Nigel Bleach is opening a new Tai Chi club in the heart of Cardiff.
Wednesdays 6-7:30pm from 1st March 2023.
Tredegar Room, Old Library, Singleton Road, Cardiff. CF24 2ET
Author: Chris Simpson
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A new Tai Chi club coming to Cardiff
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Year of the Rabbit weekend course
To mark the Chinese New Year of the Rabbit the Leamington Spa Tai Chi club will be hosting a weekend of Tai Chi and Kung Fu at North Leamington School. The course is open to beginners so come along and have a go. The Leamington club was established in 1980 by Chee Soo a world-renowned Tai Chi and Kung Fu Grand master with over sixty years of experience in the Taoist Arts. He was learning Tai Chi and Kung Fu in the London of the 1930s years before it was known about publicly in the West.
Tai Chi on Saturday 21st January 2023 10am to 4pm, lunch 12:30-1:30pm
Kung Fu on Sunday 22nd January 2023 10am to 4pm, lunch 12:30-1:30pm
At North Leamington School in Sandy Lane, Blackdown CV32 6RD
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Penryn Spring term weekend course
There will be a Tai Chi day course for the Cornwall clubs hosted by the Penryn club on Saturday 11th February 11am to 5pm.
This will be at the Zedshed on Jubilee Wharf, Commercial road, Penryn, TR10 8FG
Beginners are welcome
Unrivalled views – underfloor heating – a riverside balcony – carbon neutral. The ZedShed is a beautiful community hall with a roof made from reclaimed timber that is shaped like the upturned hull of a boat.
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A new venue for the Falmouth club
The Zedshed in Penryn The Falmouth club now has a new home at the Zedshed in Penryn. It’s a large hall with huge windows and amazing views and a sprung wooden floor. We hope to see you all again starting this Wednesday evening 7:45 to 9:15pm.
The teacher is Rachel Simpson. Rachel is one of our most experienced teachers and she has been training in Tai Chi since her days with Chee Soo at the Leamington Spa club. Rachel teaches Lee style Tai Chi and Kai Men qigong at the Falmouth club but she is also an expert teacher in Ancient Taoist Chinese Medicine and Feng Shou kung fu. -
A new club in Truro
Hendra Hall (Carrick Sports and Recreation Centre), Carew Rd, Truro TR1 3TP
Every Tuesday evening 6 – 7.30 p.m
If you need more details contact Steve Hawker on 07909 531979
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Chinese Medicine online
We will be hosting a twelve-week long course on the basics of Chinese Medicine every Monday night at 8 o’clock (UT) starting on Monday 9th January 2023. Sign up for the course on Eventbrite.
We will start by looking at the basic concepts of Chinese Medicine, primarily the three treasures Jing Qi and Sghen and why they are so important and what we can do to improve the quantity and quality of them. If you want to start looking at some of the course materials beforehand please join the Facebook group for the course, the first week’s topic will be discussing the three treasures.The Three treasures
In Ancient Chinese medicine, the “Three Treasures” (also called the “Three Jewels” or “San Bao”) are three fundamental principles that are believed to be the foundation of health and well-being. These treasures are:
- Jing (精): Jing is the essence or vital substance that is responsible for reproduction, growth, and development. It is believed to be stored in the kidneys and is thought to be the source of one’s physical and mental energy.
- Qi (气): Qi is the vital energy or life force that is present in all living things. It is believed to flow through the body along pathways called meridians, and is thought to be essential for good health and well-being.
- Shen (神): Shen is the spirit or consciousness that is responsible for one’s mental and emotional well-being. It is believed to be stored in the heart and is thought to be the source of one’s thoughts, feelings, and awareness.
In traditional Chinese medicine, it is believed that maintaining balance and harmony among the Three Treasures is essential for good health and well-being.
Why learn Chinese Medicine?Well for me I did it because my teacher taught it and I wanted to learn what he was teaching. When I first started it was at a Tai Chi class and I was interested in Taoism. When I asked him if he did it he said “That’s all we do!”
One of my big stumbling blocks paradoxically was my education which stemmed from Western philosophy based firmly on Cartesian doubt. This is a method of tearing things apart until there’s nothing left. Once I encountered Chee Soo I began to realize his method was more along the lines of a jigsaw puzzle and tearing things apart was not of much use, in fact, it slowed me down considerably so I decided to become more open-minded.
Chinese Medicine was at the core of his teachings I started to realize and although he was well known as a Tai Chi and Kung Fu master it was his skill at understanding and controlling energies that made him such an outstanding healer.
This course is exactly about that, Qi or energy, and if you can just get a grip on this concept, which in actual fact is a real thing and not merely a concept of the mind, it will put you on the high road to understanding everything related to the Taoist Arts and will do more than anything else to prolong your youth and protect your health into old age.
Sign up here
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Kung Fu beach lesson
We were doing some kung fu training down at Sennen Cove just the other day when some interested parties approached us to do an impromptu class for them, this is what transpired.
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Lockdown Tai Chi
We are offering free online Tai Chi lessons every day during the lockdown. Wherever you are located and whatever your level of experience, beginner, intermediate, or advanced, you are welcome to come and join our classes, and yes they are completely free of charge for the duration of the lockdown, but if you wish you can make a donation to support the cause. You can train once a week or every single day and there are special classes in the evenings if you are working.
Our Lee style Tai Chi has enormous health benefits and can increase your level of Qi or life force and improve your health and strengthen your immunity on a daily basis.
We are a professional team of Tai Chi teachers with years of experience and we would love the chance to show you what we can do and give you some insight into what Tai Chi can do for you.
So come and try it, what have you got to lose?
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T’ai Chi and ITV Tonight
An ITN film crew came to our Summer Course in Cornwall this year to film us warming up on the beach at Sennen Cove. Our group was featured as part of a documentary about the over use of prescribed opioid painkillers and the horrifying side effects from addiction. Last year the NHS spent £350 million on prescribing opioids. The tide is turning and there are alternative methods to drugs for pain relief, Tai Chi is one of those methods. Some of our students at the course have been offered drugs by their doctors and they were interviewed by ITN and talked about how Tai Chi has helped them find a better way to manage their illness. T’ai Chi is based on the principles of Chinese Medicine, the emphasis here is on Qi or life force, and on prevention and looking at the causes of disease rather than blocking out the symptoms. Drugs can be very effective in the short term but over time the body builds up a tolerance and then people may increase the dosage to counter the effect and this causes side effects and builds up a dependency. According to Chinese Medicine long term pain can be caused by obstructions in the flow of energy around the body, it is this energy that regenerates damaged tissues, pain results because the body is warning us that something is wrong. The body is constantly regenerating itself, your blood, skin, tissues, and muscles, even the bones and nerve and brain cells are replaced over time. The relaxed gentle movements of T’ai Chi and the mental focus help to guide the energy to the parts of the body where it is needed most and this reduces the recovery time as well as easing the pain. T’ai Chi cannot completely block out all pain, not for a beginner at least, then again powerful drugs although they are immediately effective can have serious drawbacks. Doctors are trained to prescribe drugs and perform operations so it may be difficult for them to step outside of this model and understand a type of medicine from another culture on the other side of the world that uses a completely different model and different methods. It’s not possible to see the effect the exercises are having by just watching, after all you cannot see what is going on inside the body, or experience what another person is feeling, but people who have actually tried this form of exercise can testify from their own experience that it works, and works effectively.
The documentary was broadcast on Thursday night September 20th 2018 on ITV.
If you are interested in looking at alternatives to medication then please contact us.
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