Hi folks,
well, i play and occasionally teach Taijiquan privately.

many folks don't know what it is. even more who have heard of it have many erroneous ideas concerning Taijiquan.

If anyone is in my area and knows how to do tuishou i'd love to hookup with you so we can play & share our kung fu.

disclosure about kung fu and what it means.
kung fu basically means skill at whatever it is that you do.
if you are a mechanic/teacher/chef/dog groomer etc. and are good at your job, they would say that you have good kung fu = skill.

So, even though many chinese misuse the term kung fu to mean chinese martial arts they too are wrong lol.

Taijiquan is first and foremost a chinese martial art. Yet,Taijiquan isn't taught as a martial art by most teachers. There are two major reasons for this.

1st. is because most taijiquan teachers don't know any martial applications because they were never taught them; and the ones who do don't share that information with casual students.

2nd. reason is that most students aren't suitable to learn taijiquan with the main focus being martial functionality. So what i mean is this. The avg. person isn't tough enough mentally/physically to endure this type of training. Which is far more grueling then most would ever think lol.

I started on my own with no teacher approx. 1978/79. joined the marines and learned the basics of cinco teros from Sensei Arseni J. Advincula . he's best known as the premier Isshin Ryu Karate man on the planet. Yet, he is a filipino american who's also teaches Arnis, which is one of the blade arts from the philippines.

i finally caught up to him on facebook lol. i was just glad to know he is still alive, and still teaching martial arts. If you deal with Sensei for any length of time you will learn much more than martial arts. I feel are good teachers are this way with few if any exceptions myself included.

My formal Taijiquan training started in the summer of 1995. This was the same year that the World Wushu Championships came to balto., md.
I joined the Baltimore Tai Chi Chuan Study Association, founded by Dr. John Wan-Yuin Chang.

I stayed long enough to be one of the few who received the simple certificate which says i learned... It is signed by my senior and friend Mr. John W. Oden one of Dr.Chang's most senior students. Dr. Chang has returned to wu-qi now. However, while he was alive i was fortunate to be able to visit him in his home quite a few times and enjoy the hospitality of his awesome wife Mrs. Elsie Chang. This was because I hung out with Mr. oden often.

we do still have our annual picnic at double rock park in parkville. This year was really cool as they all seem to be lol. All are welcomed to attend btw. if u want an invitation just let me know ok.

I am available for private lessons. Yet, i want all to know that you can not buy my kung fu. Taijiquan Kung fu/skill only comes to those who train daily.

the only guarantee i make is simple. If the student does what she/he is told to do on a daily basis & really makes quality efforts both mentally, and physically to comprehend Taijiquan better they will make the progress that is expected without fail.

People learn Taijiquan for various reason to include. they want to exercise in a way that simple isn't that strenuous, they want to rehabilitate a health condition in their bodies, they want to prevent health issues from arising, they want to explore dealing with their own beings in a more holistic fashion, they want to increase their various fitness components of balance, leg strength, mental alertness etc. there are other reason ,but these are the most common ones.

Taijiquan teaches us how to deal with and manipulate force. both our own force and that of an opponent. This naturally affects how we work/play in our lives away from training. this is the real benefit of taijiquan on a practical daily basis.

The art also allows us to start to view the world and our place in it in a different way that has many fringe benefits that appear along our taijiquan journey.

what most folks don't know is that as an internal martial art Taijiquan's relationship to how it affects our bodies will not allow practitioners to cheat in their training. So, what I mean is this. if you practice everyday as you should you will feel/make progress naturally. at this point there are folks who then start to train sporadically thinking to themselves hey i have this taijiquan down pat.

they quickly find out what all do when they train this way. the progress you made/felt will reverse itself. Yup, i sia dit and all taijiquan teachers know this fact. Only it's not something that is usually shared with prospective students. the teachers don't want to frighten the students away.

which leads to the fact that the attrition rate for taijiquan is the worst in all of martial arts. if a teacher can keep 10 % of students that start until they are well trained it's considered a awesome thing lol.

I do answer questions, but please limit your questions to things that you can answer by looking online yourself first. I'm not here to answer anything that pops up in your head that is related to taijiquan for those who are just curious.

I can usually help those with issues who already play/train taijiquan.
Though i play/teach Yang style Taijiquan i have some limited knowledge of other styles of taijiquan, as well as hsing i chuan, baguazhang, wing chun, and a few other styles. none of which am i well versed in or would be considered an expert in. yet, what I do know is legit.

It's many things i still don't know about taijiquan and martial arts. I'm only 53 going on 54 so i still keep a beginner's mind. Yet, there are many who are not as skilled and know far less than I do yet call themselves SIFU/SHIFU. While others have produced videos that have sold well; and still do not show legit taijiquan in them.

Thanks folks. i sure hop i get to play some push hands = (tui shou) with you in the new year.