Taijiquan biomechanics? I’m sure the mere mention of those words would draw blank stares from most people, especially tai chi practitioners. We’ve all had the experience in life when we’re out shopping, where we know in our minds what we want, but we have no idea what the thing we want is called, making it almost impossible to find. Well, a tai chi biomechanics workshop is one of those things. Hearing the name alone might not create an association with anything familiar, but when we discover what it’s all about, we suddenly realise it’s something we’ve been wanting to find for a very long time in our tai chi journey of self-development. read more
WǔDé (武德) – Martial Morality, should be the first thing we focus on as martial arts practitioners and should be the benchmark of what we consider a great practitioner to be. If we don’t understand the philosophy behind what we are trying to accomplish, and focus purely on the physical act of martial mechanics, then all we learn as students of the art is empty of meaning. read more
We are now looking at the last of the 5 Important Actions of WǔDé (武德) – Martial Morality, which defines a Truly Great Martial Arts Practitioner, and this is Trust. read more
As wushu practitioners, hopefully you made the most of last year’s Dog Year, and can now reap the rewards in this Earth Pig Year. The Year of the Pig commences on 5th February this year, so make sure you have everything in order before then. read more
So far, in The Definition of a Truly Great Martial Arts Practitioner we have looked at Humility, Loyalty and Respect. We now continue with the fourth of the 5 Important Actions, Morality. read more
The definition of a true martial arts practitioner continues in this segment as we look at the third of the five Important Actions; Respect. read more
We continue our understanding of what WǔDé (Martial Morality) is and why it is so fundamental to differentiating truly great martial arts practitioners
from the not-so-great. Our first instalment looked at the first of the 5 Important Actions, being Humility. Here we look at the next one, Loyalty:
read more
We all spend an enormous amount of time looking at videos, demonstrations and competitive performances of Chinese Martial Arts practitioners. We think we see whether they are “good” or not; whether they display the correct techniques, whether we can see “quality in their movements”, “power and harmony”, “coordination”, “spirit, rhythm and style” but the fundamental thing we are not seeing and what truly defines whether they are masters of their craft or not is WǔDé (武德) – Martial Morality. read more
JinLi Wushu-Tai Chi was recently approached by the producers of the Channel 10 television program, The Living Room, who were preparing a segment called “Mood Moves”, looking at fun activities that promote both mental and physical health. They wanted to know whether we would be interested in sharing the benefits of Tai Chi with their 1-million plus Australian viewership. Of course, we jumped at the chance. So a group of JinLi’ers braved the winter cold with TV presenter Tiffany Hall, a former Tae Kwon Do Olympian. We really enjoyed sharing our love of martial arts with Tiffany and showing her some Taiji moves. read more