The Tiger Claw Elite Championships was this last weekend as was San Jose's Tai Chi-Kung-fu Day.There were nearly 300 competitors and many old friends on hand to Judge.
I t was always great to see the elegant Master Grace Wu from Kansas, her grandfather was the great Wang Zi Ping, an important contributor to the development of Modern Wushu.
I had to go to Berkeley to East Wind Books of Berkeley to pick up books for my Tai Chi class...kool thing was I got to go across the new span of the Bay Bridge....
Coming out of the Treasure Island tunnel.....it took nearly 45 minutes to get to this point....
traffic is incredibly slow...too many gawkers!
I have been busy this summer trying to comply with much of the new CCSF requirements for courses and revising the outline for my Tai Chi for Health Course. Its a different way to teach Taiji..it is now necessary to track each students progress with metrics to show statistical results..certainly not the way of traditional sifus.....But it did give me some pause to examine how Taiji is taught nowadays. Most training today emphasizes learning form not function, and practicing sets and not basics or Gung. Grandmaster Feng always said: If you don...Read more
The second leg of our Star Wars Trek took us back to the Presidio to ILM......which I must admit had a lot more movie props and posters.....this is where all of the video editing is done. Lots of artists and projects going on here......So first order was to get our security passes while we were waiting Ely found a couple of familiar villans,,,,,
Ely gets done in by Darth..........
Had a chance to hangout with Kai, Emilio, Ely, and the Mars.......which was made possible since Cal Wushu has not started yet....got some time to relax.......
So we trekked to North Bay.......looking at this building can you guess where this is?
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As many of you know I have been teaching at CCSF (SF City College) for more than 20 years....it is the largest Community College in the nation serving over 85,000 students. Contrary to local newspaper reports our College is open for Classes ....please sign up we are accredited thru July 2014!! And of course sign up for Tai Chi Classes....they are free.....and one of those classes that the Accreditation Board is trying to eliminate........they think our School's mission should be to teach basic skills and get people t...Read more
Just another week to go to CMAT 21.......hope you have registered if you want to compete! If you have time to volunteer please help out....we need another 100 or so volunteers........this year CMAT occurs during the end of Spring Break....so lots of students not on campus to help. Plus you will get a shirt for the event, get to watch some of America's best Wushu athletes, and most important............we will feed you too!!
For those of you doing the New Compulsories...do not miss the Compulsory Seminar Friday Nit...Read more
This New Year is starting out with abrupt changes in fortune and fate.......right after all the Lion Dancing we did...the bronchitis bug caught up with me.....cough so hard my ribs hurt....not pleasant at all........then I loose my book bag....its got two tablets in it, two check, books my camera, and a paycheck.......boy was that ever a headache.....but the interesting thing happens after I change my accounts and passwords.....someone finds my bag and returns it.........and get this, with almost everything intact!
Hope everyone had a great start to the Year of the Snake. Snake however is a sneaky year can have ups and downs and can change its ways quickly....so you have to be prepared for anything!
Having said that this year has been a good year for Lion dancing and performances....we had a packed February thru the beginning of March. We were out at all the San Francisco Schools, Teance in Berkeley, Bloomingdales in the Westfield Mall, Ox Bow Market in Napa, Family Bridges Senior Centers......
Guess what....the world did not end!! A student in one of my Health Classes asked: Why worry about health or practicing Tai Chi, the World is coming to an end....all of our computers, phones, etc will stop working and we are going back to the dark Ages.......the World will be hit by massive solar storms.....and it will happen as the Mayan calendar ends. While doom and gloom scenarios are fun to speculate about...no one knows how the World will end....it will happen at some point when our Sun supernovas....but none of us will be around...Read more
Coming: Sept 14 Mid-Autumn Festival Sept 15 Dragon Boat Festival Oct 12 4th Annual Golden State Chinese Martial Arts Champions