Hi. When I was young, and lived in NYC I studied Tae Kwon Do, switching to Tang Soo Do when I went to college in PA (Hard to believe, but I couldn't find a single decent taekwon-do school in the town where I went to college: fortunately, there were some really solid tang soo do teachers there at the time). Returning to NY upon graduation, I practiced aikido through my twenties and early thirties. I also began practicing yang style tai chi chuan at this time. I moved to Los Angeles in my late thirties, where an injury sidelined me for an extended period. (Yes, I got injured on the mat.) So there was an extended period where any kind of practice was out of the question. About a month ago, a friend and I started taking classes in chen style tajiquan,... .... and I'm enjoying it a great deal. Alternating fast and slow movements, I find the chen style silk reeling drills and forms teach a whip-like, spiraling quality which lends it has a very different feel from the yang forms, which felt kind of 'stately' by comparison. Previous experience has made it a bit easier to 'pick up' the gross mechanics of the chen style beginner forms which is a pleasent surprise as previous "switches" (say from tang soo do to aikido) required a long period of shaking off old habits before I could "get into the groove of things" at the new school. (Watching my friend stuggle with some aspects of the movement, I sometimes think those interested in the chen style might be better served if they studied the yang style for a while before taking up the chen style.) And of course, it's good to exercise regularly again, and learn something new. (I must admit, there are times I miss aikido, but my back can't take the constant rolls and falls anymore.) Finally as to my life "off the mat" (or whatever the taijiquan equivalent is - "outside the kwoon"?), I read a lot and am a big fan of foriegn films. Lately I've been picking up a good number of films (on DVD) from South Korea, Mainland China, Thailand and Hong Kong. Big explosion of quality filmmaking over there these days. I also used to do a lot of figure drawing, and painted in oils for a time, but I have neither the space or the time for those practices these days. Like mmaone, on another introductions thread, I look forward to sharing information with, and learning from, you all. Speaking of which, I had a couple of questions regarding practice: Taijiquan & Xingyi Standing Practice. http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?p=790456#post790456 Dynamic Strength (Iron Wire?) & Taijiquan Practice http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?p=790457#post790457 Please advise & thanks....
Wow - comprehensive intro Nice to have you here wonk. You might want to direct your questions to the relevant forum sadly not everyone looks at this section and I don't want you to miss out on the help. Keep it up and look forward to hearing more about you
