I love this lesson! I will come back to it again and again! Since I retired, I have been volunteering a lot at our local school. Some days, after spending an hour with first graders and feeling overwhelmed by all that energy, I think "Why am I doing this?". And then a little boy gives me a big hug and says "Thank you for volunteering" and my heart just melts!
YES! When the hearts open up I think is when we feel so touched. We're all familiar with Joseph Campbell's phrase "follow your bliss." But what many don't know is that the word "bliss" was actually a translation of the Sanscrit word "Ananda" - meaning "the feeling oaf being touched by God." So we follow what gives us that feeling!
Dear DDR: the shock of recognition! I am just re-reading Mastery by Leonard for at least the 3rd time. It is a profound book and a true guiding light. That you feel the same way excites me. And the Day of kicking fits it all perfectly. Thanks! Tom
Playing guitar. When I had a stroke a few years ago I thought that would be the end of that but the specialists said that this was just the sort of thing I should persevere with and they were right. It took me months not to sound terrible but eventually I got back to where I was before. Furthermore, I now have no sign of any residual damage. David-Dorian thanks for the kicking tips, although I've already been doing most of these from your Flow & Strength DVDs, if you see my comment on yesterdays lesson my problem was not with the kick but with the twist. I know I'm behind the rest of you and you've probably already covered it in the next lesson.
Thank as always DDR for sharing your journey with us. I really got a kick out of this lesson, lol. Being that I am a retired Marine and a combat veteran of the Vietnam War, what Tai Chi and Qigong has done for me, is helped me in learning to live in peace and harmony within myself. Today my passion is my family and teaching my grandchildren the concept of harmony and balance. I also try to pass this along to anyone who has an interest. One phrase I always think of when I think of your journey that you share in your Tai Chi, is mindfulness. We must not only be aware of the world around us, but the thoughts and spirit within us. Thank you for what you share of yourself with us.
Of course without a doubt , the closest to my heart are family especially my very first Great grand daughter . That said ,I have so many things I do daily that bring much joy to my heart . I would be hard pressed to pick just one. One thing that is bringing me much joy are the lessons you are sharing with us. I look forward to them everyday . We are all blessed to be learning from you . See you i the next lesson .
Great lesson and thank you David-Dorian. For me all of my passion, obsessions and love are in my writing which makes me a better and more compassionate and loving person towards others, and which in turn allows me to grow and explore other creative endeavors including tai chi.
Hi Therese! Good to hear from you! Thanks for sharing your website--I enjoyed your blog and happy to see you went to Spalding. Sena was a faculty mentor when I was in MFA writing program at Vermont College. I also have friends in the Albany area so I'll have them check out your website too. I'm a fiction writer, currently finishing my third book. My site: www.irenzabytko.com and my public blog about being an American writer in Ukraine (spent a year there, and recently returned) is at: irenezabytko.wordpress I'm finding tai chi very helpful in sparking creativity!
I'm sooo jazzed to see you all sharing your blogs and websites! I'm learning a lot about you all as well. Here's a little tip if you want to share a link on youtube: always include - like this: irenezabytko.wordpress.com/
For people who have balance problem, maybe it would be safer to use the tri- or quad-base cane. I would suggest not "lean" on the cane ... train and stabilize on your own standing leg. This is a very good exercise, and we also include the back kick with the front and side kick you have demonstrated in the video for our retired/senior students. Thank you! Jive kicks for dancers :)
Music was my first love and I used to perform tirelessly when I was a younger man. I still do perform but not so much these days but still love it. What I really love doing now is teaching Ki Gong, which is the Kookhak Ki Gong from South Korea. I have been teaching for about a year now and love to see my regular attendees actually improving their health and vitality. I love it and feel this is a noble path. I really appreciate what you are doing here. You are a great teacher and may your pearls of wisdom keep flowing. :)
Peter Paul - thank you so much. I love hearing that you are teaching Kookhak Ki Gong, and it definitely can be "addicting" when you start connecting with your students and watching their transformations right before your eyes. BTW - I just PM'd on facebook to see if you'd still like to do a collaboration video with me.
Great stuff. My mother never let my study martial arts. After I graduated college and could finally take a class, I really wasn't interested in combat and narrowed it down to Tai Chi or Akido...and at the last minute it became an African dance class...and before I knew, I had found my way to Swing and Salsa and danced professionally with a Swing troupe for 10 years. You look great period and you've got quite a resume. I need to re-embrace my fitness. I will probably scroll back to day 1 and jumpstart my health with your 100 days of Tai-Chi series. Thanks for the motivation.
Chris thanks so much for taking a look! Believe it or not, my father was a professional ballroom dancer (lindy and mambo and social dancing) back in the 40's and 50's, and I taught basic ballroom for a time as well.
Very cool. I had the opportunity to dance once with my grandmother when she was starting to lose her mobility and it came back to her. She hadn't danced in over 50 years. Such a special memory. I did a commercial once for Salon.com faking my way through Viennese Waltz in the background.
Hey there, Big Trip to Japan -- I'm taking basic Swing and Lindy Hop lessons right now! Just last night, I went to a swing dance in my neighborhood, and had a great time. I watch a lot of how-to-dance RU-vid videos.
My passion: LEARNING: learning how to love my family, how to compose poetry, how to improve my yoga & dancing, how to speak and read new languages, how to embody the KIndness of Equanimity (compassion, good will, tranquility, balance, acceptance).
Thank you so much for this video it is very helpful. I do have a question - my balance is fine - what I struggle with is being able to straighten my leg out when it is lifted. Thank you again - I am going to keep practicing as your words are so true.
Thanks for this. I'm 3 months into a Taiji class at a Shaolin school and we are just starting to practice these heel kicks. I find them extremely difficult and have been looking for a way to work on it. I'll give these exercises a try.
Family, cookies, Taijiquan, long drives as a passenger, fresh ripe fruit, airplane rides and cool fresh water to drink. These are just a few of my many favorite things that spark my fancy.
Thank you. I have worked to learn yang simplified 24 form to improve my balance and flexibility, I have got 20 forms close enough for now but the heel kick left and right and the snake creeps down - golden rooster left and right are still beyond my abilities. This video will probably help me to solve both problems. I look forward to seeing more of them. I have lots of room for improvement in all the forms.
Really dig the teaching drills, especially the building, additive aspect. I feel that it is a superior teaching method to the one I currently use with students. After all, taiji is in the motion. Also, I think that this method is much more effective with a class where student skill-levels vary. We saw this earlier in the series when you taught Brush Knee and Push, I think. Thank you, David
Michael you're welcome Sir! The basic teaching method I use is known as the "whole - part - whole" method. Kind of like when you learn public speaking and the format is "tell them what you're going to tell them - tell them - then tell them what you've told them." Then I further break down a movement into 4 biomechanical parts: feet and legs, hands and arms, torso, then head and eyes, and I go through the whole/part/whole for each part. Hope that made sense and didn't geek out too much!
It does make sense. I could feel the efficacy of the method as I moved along with you. I think that it may prevent my overwhelming students with words (as I tend to...). Also, students in our classes tend to be seniors and the more personal, non-rigid approach to taiji, characterized by your style, sir, is much more accessible to them. Carry on!
Great and props are great. I have a bad leg so I would be interested in the Tai Chi with cain. My passion in life is my wife and our life together. Thanks again
Good lesson: whenever I see high-ways to do are cool , also intimidating .....& thank you so much for lesson. Classes I go don't do details well. [ I should follow/catch up all the lessons.......,
Fabulous lesson! My passion in life is learning/teaching. Not just classroom stuff, but I have done that. My family calls me the Jan of all trades because I've studied so many different things. The last few years have been devoted to wellness of the body, mind and spirit which resulted in my book, Good For You! on Amazon Kindle and my blog Good4youwellness.com. Question for you today: what do you do to warm up before practice?
Thank you for sharing your book info! I went to Amazon and started reading some it - Good 4 You! (pun intended) I also tried to go to your blog, but the page wouldn't load up. :-(
Great video and I appreciate what you're trying to do, but where do you get off calling yourself a master. I know many many practioners and teachers with unbelievable skill who wouldn't dare call themselves masters out of respect for the teachers who taught them.
Jimmy first of all, thank you so much for your kind words - I'm so glad you enjoyed the video. And second, what a great question - thank you so much for asking! Here's actually three factors to why I sometimes refer to myself as "Master" David-Dorian Ross. The first reason is that my teachers have encouraged me to do it. One of my teachers, Sifu Huang Chung-liang, said that when you reach my age (I'm 61) it's time to claim your work. In Confucian terms, they say once you reach 60 "your ears are finally long enough." By the way, here's a link to a video I made with my teacher - I do honor my teachers every chance I get, and I make no bones about the fact that I would be nowhere without their teaching. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cooZoHI4B0k.html The second reason is that a lot of people misunderstand what "Master" means in Chinese martial arts. It's a translation of the word "Shi fu" which means "Great (or masterful) Teacher." It doesn't mean that you're claiming to have exceeded or disrespected your teacher - it means you can teach others to exceed you. In fact I often quote another great Tai Chi Master, William CC Chen who says, "If I can do it - you can do it better!" That's my goal - to have my students do better at Tai Chi than me. At this point in my life, I've lived long enough to have a record that literally no one else in the world has. As an American, I have more international medals (in China, in official International championships) than anyone else. I was the first to bring Tai Chi to the Fitness Industry. My company is the first to teach online with fully interactive live video. I was the first to produce the live 24-hour webcast of World Tai Chi Day events across the globe. Inside Kung-fu magazine called me, "The man who brought Tai Chi mainstream." I've collaborated with Jet Li to create Tai Chi programs for the web, and I am the "public face" of his Tai Ji Zen online course. As a teacher using media as a platform, I'm the #1 best-selling creator in the world. Going by volume alone, I've shared Tai Chi with more than 10 million people through my television shows and dvd programs. (You can check some of them out on Amazon: www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_4_17?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=david-dorian+ross+dvds&sprefix=david-dorian+ross%2Caps%2C241&crid=2LZZ8GMDGIUR8) But finally, I frankly use the term Master sometimes to make people go, "Wait - what???" In the world of RU-vid, you've only got a few seconds to capture someone's attention - and all the lecture or workouts or lessons in the world are not as powerful as when someone asks a single question. Learning always begins with a question. So Jimmy thank you SO MUCH for your question. I'm so glad you enjoyed the video, and I hope you check out a bunch more on this channel.
I hope viewers from USA don’t think he is teaching proper tai chi kicks, you don’t b tell them the names of the kicks.Seems like you took yang tai chi 8 & 24 kicks . He is teaching cheerleader kicks,not tai chi. You didn’t mentioned what you are supposed to do with the supporting leg.
@@NicK-md9py sigh. As I always say, I’m so sad when someone has taken a little bit of tai chi and think that they know more than they do. I have a standard response which is if you think that you have a valid point to make then you create a reply, video and post the link. Show us what you are talking about and if you are, correct I will fully acknowledge it. But I’ve been doing this for 50 years son and I know what I’m talking about.
