Workshops with Grand Master Wu

- April/May 2011

The workshops were held over four days. The first day April 29th being reserved for Disciple's training, the remaining three days April 30th - June 2nd were for intermediate level and above students. The workshops began at 10:00 am and ended about at 17:00 with an hour and a half for lunch.

As the entry level for the workshops was intermediate level and above Sifu could pitch the level of teaching a bit higher than he normally would on the first day, so the theme for these workshops was the development, display and usage of power in Tai Chi Chuan. There was however a certain level of form correction to be gone through before the theme could emerge since the power will not manifest unless the form is correctly played with the emphasis on the power generation aspect of Tai Chi Chuan. A flavour of this is given in the first of the two video clips below in which there is meticulous correction of forms and how Sifu then related them to the 8 elements of power generation

The theme was developed on the second day with more form practice and the practice of form applications, and the use of power in Pushing hands. This was continued into the first part of the third day. The second video clip illustrates Sifu's teaching when he shows the proper use of stickiness in push hands neutralising and offsetting and the exploitation of 'double weightedness'. As usual it is presented with thoroughness, genuine skill and good humour.

Click on the thumbnail to see an enlargement of the picture

The remainder of the last day was given over more to the meditative aspects of Tai Chi and Qi Gong, and the use of 'Breath Work' in maintaining good health.