The definition of a true martial arts practitioner in terms of what is reflected in their thoughts continues in this segment as we look at the second Thought, Patience. read more

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

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:
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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

Pattern language was defined by the widely influential architect and design theorist, Emeritus Professor Christopher Alexander, and first brought to light in his book “A Pattern Language”, and subsequently in his famous work “The Nature of Order”. To give you a feel for Alexander’s thought processes one of his statements was “No one can be close to others, without also having frequent opportunities to be alone”. read more