Tai Chi

I've been thinking about writing about my Tai Chi for quite awhile now; but, every time that I sat down to write up a post, nothing I wrote down made sense. But I think I've finally got something that somewhat lets you into my 'journey' with my Tai Chi, and how much it's benefited me.

When Sifu Edge was still here in Stony, I would snag rides to and from the studio with her all the time. And usually, I found myself sitting on the bench watching her partake in the Tai Chi class after we were done with the Tiny Tigers. There was a few times where, Sifu Brinker would come up to me sitting on the bench and ask me why I wasn't in class. I would always just shrug my shoulders and not say anything but the truth was, I had absolutely no interest in Tai Chi. It seemed way too slow for me and I saw no benefit in it at all. I liked doing my forms fast and as hard as I could, I loved swinging weapons around; to me, Tai Chi satisfied none of that.

After I got my Black Belt, my mom basically told me that I had no choice but to start doing Tai Chi. I was reluctant, but I did it anyways. I'm not going to lie when I say that I absolutely hated the first few months of attending classes; it was too slow, I couldn't understand how to achieve the same type of flow that everyone else had, and I looked like a robot with all of my limbs attached by strings. I expected to walk into the class and just get it, like I did with some of my hand forms. That clearly wasn't the case here, and it was extremely frustrating to me.

After the first few months of frustration, and having to drag my butt out on the mats to participate, I had a 'burst of realization.' It came one class when Sifu Dennis walked up to me, put two fingers under my chin and lifted my head up. I was confused, but she then explained to me that in my Tai Chi and ALL of my hand forms, I sucked my chin down. This was something that I had never realized before. I rushed home afterwards and recorded myself doing every single form that I knew and sure enough, my chin was tucked in every single time. After, I tried doing my Kempo, being very conscious of keeping my head up, and WOW! Did it ever make a difference. My shoulders became relaxed, my flow from technique to technique improved, and I looked a lot more confident. I can almost guarantee that I wouldn't have had this opportunity to discover this about my forms if it weren't for my Tai Chi.

I've now been actively participating in the Tai Chi class for 2 years now, and I know that I have just barely grasped the surface of what it can truley do for me. I had a conversation with Sifu Brinker at the beginning of last week, and he expressed how impressed he was with how far my Tai Chi has come, and how much it has benefitted all of my forms. I know that Tai Chi has served me exponentially, and I would recommend it to anyone that struggles with flow and unity in their Kung Fu. I love Tai Chi class, and it's definitely one of those things that I couldn't imagine not being apart of my Kung Fu training. Funny, considereing how reluctant I was to join.