HIIIYAAA!!! Martial Arts anyone?

[shootingstar]

I did take a course on tai chi ages ago and practiced it briefly. Depending on the type/school of tai chi there is a whole sequence of movements to remember. 108 movements is the minimum...yea that's what you are seeing when you see that group of seniors doing their thing in the park.

Here are some links that may lead one to local contacts for group learning/training on tai chi:

http://www.taoist.org/content/standa...Q#HowFindClass

General info. here.
http://elektrikrevue.blogspot.com/20...i-society.html

During one of my classes, I saw a real effective yet simple demonstration of pushing hands exercises/philosophy where at the heart of tai chi chuan, it is not to hurt your opponent directly...but become skilled enough yourself to know and use the correct body movements and mental focus on how to resist/ deflect /neutralize negative/potentially violent force coming at you directly. The teacher had one of the students in class, hold a particular position, stay rooted to the ground and resist the force of a line-up of 4 other people pushing at the 1 student. The student, no expert, same level as myself, was able to resist the force ..of 4 people. This is what the reference of "pushing hands" exercise is about:
http://elektrikrevue.blogspot.com/20...ing-hands.html

It was a powerful demonstration metaphorically on the philosophy of non-violence/ deflecting negative energy, in tai chi chuan. But as you know, not all martial arts evolved into non-violent exercises.

At this time, I just do some tai chi warm up exercises that I mix in with other stretching/balance exercises.