Well we had last years weather again but that did not deter many people from coming to the Community Hall and taking part as demonstrators or as visitors in this now regular community event – organised by the Shefford Tai Chi group on an entirely free of charge basis, supported by volunteers from the group who provided refreshments ( home made cakes, tea, coffee, soft drinks) all by donation to charity – we would like to express a big thank you to all who assisted – incidentally we raised £80 this year.

Each year on World Tai Chi day we throw open the Community Hall to local practitioners of martial arts and alternative health activities – so this year we had a gentle Tai Chi loosening at 10.00 to get us all in the mood. Ian Deavin (chief instructor of Shefford Tai Chi) took the group through some normal class exercises aimed at developing good posture and balance for people of all ages.

This was followed by a very interesting session of Yoga led by local teacher Laura Johnson who led everybody through a typical class of gentle stretching and balance exercises aimed again at the development of healthy movement for all.

At 11.00 Eileen Johnson gave a wonderful hands on seminar of Alexander Technique focusing on relaxed posture and ease of movement which had many people feeling as if walking on air. Alexander Technique is an intervention much valued for dealing with back problems and balance.

The pace stepped up at 11.30 with Ataru Shotokan Karate under Sensei Jamie Thomson and his wife Tracii – an enthusiastic group demo and participatory session with many youngsters, followed at 12.00 by Ian Deavin with a graceful Tai Chi demo of the Chen style Laojia form and Sword form.

12.30 saw us involved with ENSO Jujitsu under Lee Alexander Sensei for another interactive session including more young people, followed by an exquisite demonstration of Iado – Japanese sword drawing by Lee Alexander Sensei.

Ian Deavin followed with more Tai Chi showing how Tai Chi may be practiced in small soft movements suitable for people of all ages interested in developing better balance and healthy movement  – as well as how it may be done with bigger faster movements for the younger or more martially inclined.

Sadly the hoped for Taekwando demonstration led by Sensei Tom Delve, with his much enjoyed brick breaking, was not possible due to ill health – we send our best wishes.

By 2.00 when we had all had our lunch we were in the hands of the William Wong Wing Chun Academy under chief instructor William Wong and his wife Yvoone who led us through their style – and then by popular request William took enthusiastic leadership of a fully interactive all styles self defence partner training session, followed by a similar session with Sensei Thomson which pretty much took us through to the end of the day.

Ian rounded off the event by having with some Tai Chi discussion with visitors while the demonstration area was taken up by martial artists playing and having fun in a mixed styles practice.

All in all it was a brilliant day, which only gets better each year – we look forward to 2020. See here for details of demonstration participants.

If you run a martial arts or alternative therapy activity and would like to join us next year – or would like to know more about Tai Chi please contact me – Ian Deavin on 07860 218334 or e-mail [email protected] the festival is funded by Shefford Tai Chi in order to promote related community based groups. Participation and visitor entry are free to all. See more at www.sheffordtaichi.org

With special thanks to the following for providing refreshments and help through the day:

Jackie, Joy, Penny, Judith, Lynn, Janet, Margaret C, Margaret S, Lloyd, Lloyd’s wife, John, Steve and my own partner Lesley.

I am delighted to be participating in this Swiss Garden event with a Tai Chi class on Friday 10 May for all ages and levels of interest – the location is truly lovely, a classic garden environment wholly supportive of some gentle Tai Chi practice.

This May, the Swiss Garden will be hosting six wonderful activities as part of the 2019 Greensand Festival (details below).
Cultivating Mindfulness Practice
Thursday 2 May and Friday 31 May 2019
The workshop is suitable for garden lovers who wish to enhance their experience by combining it with Mindfulness.
www.shuttleworth.org/mindfulness-practice
Herbs – Cultivation and Use through the Ages
Friday 3 May 2019
This presentation by Bev Bond will inform about the history, cultivation and use of herbs through the ages.
www.shuttleworth.org/herbs-presentation
The Therapeutic Garden: Essential Oils & Wellbeing
Thursday 9 May 2019
This workshop will include a presentation on the benefits and safe use of essential oils, after which you can create your own oil blend to take home.
www.shuttleworth.org/essential-oils-workshop

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Tai Chi
Friday 10 May 2019
Tai Chi is recognised as soft exercise and calming meditative movement – in the delightful and classical tree populated environment of the Swiss Garden.
www.shuttleworth.org/tai-chi

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Yoga and Meditation Practice
Monday 13 and Monday 20 May 2019
Join us for this very special and unique event, a chance to get back to nature with a slow, flowing yoga practice suitable for all ages and abilities.
www.shuttleworth.org/yogapractice
Foot Reflexology Sessions
Friday 24 May 2019
Reflexology is a non-intrusive complementary health therapy based on the theory that different points on the feet correspond with different areas or zones of the body.
www.shuttleworth.org/reflexology

I have recently taken to putting on the website articles which are not carefully crafted – rather they are what may be regarded as thought pieces – something quite traditional as one might recognise from the way the “Tai Chi Classics” were put together for example.

Once thinking about a topic after a while quite suddenly the thoughts just tumble out and it is all I can do to get them on paper – I simply don’t have the time these days to carefully craft them into well structured articles or to fill out the background on everything. So I must leave it to my readers to explore further. I expect that from time to time I will revisit and expand on points.

One that comes to mind is the reference to a difference between preventative and remedial Tai Chi when considering the health of older people. We can think that while a person has the ability to do normal Tai Chi exercises then this may be regarded as preventative of falls or other health issues – on the other hand once a person has reached a point where they can no longer do something like walk the length of a hall or stand for half an hour exercising then they are in need of remedial work. Preventative Tai Chi is simply exercising normally – but in the case of older people perhaps not so vigorously as we once did and can easily be accommodated in a normal beginners level class – this is why I often refer to them as “over 50s classes since  at that age people still have a good 10 years to learn and develop their skill  before they reach a point at which they would otherwise become vulnerable to falls. Start at 50 and one can hope to improve one’s proprioception, body mapping and Tai Chi skill to a point that staves off problems of falling.

On the other hand I sometimes see people with walking frames or in wheel chairs – or get phone calls from relatives who’s father/mother has just been diagnosed/admitted to a care home and  have seen that Tai Chi is good for their condition – and would I please go to the care home every day to teach their parent. Sadly it is expected that they have probably reached a point where more work is needed than either I or they can put in. It is possible they could do the work but unlikely if they do not already have the discipline, habit and skill  of doing it already. This is what I mean by remedial. In these case I suspect that some daily Tai Chi informed exercises and physiotherapy would be as helpful as anything else and would encourage physios and carers to learn enough to pass on simple exercises.

Recent examples of this sort of article include Thoughts on Tai Chi Movement and Martial Arts as a Philosophy also Managing getting Old with Tai Chi

There will be no classes on the following dates at any of our venues:

Friday 21st Dec

Sunday 23rd Dec

Monday 24th Dec

Friday 28th Dec

Monday 31st Dec

There will be a class on Sunday 30th by popular demand – otherwise classes will be as normal – and if it is not too early – a Merry Christmas to you all!

 

Over the years I have from time to time noticed changes in the way my body moves – recently I have noticed some small changes. Interestingly these changes have begun with very small perturbations in existing patterns – so small I could not properly describe them until a while later after more relaxed practice when they have grown bigger and more defined.
They are initially so small and undefined that it is often not even clear if they are a fault or an improvement until they have grown naturally into an extension of the basic pattern.
I suspect the same is true of other types of behavioural change where the new is developed “underneath” the old habitual pattern before it emerges and eventually replaces it.

BBC Trust me I’m a Doctor series 8 episode 6 – first shown on Oct 10 2018 – “Is Tai Chi as good a workout as Zumba?” – turns out it is  😊👍

Please note there will be no class on 21st Oct or on 22nd Oct

I have noticed many cultural differences between studying Tai Chi in the east and in the west – perhaps the most difficult for beginners to understand is the completely different approach to the relationship of teacher to student – a good example is the lack of praise – westerners like to be told they are doing things right as with for hand positions – and if they do not receive this praise they can often become confused and even resentful – but this sort of ego reinforcement can actually be counter productive since it leads the student to focus on “doing it right” or doing more of the “right thing” thinking perhaps that more is better, actually to completely misunderstand what they are being praised for –  in other words leading them to trying too hard in the wrong direction and not paying attention to their movement itself. So in this case praise maybe motivational but often to do completely the wrong thing and so is generally detrimental to the learning process.

In my experience the most a good Tai Chi teacher will risk is the occasional “quite good” in a vague sort of way, maybe once in 5 years – you will know when it is right and learning how to know for yourself is absolutely essential – a teacher can correct and introduce new exercise experiences but reinforcing bad old habits of ego driven body usage is not good Tai Chi or good teaching.

So perhaps the first hurdle in learning Tai Chi is learning how to learn and not to demand that Tai Chi is exactly the same as everything else – if it were then it would not be worth doing.

We had fabulous weather this year for our annual residential at Belsey Bridge near Bungay with everybody practicing hard and enjoying themselves in sunshine for the whole weekend. Food, as ever was brilliant and we had the pleasure of meeting the Norwich 76 Textile Group who produced some wonderful embroidery, rust dying and tie dying as well as being good company.

Sunday morning they joined us on the lawn for a little bit of loosening and warm up including cloud hands/silk reeling and Tai Chi walking. 

For the main sessions we did mainly Laojia corrections with some Broadsword and partner work which led into single and double push hands. For beginners the sword and partner work were completely new “tasters” but they applied themselves with good humour and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.