Many folks in the coaching, teaching or instructing world jump on the opportunity of the New Year to let their students and potential students know that ‘its just another day’ or that ‘ resolutions don’t work’ etc. Indeed, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that resolutions don’t work in the vast majority of cases.

The originators and developers of Tai Chi likely had the goal of creating good fighter in mind when creating the training practices of the art. But many soon realised that, not only were some the attributes created by Tai Chi useful for combat, they were also useful for health. Indeed, many of the methods of health and wellness were required before the fighter could truly utilize the arts combative side after all, what use is a sick or immobile fighter? The training methods of Tai Chi are design...

Many of the Tai chi classics refer to postural conditions, and will talk of the waist, the legs or the position of the head focusing on how this impacts the various internal processes of the body and our movement. In this month's edition of unpacking the classics we look at a verse that is more concerned with the mind and it's link to the body.

In my opinion the concept of softness is perhaps the most misrepresented idea in all of Tai Chi. For many softness is to be floppy, it is to be soft in both musculature, structure and position. It is the idea to ‘yield’ to external forces and to be loose and slack when someone interacts with us. I have lost count of the amount of Tai Chi exponents that I have met who had embraced this idea, most of whom cannot maintain their structure or positional security when interacting with a partner. Con...

One of the first questions that a teacher of a traditional art can expect to be asked from some circles is ‘Who was your teacher?’ or ‘What is your lineage’?