Tag Archives: learn

Should you call your Tai Chi teacher “Sifu”?

When you want to learn Tai Chi, you will notice many more or less strange things. People wearing silk pajamas as martial arts clothes, Yin Yang symbols and martial arts weapons everywhere, not to speak of all the strange Chinese words (e.g. 太極拳 or 氣功). And if you’ve read your fare share of martial arts books and movies, you probably ask yourself: should I call my teacher “Sifu”?

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What you need to know if you search for “Tai Chi near me”

Let me tell you: I think it is really great that you search for “Tai Chi near me”. I remember when I searched for my first Tai Chi classes near me in 2004. And I remember that I found the results to be very confusing.

First, I stumbled across some different words. Because there are different ways how to write it. And if you really want to find all the Tai Chi schools and teachers in your area, you should search for:

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Why it’s important to practice what you’ve learnt in Taijiquan or Qi Gong class

Qialance blogger Angelika Fritz with Chen Bin at a Chen style Taijiquan workshop

Recently I went to a workshop with Chen Bin, son of Chen Zhenglei. It was about the Chen style basics, so we did a lot of pole standing (Zhan Zhuang), Silk Reeling exercises (Chan Si Gong) and footwork.

And of course, Chen Bin talked to us about various other topics. At one point he talked about how important it is to not only go to class, but to practice for oneself, too. That class is to LEARN something, but it is necessary to PRACTICE it, too. He gave a really good example of that:

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