Deep doubts, deep wisdom; small doubts, little wisdom.

Thomas P. standing on the big blue ball

This is nearly impossible to do! Wow!! And you should see what this extreme balancing practice is doing to the rest of his Art!!!! Talk about rooted...yikes!!

2 Person Work Class Notes 5.25.2011

Bob was the fearless leader.(Bob, Luke, Phil, Dale, Jess)

We focused on Wuji readiness, wuji to roll back energy from multiple random feeds, same thing with ward off energy. Roll back with follow throw from wuji, and then trapping hands with a focus on the roll back energy.

Great class. Really enjoyed the skill building repetitions. and the discussions throughout the class about the nature of the different energies and the different types of listening. For me, it really tied in quite well with material in "lessons with Master Liang", that I had just been absorbing last night.

I can't stress enough how valuable this time is. Thanks to all for making the time for it.

~Phil

Adult Karate class notes - Monday 5.23.11 - Jeff

Pleanty of energy in the room.  We started off with the 10 excersises and did some leg strengthening drills.  We ran through the forms at performance speeds as a warm up and moved on to some kicking drills.  We ended the night with free and ring sparring.  

Modern Arnis Class Notes 05.23.2011

Good size class. A new see of blue belts lit up the room quite nicely.

Spent a little longer on warm up while talking about people's feedback on the test. It was noted that people liked the format, there were requests to work more on cleaning up the 6-12 count drills, requests form more tapi, tapi and taking techniques to ground as was done at the test.

We spent a large part of the class reviewing 6 through 12 count drills.

Moved on to cane forms. did a quick review of 1-3, with some conversation on flow in form 2 and 3. We then kept spent a decent amount of time drilling in form four by the numbers.

Moved on to a review of empty hand forms one and two and started work on form 3. Had some conversation around some of the techniques.

Good energy in the room. Luke and I discussed spending some time on applications from forms 1-3 before working any more on sequence for form 3. If we could spend some time on Wednesday working applications for form upgrades that would great.

Thanks,

Phil

T'ai Chi class notes Saturday 5.21.11 - Marty

 Had a good class with Nancy,Wess,Karen,Dale and Read. We did the usual warm ups,standing ending with the 21.

     We paired off and worked on the dance,ending class with a round of tai chi with Sifu

Marty.

Modern Arnis rank testing 5.18.11

Modern Arnis form 5 - Black Belt Jeff Chaisson

Modern Arnis forms 6, 7 & 8 - Black Belt Jeff Chaisson

Tai Chi class notes - Saturday 5.14.11 - Sandy

Saturday morning's class was good we had seven people. Max was there, he is home from school so we will start seeing him on a regular basis again. Also, Becca will be returning with him probably in the next week or so. We did our warm ups, as we did we told stories about Wayne which helped lighted our mood. We proceeded to our meditation, with Wayne in mind we decided to use his favorite standing posture (holding the moon) for our entire meditation. After that, we did some pulling the Chi exercises. We took a break, the mood was light and humorous at this point which was great. We paired up, Marty and Ted worked on part 3 of the solo form. Dale worked on a review of the dance with Max and I worked with Pat and Nancy on the dance alternating with them but mostly concentrating on parts one and two for Pat. Then we finished with the solo form. It was a nice class. Thank you and take care, Sandy

Youth Karate 5/18/11 Lily

Sifu, Teryn, Dennis and I were all assisting with teaching. Started class with the ten and Teryn led the kids through basic punching, and high, low and middle blocks. I went around to make sure everyone's block were solid and punches were in line. After that we did the Wallace Round House exercise. Teryn led again through a sparring combination: jab, cross, thrust kick. We focused on getting the techniques to flow together. We finished with some kata work and I helped Jack get a little farther in Chinto. In the process I realized that I still have a hard time going through it slowly. That is helpful for my training and Sifu talked to Jack and I about how teaching really does build my art, as well as the students.

2 Person Work Class Notes 5.18.2011

Phil/me led class (Bob, Dale, Jess & Angus) Luke called out.

Started with some individual warmups, did a little arnis stick warm ups

Worked on 2 person cane form review and details.

I worked with Jess on the unfriendly handshake, then Jess and Angus worked on some Arnis materials.

Bob, Dale and I then worked on the mechanics of the backwards throw off a right punch. We spent a lot of time trying to isolate the small push/pull and directional energies within the lock. Also on connecting whole body energy into the lock, instead of just the hands/arms doing the work.

Great energy in the room, very good "training spirit"

~Phil

B P Chan and Ken Cohen - 1985 in Colorado

A priceless photo that my T'ai Chi classmate Rob Zilin sent me. Sifu Gallagher had recently share this photo with Rob. Enjoy!

FYI - Master Chan and Ken have both had a positive impact on my art and your's too. My first lessons in Bagua Zhang were with Ken back in 1979, his teacher was Master Chan. Both of these Masters are proponents and practitioners of Standing Meditation as a foundation to all high quality martial arts and health practices. 

Lily Tuesday 5/17/11

Wow, it's been a little while since I posted! Yikes.

I was late to class, but we focused primarily on katas today. We focused on stance work especially in Nihachi, Seisan, and Seiuchin. I then worked with the blue belts and tried to get Skyler a little farther along in Seiuchin. I think I got some through to her, but she's definitely having trouble with the angles and stance work. I think some of that will come with time. I also worked with her on trapping hands. I just worked with the hand motions, no stance work. She's getting the hand movements though, so I think next time she might be ready for stance work. She's so great to work with. You feel like she's just absorbing everything in a good way.

Modern Arnis Class Notes - Monday 5.16.11 - Marcia

Modern Arnis notes 5/16/11-

Began with warm-ups, single and double stick twirling, B-C-C ending with different striking styles, 6 and 8 count drill, knife disarms and then locking seeries. Luke assisted. Large class and good energy.


 Marcia Gobeil

Peter shuffle forward leg round house kick 5.9.11

Peter shows great form practicing the forward leg round house, with a shuffle instead of a step up. This is an advanced delivery technique that can be used with any forward leg kick and is especially suited for point sparring.

Key Points:

- Take your time in between repetitions in order to get a clean start to each and every technique

- Concentrate on driving your forward knee to the proper position, with the round house kick the knee should point at the target

- The forward hip thrusts forward and angles upward to prepare the knee for the kick

- Push off the rear foot

- Time the release of the lower leg to use the momentum from the shuffle forward

- Retract your lower leg to prepare for:

1. Another kick

2. to step down into sparring stance to be able to retreat to a position outside of the critical distance, an angle change or to follow up with a combination punches or kicks.

Sung Exercise

A sequence I put together to blend the one leg Sung practice with the one leg Standing practices.
I get the feeling of Sung in the first exercise and try to keep that it while I'm aligning the body vertically and then attempt to maintain that feeling while holding the posture (raise hands). The idea is to train and develop the quality of Sung while Standing then to be able to transfer that skill to moving solo then of course to be able to access that skill while moving full speed with a training partner. First things first....that's the Standing part!!
Key points:
- The mind descends down the weighted leg (like it's a conduit) then out the bottom of the foot and into the ground where the energy splay's out and down, like the roots of a tree, several feet into the ground (Sung)
- The head lifts and crown is light
- The tail bone drops and is heavy
- The lower back is 'filled' and is straight
- The shoulders remain down and the middle back is open
- The elbows point down and are heavy
- The fingers are light
- Observe the breath (Taoist Longevity Breathing)

Class notes- Adult Karate Thursday, Mary 12th, 2011

Class notes- Adult Karate Thursday, Mary 12th, 2011
Angus Read leading, Ron Milcarek assisting, 7 other students attending

Training to build endurance - plenty of exercise this class!

10 exercises
triple-kick exercise, 5 each side singles & doubles
freestyle linework, 2-minutes for lower ranks, 3 minutes for brown & black belts

2 minutes shadow boxing
Shadow sparring- 2 minute rounds

leg stretching- front, side, & back kicking position at bar, then on
the floor, with mats, isolating the hamstring & quadriceps, pike,
straddle, side split. We then spent a few minutes on slow back
stretches, and Mr. Milcarek lead us in a partner stretch isolating
each vertebra

Ms. Golrick and the other senior students then lead the class through the katas

The last ten minutes were spent reviewing the unfriendly handshake series.

Flying front kick

Adult Karate class notes - Monday 5.9.11 - Angus

Class notes- Adult Karate Monday, May 9th, 2011
Angus Reid leading; 8 students attending

For tonight's class, I wanted to stretch and exercise muscles and work
movement that I consider useful for Karate practitioners, yet often
neglected in our week-to-week training. To wit:
back stretches
explosive power from the core, synchronized with arm and leg movement
or technique
quadriceps stretching, as a key element of building leg flexibility

I started with a warmup session that introduced some of the positions,
movements, and principles that the rest of the class would draw upon.

Warmup:
10 exercises
jogging with kicking heels back, then knees up as high as possible (45
seconds), then with intermittent jumping as high as possible, arching
back.
leg stretching at bar- front, side, back
handstand practice- with partners spotting, 1 minute each
wheelbarrow exercise
quadriceps/hamstring stretching on mats, with focus on isolating
stretch in the quadriceps and hamstrings separately, before going down
into a split stretch
back bridge stretch

With the mats out, I then described the physical principle of doing a
kip-up, and demonstrated. Students then spent about 10 minutes working
on it themselves.

We then spent a few minutes on a self-defense application- arm bar
pivoting behind into shoulder throw

Rest of class was devoted to 2 jumping kicks:
Flying front snap kick, starting with just the knee & jump, for
momentum, then adding the kick. We finished with students throwing
kicks to a pad held by someone standing on a chair

Flying side kick to the standing bags- using explosive power from a
tucked position in the air.

Ending cool-down stretch

2 Person Work Class Notes 5.04.2011

Bob was our fearless leader (Bob, Luke, Marty, Dale, Jess, Phil)

We stretched out on our own, and then Bob talked about getting better and "basics".

We spent most of the class working variations of the "Wuji drill". each person getting into wuji and then one person issuing and the other person using roll back or ward off energy and then both going back to wuji. We had several variations of the drill with increased and decreased speed, different sensitivity and root awareness, (such as one person issue two handed push, other person responds with 2 armed ward off, and at the intersection of the arms, the pusher stops and feeds the root of the ward off, allowing for both people to make adjustments within themselves, and notice the adjustments and tension in their partners), and we also worked with feeding a single side at a time, and alternating the root feed from one side to the other.

Moved on to some change step training, using the arnis pallis pallis style drill. One person using a cane with strike to the knee and both people working the change steps in unison.

All the work on the "wuji drill" really amped up my awareness of chi flow, posture and tension. Very productive morning.

Thanks,

Phil

Modern Arnis Class Notes 05.02.2011

medium class (Dave, Angus, Teryn, Jess with Marcia and Luke assisting)

Quick warm up, followed by locking series review. Review of sinawali and redunda. Review of 6,8,10 and 12 count drills. two stick to one stick basic poke to block check counter drill. Ended with single stick poke vs block check counter drill, with leader using defensive triangle stance, attaching to hand and sinking. Initial emphasis for the drill was on on stealing the energy off the poke from the block and making the circle in the wrist more fluid. I noticed this being week in the room when we worked on the 10 count drill.

Good energy in the room, and Jess worked really well with Dave. Very good observations and adjustments.

-Phil

World T'ai-Chi and Qigong Day Celebration - Saturday April 30, 2011

Video by Angus Reid

World T'ai-Chi and Qigong Day Celebration - Saturday April 30, 2011

Photo's by Angus Reid