Reader Feedback

Mike,

Your training place for Bagua looks nice. Did you ever consider planting an additional 8 posts in the shape of the magic square of numbers for advanced training?

- Professor Herman B, Taiwan

Herman,

Yes, I do have ample room for adding the 8 posts. I've see pictures of the arrangement of such posts for bagua. However, I don't really have a good idea as to what is to be done. I will need to do some research on the subject. Any suggestions?

Mike

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Hello - Michael P. Garofalo, Let me introduce my self, my name is Jeff F. I live over here in New Hampshire with my wife and cat.....

I very much enjoy your web site and thank you for all of the research that you have done and are doing in the area of Tai Chi and the other internal martial arts. I have in the past studied Ed Parker's American Kenpo, of which made it to Black Belt; and of recently since August of this past year of 2008 was studying the Fu Style Internal Martial Arts of which I have the entire system on dvd from master Fu who know lives in Vancouver, and know I have started to train in the Traditional Yang Family Tai Chi System.

Well enough of my background, for I do have a question for you. When talking about the cane, you said that the only weapon that you now practice and teach in your Tai chi classes are the Cane; why would that be may I ask? I mean that in the Yang and Sun styles of Tai Chi they like the internal systems have the swords - staffs - spears - the deer horn knives - etc. I am only asking out of being curious and find it to be a very interesting way of thinking outside of the box lets just say!

Well I do look forward in getting your response to my question.

Hope to be talking to you soon.

Take care,

Jeff F


Dear Jeff,

Congratulations on earning a black belt in Ed Parker's American Kenpo. What an achievement!

I hope you enjoy your studies in in the Yang style of Taijiquan. You are correct in mentioning that Yang styles makes use of a number of weapons, especially the jian sword.

I enjoy using the cane the most because I can take it anywhere, anytime. Since I am a 63 year old man, my walking stick is almost invisible to folks. My practice time is limited - so it is unlikely that I will practice enough to learn many different weapons. A cane suits my Zen/Taoist/Taiji interests, more so than a saber or spear. My students, nearly all seniors, like it for many of the same reasons.

Best wishes,

Mike

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Hello Mike

I stumbled onto your website, and even though I have only just begun to scratch the surface, I must commend you on the wealth of information it contains. I have similar interests as you do, so I look forward to exploring the many links and articles it contains.

At a ripe old age of 51, I recently enrolled in a local Tai Chi class. The instructor is very good (represented Canada at a Tai Chi competition in the 90's), but I was searching for some background information on the moves, theory, application etc. That is how I ended up on the Cloud Hands website. The information there has been very useful, and I am eager to read more.

Once again, thanks for an awsome repository of knowledge and information.

Vladimir R, Ontario, Canada

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Dear Michael,

You had asked in an article about the day of Sun Lu Tang's death if anyone knew it, it appears in his book Xing Yi Quan Xue as December 16, 1933 (pg. 37). I hope this helps and the articles were great please feel free to share them anytime, I am kind of researching and learning this art on my own through various media.

Sincerely,

Travis S

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Michael,

I hope yesterday was a rich, wonderful day for you guys — and your
kids, if you're with them.

Having just reconnected with your amazing site after some time away I
congratulate you on all the added material and the fluidity and
delight which accompanies the visit. to your domain! You've created
an amazingly valuable resource for the whole planet's health and well
being. It's a stellar achievement - a gift which keeps on giving.

What kind of year has it been for you? The variety and quantity of
cultivation work you do is awesome, as the kids say. It's an
inexhaustible body of knowledge into which you've apparently plunged
wholeheartedly. What delight!

Micky D, San Francisco

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Mike,
I've been reading your webpages for like a year now. You do such a great service to the martial arts community! Thanks so much!
I've been recently trying to learn Sun Tai Chi. Of course I've been picking up every video I can find. I'm torn between the 73 move form and the traditional. I was curious that you didn't mention the series of videos by Lam Kam Wing teaching the traditional form? I also noticed that you included that guy from France on youtube. Wow, that guy is really awful! I've never seen Sun Tai Chi performed so badly. It is a good video for learning all the wrong ways to perform the moves! Anyway, I've collected quite a few weird videos on the 5 animal qigong in my searches as well. Anything you need or would like me to copy for you I'd be pleased to do so. Hope to hear from you, And...Thanks again!
Sincerely, Jim

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Mr. Garofalo,

WOW! Thank you for the work, energy, love and dedication that you have poured into the Tai Chi and related websites. Your sites are a true treasure-trove of information.

May you walk in beauty and peace.

Respectfully,

James W, Minnesota

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Dear Mike, First off, thank you for your wonderful site and blog! It provides wonderful information and helped and inspired me more than once. A question: I am learning the Beijing form myself at the moment (after having learnt a 12-movement short-form at a teacher) from the wonderful Liang Shou-Yu book and DVD. My question which I have not found being answered in the book is how much of a training session (say 30 min and 60 min) should warm-up be, how often the form should be repeated and how long should the ending (collect and harmonize energy) take. Is there an article on your page (or elsewhere on the web) discussing this issue? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you and with every good wish!
- Andy, Germany

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Andy,
Any sensible fitness workout includes a progressive warm up to satisfy individual conditioning levels, the core practices, and a cool down (stretching, calming) period. The warm up should focus on the muscle groups that will be used in the core practices, as well as the gradual elevation of heartbeat.
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Taijiquan fitness theory includes many warm up practices and routines (Gong) that focus on esoteric energetic concepts of Qi. These practices of Qigong have many styles and variations between teachers, and many varied and contradictory interpretations. The time needed for warm up will vary with the conditioning levels of the player. An out of shape person in their 30's will need more warm up time than a highly conditioned (i.e., aerobic, strength, and flexibility) person in their 50's. An elderly person with joint problems will need more warm up time.
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In my opinion, any well conditioned person can easily use a slow and high standing performance of the 24 form as a warm up routine, and dispense with any other warm ups or qigong sets. Considering that the core practice is the Standard 24 Taijiquan Form, this exercise is not vigorous when done at a slow pace. Therefore, the warm up and cool down demands are very low. If your purpose is to learn the Standard 24 Taijiquan Form the main focus should be on slow deliberate repetitions of sections of the form. The emphasis should be on learning the form, not getting a "workout" or "full taijiquan practice." Therefore, I think a 5 minute warm up and 5 minute cool down are quite adequate for a moderately conditioned person learning this Taijiquan form. Warm ups should include movements that focus on the legs and waist. Do the form very slowly for the first 10 minutes after the warm up. Daily 40 minute practice sessions are quite sufficient. In 30 minutes, you can do the entire form 4 times when you know the movements.
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In my practice, I walk .6 mile to warm up (at various speeds) while I swing my cane as I walk, then I do a few leg stretching exercises before I begin my practice of numerous martial arts and taijiquan forms, some of them quite vigorous. I intermix walking with taijiquan forms. I separate the learning and practice of qigong sets, from the practice of taijiquan.
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People need to make up their own minds as to the value of either qigong or taijiquan for themselves. If you want to learn taijiquan then practice taijiquan 90 to 100% of the time you have available.

Best wishes, Mike Garofalo

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I updated the links to Taijiquan blogs that I read. The list is now in my right sidebar. I had used Blog Roller for a while in my right sidebar; but switched to creating links to blogs I read by using the Blogger Template. Next week, I will update my links to blogs on Taoism and Zen. I use the Feed Demon blog aggregator to retrieve and organize blog postings by various topics that I am interested in reading.

Seeing this blog included in other blog lists is, of course, another form of postive feedback.

Again, I will try to post to the Cloud Hands Blog on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday each week.

Finally, I added a site meter to the bottom of this blog to gauge readership.


Cheers,

Mike