adds up to approximately 4600 hours of training!

So the next time someone asks you ‘how long have you been doing Tai Chi for?’ What will you say?

I know what I will say.

‘About 9000 hours!’