T'ai Chi Ch'uan

In the early 80's I went to classes to learn T'ai Chi Ch'uan. At the time I had come out of a bad marriage and needed something to calm me down; show me how to protect myself and keep me healthy. Well those classes did all of that. However like all good things they came to an end when the Master left the area and the classes ended.

I did try to continue at home accompanied by my book from the course 'The Chinese Art of T'ai Chi Ch'uan by Chee Soo however life eventually took over and I lapsed.

Since then over the years I have tried on and off to get back into it but unfortunately all the DVD's etc on the market all seemed to focus on other forms of Tai Chi and not the Lee family Form which is what I had learned and loved. Even now I can still remember the initial movements of the Form but I just can't remember the rest!

Anyway, I've been off work for a couple of days because I slipped a disk in the middle of my spine (very painful) and could not see how I could manipulate the spine when the problem was in a part of the spine that does not rotate very easy! But today through icing my back every 2 hours and taking anti inflammatory tablets I had got to a point where I thought that I should try a little bit of Tai Chi as it would not harm my back and would perhaps help a little.

To cut a long story short - it worked - and as I was performing the moves I felt something click halfway up my back :-) Sure it's still sore and slightly inflammed but the agonising stabbing pain that was stopping me from breathing properly has gone!

So now fully charged and determined to continue my search for the Lee Family T'ai Chi I surfed around on the internet and found on You Tube a video showing the exact Form that I was after. This lead me to a site called East-West Tai Chi (based in the UK and run by a former student of Chee Soo). Howard Gibbon is himself a Teacher now and for those that are unable to attend his classes he has DVDs available to show you how to do the correct Form.

It goes without saying that I've ordered one! It seems to me that the Form you first learn is the only one that you subsequently want to stay with and I'm looking forward to getting back into regular daily routines. It should help with my stress levels too :-).....