That's exactly what it was...a glitch in the system! I have email through here so I was momentarily flipping out LOL But it was just a temporary thing, that actually happen twice. The second time I had a little warning though. :)

SO how's PA? you still at the school you had mentioned??

~Jenn 

well, i am certainly honored that everyone replied to my post!

thank you john, and everyone who had some wisdom to share or add.  recently i decided i should increase my kung fu of tai chi and will continue to practice the small bit i learned while i was in portsmouth. does anyone know if the books written by mr. chen have been translated into english? or will i have to learn to read chinese too?

thanks for your consideration, and for accepting me as a student and fellow learner while i was up there.

You know John you really are the BEST!!  I miss class soooo much!!!

Well just wanted to say I got a vehicle finally!!!!! Granted it still needs work before it's safe to drive any amount of distance, but I'm getting closer!!!!!!!! So with that said I plan on being back SOON!! I can't wait!!!  

Oh, I wanted to ask you: Are you planning on writing anymore of your wonderful articles????  Hope so!!!

See you soon! 

~Jenn  

Congradulations! Daniel , you at least know you are in a dilemma, whereas many, many so called Tai Chi instructors and long time Tai Chi practitioners are so pride of the crap they know.The Tai Chi you know is 10 times what they know.

My advice is to keep hold the ball, do all the drills we did her. We can talk on skyp and I can help you that way. Too bad you finished here.

World Tai chi Qigong Day is iniated by some body who doesn't know real Tai Chi. The reason I say this is because he mixed Tai Chi and Qigong, the 2 things should be mixed together. That means the person didn't practice enough to know the difference. Holding the ball looks similar as some forms of Qigong practice but the purpose is different. We want to have an very loose body so it can be very hard when it is needed. Qigong is to develop so called qi to do things, as they believe it could do. Hard Qigong is to develop a body that can't break by cold weapons as they claim. 

I personally don't want to be with them. Because if I say my mind many people will be unhappy, but I can't not hold it down. 

I pulled my videos out of youtub for the same season that I don't want to be with people who pretend to know Tai Chi.

 Take care there, Daniel.

Apparently when the font changed to Comic Sans it drops the size as well. It could just be a bug too. This forum software is pretty old and has no updates.

Anyway...I just copied it into Word and changed it to the right font and size and pasted it back.

Sorry,

Jim

That's funny....I was wondering the same thing. I dunno, I guess we'll see how this ones shows up :) Try pasting it into your follow up post and see how it show up. If it's right copy and paste it back to the original (just a wild guess).

So ya, pretty much what she said. Hold the ball, hold the ball, hold the ball. Every day for at least 20 to 30 min which I know can be a PITA but you need to do it. At least for a while anyway. Skipping will happen but it badly hinders (time wise) your conditioning.

And yes, ignore that lady and pretty much everything else there apparently. I would go if it is free and if you like it.It won;t hurt but I don't think it will help much either. I think John would just say it was a waste of time.

Jim

ok, so why is the font on my last post so tiny??? I tried fixing it, but I have yet to figure out how!! any suggestions? 

and my personal opinion is to keep "holding the ball"!!! 20minutes at least every day! It'll keep your internal energy flowing freely!! If you stray you'll be surprised how quickly you lose it!!! Trust me, once you have it you have to nurture it(just like John says)! It goes a lot faster then it comes!!!

There's so much to it, so I'm sure if you keep in email contact with Laoshi he'll tutor you with your progress! He's really a one of kind teacher, so if I was you I'd do my best to follow his instruction via internet. I'd probably join another school just because, but I'd keep close contact with him if possible.  

Oh, and as far as the lady that says it's for meditation not martial arts.....ignore her & know that a warrior meditates in all actions! LOL... So unfortunately, for her,she'll probably never have the chance to feel the power of Tai Chi even in it's meditative sense, but then again most people won't. You have to be open to it & allow it happen. That's a lot harder then it sounds!! I think most schools just don't know any better because their teacher's before them conformed to the masses & detrimentally altered the art form! 

Wow... I'm super wordy tonight. LOL Yea so there's my 2 cents!! 

 World Tai Chi & Qigong Day: Saturday, April 28th, 2012  http://www.worldtaichiday.org/

The closest location to us I believe is Shrewsbury MA. I put the link below. 

http://tai-chi-arts.com/wtcd/WTCADay12.htm

Yea there's a "Tai Chi" Day in April every year....I believe in Boston, not sure I'll have to find the website link for you guys & I'll post it separate. 

Last I knew, John was planning on bringing the class to this years event!!! Not sure if that's changed, it has been awhile since I've talked to Laoshi about it. Not to mention it's been awhile since I have even been able to attend a class....  It'll change soon though!!! I have a new (old) vehicle that I just got on the road today!!! WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!! Granted needs some work, but I'll be back to class in no time flat!! 

~Jenn 

so, i have a dilemma:

 the place i'm at here in pa, there's a so-called "tai-chi qigong" class, and they teach the brocades and all 108 moves.

 problem is, there's no strength in any move they make, and only 1 of them even acknowledges that the chakras, or meridians have anything to do with releasing the body's energy. i've even been scolded by the lead instructor for trying to keep my center, well, centered, and for not extending my arms outside of my body. and then there was the lady who told me that this tai chi was for "meditation, not for martial arts"...

so which would be worse, to just stop going, and have to learn on my own, or to keep going and learn the moves but lose all the power i've built up; noted it's not really much after only 3 months, but just curious.

i've never heard of tai chi NOT being a martial art...

isnt it great?

 it makes me think it's some super special position or move that i should learn

You're right, the videos did get removed. They were linked directly from YouTube and had been uploaded by one of John's old students. Apparently he decided he did not want them there anymore. John may have the originals, I don't know but I'll ask.

As for Tai Chi day I have not heard of it but a lot of China is regional. The Chinese New Year was last month so maybe it's a spin on that. I'll ask John about that too.

Hope all is well,

Jim

BTW the bear holding shark thing always freaking kills me....

this may be a case of "open mouth, insert foot" here, but has anyone heard of Tai Chi Day?

 supposedly last friday of april, heard about it from an instructor here where i'm now living.  it sounded special, not sure if it was a national type event, but if it is for real and i'm not crazy, it might be worth making the trip back up for some time to celebrate together.

 also, btw, i dont think americans know how to teach tai chi - maybe it's just that qigong is not the same as what Jon teaches. anyway...what do you guys/girls think?

just a point about the multimedia section, also did anyone else have trouble viewing the youtube videos lately? all 3 of those say "removed by user" or something to that effect.

Hey there guys!

So I've haven't been able to keep up with my usual schedule & have only been able to attend one class per week & that's only if I'm lucky! So I'm relying on your comments/discussions to keep me up to date...... so far I haven't seen any, so in short I need you guys to keep me posted on what you do in class & the progressions everyone is making so I can kind of work on my own to try to keep with you guys!! = ) so any feed back would be greatly appreciated!! = ) 

Thanks!!!

-Jenn 

Hey there everyone! 

Boy is it good to have Laoshi back!! August just seemed to drag without him!!! I haven't quite gotten back to my normal routine of classes, but I'm slowly working on it!

I've been wrapped up in my yoga teacher training lately so I don't have as much time as I used to! Which brings me to my next train of thought: I was told to start practicing teaching yoga, so anyone who would like to try Vinyasa flow yoga just let me know!!! It helps significantly with flexibility & it also strengthens & tones! It's really a perfect compliment to martial arts!!!!!= ) Just thought I'd throw that out there! 

-Jenn 

Hi Karen, 

I'm not going to be able to much this week, do to a friend passing. But In the future I will try to make my way up there. I live pretty far from the school actually, but I am going to try to make it at least a few times this month!! I know there are others that will be interested too.

I'll let you know when I plan on heading up after I get a better hold of things in my area. 

--Jenn 

Hi Everyone!

I do not drive so my schedule is limited to when I can catch a bus to and from the mall. This means I will probably be at the mall between 2:00-5:00 during the week until regular bus runs start up again. If anyone would like to show up anytime during this three hour block let me know, I would be happy to have some company!

~Karen

As you all know Laoshi will be away for the entire month of August. There has been talk about trying to schedule some times for group training. As of now there have been no definite dates or times established. If you have any interest, please feel free to either comment here or email me at: jenn@seacoastkungfu.com. 

Thanks!
Your Fellow Student
-Jenn