DaPoets Posted January 28, 2008 Share Posted January 28, 2008 I had an incredible weekend. The International Taoist Tai Chi Society has this beautiful temple and Tai chi center about an hour west of Toronto (2 hour drive from my house actually) and I had probably one of the most incredible weekends of my life there. I studied the Taoist Tai Chi set under Tony Quan who is an extremely well know international instructor. He actually lives and teaches in Toronto too so I'm going to go to his class again on Tuesday most likely but this weekend was Tai chi instruction from 10 am to 10 pm on Saturday and until noon on Sunday. It was very enlightening and just an incredible experience. It was a SERIOUS workout and my legs, back, arms, all felt like jell-o and burning but I learned an incredible amount and fine tuned my Tai Chi so so much. The food was just delicious, I don't know how else to describe it. The area is just beautiful, the temples are stunning, and I even woke up Sunday morning and did 45 minutes of Taoist chanting with the priests (about 20 of us did). We were kneeling on these very elegant and soft pads, each at a prayer "desk"?, incense going, gongs and wooden mallets being hit in harmony, I felt like I was in a kung fu movie training to be a kung fu monk or something. Volunteering is the name of the game as well. I did a good amount of work. I helped shovel lots of snow along the walk ways and actually helped move a new BIG icemaker up a long flight of stairs in the Tai chi hall to the mechanical room... that took about an hour as we had to take off a door and strap the thing up so people could help lift it. (4 person job...) As for the actual Tai Chi, our instructor had us work a lot on certain exercises that are done to enhance your Tai Chi abilities and that was a big chunk of the weekend. That alone had me create pools of sweat and looks of exhaustion... But I must say, after hours and hours of his instructions, I finally hit a point where my body was like "Ah Ha!!" and things just worked as they were supposed to or perhaps very close to it. For nearly 12 years I was doing a lot of things in a way that I wouldn't call "wrong" but I would say that they were not maximizing my Tai chi abilities or perhaps even hindering my growth in Tai chi. I'm going to be going there twice in February (Saturdays) and twice in march (weekends) for different events going on. I study mainly at the local Buffalo branch located on kenmore ave. These are some of the pictures on the website of what the place looked like while it was being built. I took some pictures but they didn't come out too well as it was dark and snow everywhere. This one is from the Taoist Tai Chi awareness day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B.Ob. Posted January 28, 2008 Share Posted January 28, 2008 Cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted January 29, 2008 Share Posted January 29, 2008 Awesome. Tai Chi was one of the last things I learned before I stopped practicing Martial Arts. Dragon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaPoets Posted January 29, 2008 Author Share Posted January 29, 2008 nice Dragon, what style did you learn and for how long did you practice it actively? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 I started when I was 8 and went until I was about 14-15. I took Karate, Jujutsu, Aikido, and Taekwondo. I studied with Gary Castanza. I loved it and miss it. I Barely remember anything anymore since I don't practice. If I had more time especially during the summer I would start again in a second. Couple yrs ago I almost started Judo with a friend of mine as it makes for good exercise. Dragon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaPoets Posted January 30, 2008 Author Share Posted January 30, 2008 (edited) hm how old are you now Dragon and how long did you study Tai Chi? I did a bit of Mandarin Kung Fu, Praying Mantis Kung fu, Tai Chi Chuan, Taoist Tai Chi, Tae Kwon Do, and general Karate. None of them compare to Taoist Tai Chi in terms of the benifits my body has received from praticing the art. My Tai Chi Chuan instructor kinda sucked in my opinion and of course your experience with an art is heavily dependent upon your teacher. I went to Toronto last night to study under Tony Quan (he held the workshop I went to over the weekend) and we practiced for about 3 hours last night at the D'Arcy St. location in China Town there. We all ate dinner ( they cook before class ) and I got a tour of the temple rooms there. We finished at about 10pm or so and chilled out for a bit. I hit the road back to Buffalo at about 10:30pm but found lots of traffic trying to get out of Toronto as I guess there was some sporting event that let out right at that time... It took me about 1.75 hours to get home due to that traffic. Most Tuesdays I'm going to Toronto to learn directly from Tony Quan. I now see why he is regarded as one of the leading international Taoist Tai Chi instructors. As an fyi there are over 500 branches and the society is located in 26 countries around the world. The D'Arcy St. location is the International Head Quarters (Lucky Me!!) Edited January 31, 2008 by DaPoets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParoxysM Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 We should have a horse stance endurance contest at the next LAN, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaPoets Posted January 30, 2008 Author Share Posted January 30, 2008 lol you would loose... We do what's called dan-yo's for practice and as a spine stretching exercise which looks like sitting down in a chair and standing up (arm motion as well to stretch the spine too) and over the weekend we probably did about 3 hours of them and last night about 30 mintues of them. Every Tai chi class I go to we do Dan-yo's as it's one of the basic Tai Chi exercises to open up the spine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParoxysM Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 If you can hold it for 30 mins that is impressive!! PurSuit's bow and arrow is weak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 I'm 31 now. I only studied Tai Chi for about the last yr I was with Gary. Dragon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B.Ob. Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 Perhaps after I recover from my bone marrow transplant, I can try this out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaPoets Posted January 31, 2008 Author Share Posted January 31, 2008 It takes a good 10 years of doing tai chi to understand how to do it correctly for your body. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParoxysM Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 Those lessons sound pretty expensive if it takes 10 years to do it correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaPoets Posted January 31, 2008 Author Share Posted January 31, 2008 no it's a volunteer organization. all you pay are dues to be a part of the organization. Then you can take as many classes you want at any of the 500 branches in 26 countries around the world. It takes 3 months to learn how to do the Taoist Tai Chi set and then a lifetime to master it for your body. Plus the dues for the organization are tax deductible since it's a not-for-profit. How many tai chi schools can say that?? :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaPoets Posted January 31, 2008 Author Share Posted January 31, 2008 While at work I thought perhaps I should clarify things a bit base on what I said about TIME. Everyone's body develops in different ways and at different rates. A young woman of 18 who is physically fit will have a shorter road to walk than a woman of age 40 who was not physically active in life. Taoisit Tai Chi focuses on Healing, Maintaining, and improving upon health. If that 40 year old had started Taoist Tai chi at the age of 18, imagine how much her quality of life would have improved over the decades. So with this development comes a tweaking of your Tai Chi style over the years. A move that was appropriate at year 1, 2, 3 of Tai Chi practice may no longer be applicable in years 4 and beyond as your body has "opened up" and so the move can now be adjusted to truly allow for your body to step things up a level. Intructors who force everyone to do the move the exact same way (refering to any and all martial arts schools) is not paying attention to their students body type or unique health status. Two "experts" in Taoist Tai Chi who have been practicing for 30 years could have somewhat different styles of performing a move because their health and body types will be different. For example, when doing a certain Taoist Tai Chi exercise, many people feel their lower back opening up and being "worked" while I feel most of my entire spine being worked and opening up. this is because I have gone beyond the blockage of the lower back which many Americans have just due to our life styles. So I tend to feel my spine opening up around my shoulder blades and closer to my neck. This has taken me a good number of years to achieve and I have not been actively doing this over the years either. So 12 years into my Taoist Tai Chi has (this was my own unique pace) has gotten me to a point where I finally understood some things that were spoken of in the past about "being elastic" or a "pulling back feeling" and even a "spine contraction" feeling. Since I have felt this, my energy level has skyrocketed and I am sitting here looking at my coffee thinking "why did I buy this... I like the taste but I don't need the caffine" I hope this helps explain things a bit better. I would have to say 10-12 years of Tai Chi seems to be a nice "Ah Ha!" moment for many people in our organization based on the pace that people take. If you do more Tai Chi than the avg person and learn some of the more advanced Taoist Tai Chi styles like Lok Hup Ba Fa, Hsing - I, Sword, Saber, then yes your time frame will drop dramatically. What would take an avg person 10 years may only take you 4 or 5 years, IF you receive constant tweaking and instruction from knowlegable instructors. Lucky for Buffalo people the International Headquartes is in Toronto, just 1.75 hours away!! and that is where the world renouned intructors are and you can learn from them for no extra cost. Once you are a memember you can take as many classes in any locations you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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