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davywavyIt isn't often you get the opportunity to see a truly world class talent in first-person action, and so last night I was delighted to get the chance to attend a Tai Chi workshop with Lou De Xiu, a Taiwanese former Full Contact fighting champion.
Tai Chi, you might think, is a gentle, relaxing form of exercise, promoting spiritual harmony and peace. Well, not in the hands of a highly trained 200lb Oriental it isn't - it was an evening which might easily have carried the subtitle 'How to hurt someone really badly with a minimum of effort'. An extremely informative evening of theory and practise at the hands of someone with an immense amount of experience who has beaten up some of the hardest people in the world. It was also immensely pleasing to hear a world class martial artist stating (somwhat contemptuously, when asked) that he didn't think there was any such thing as 'Chi' (the mythical body energy so beloved of the new-age movement); "there is only Timing, Position, and Technique", and I'm not going to be the one to argue with a man who can put me on the ground without blinking - especially when I happen to agree with what he said.
The vast majority of the evening was devoted to a workship whose purpose was simply to make us think - think about how the body moves, where the weak spots are, and the directions in which it is really not supposed to bend, and furthermore to think about how we can use this in a reactive way. It was a tremendous workout not only for reaction times
(Full Contact Champion: "I attack you!"
Me: "Eeek!" *scamper*)
but also as exercise - being flung about the room for 3 hours in a string of painful and embarrassing ways doesn't half get the old ticker ticking.
Grand fun, and all I need now is to encounter a gang of ne'er-d-wells insulting a nun or somehting, so I can try out all I learned.
Tai Chi, you might think, is a gentle, relaxing form of exercise, promoting spiritual harmony and peace. Well, not in the hands of a highly trained 200lb Oriental it isn't - it was an evening which might easily have carried the subtitle 'How to hurt someone really badly with a minimum of effort'. An extremely informative evening of theory and practise at the hands of someone with an immense amount of experience who has beaten up some of the hardest people in the world. It was also immensely pleasing to hear a world class martial artist stating (somwhat contemptuously, when asked) that he didn't think there was any such thing as 'Chi' (the mythical body energy so beloved of the new-age movement); "there is only Timing, Position, and Technique", and I'm not going to be the one to argue with a man who can put me on the ground without blinking - especially when I happen to agree with what he said.
The vast majority of the evening was devoted to a workship whose purpose was simply to make us think - think about how the body moves, where the weak spots are, and the directions in which it is really not supposed to bend, and furthermore to think about how we can use this in a reactive way. It was a tremendous workout not only for reaction times
(Full Contact Champion: "I attack you!"
Me: "Eeek!" *scamper*)
but also as exercise - being flung about the room for 3 hours in a string of painful and embarrassing ways doesn't half get the old ticker ticking.
Grand fun, and all I need now is to encounter a gang of ne'er-d-wells insulting a nun or somehting, so I can try out all I learned.
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no subject
Date: 2003-07-19 11:58 am (UTC)I think that's about 70 UK pounds a month.
There's no contract (you can pay by the month).
That gives you full run of the facility,
and you can attend every class they have.
Your only limit to the amount of training you get
is the amount of time you have to attend classes.
--
Tim Harris
The Seeker
Time Lord