Slug Lifestyle Update

Readers may remember that at the end of April, I resolved to get off my ass and take a daily walk around the block.

How did THAT go?

Well, I managed to do it for about a month or so. Then excuses started popping up like endless dandelions about why I couldn't do it on any given day.

But it was summer time by then, and so I was just naturally more active anyway, getting out and about, going places. Therefore, I didn't worry too much about slacking off on those walks.

And finally in September, I got some good news about my tai chi group, which had ceased operation a year and a half ago due to the pandemic.

Although the group no longer meets in person every morning at the mall, our leader has now taken it online instead so we can do our routines via Zoom in the comfort of our own homes! I am thrilled to be back in the swing of all things tai chi! 

I thought I had forgotten absolutely everything I knew about the moves, but a lot of it has come back now simply through muscle memory and prodding the rusty old memory banks.

An added bonus to online tai chi is that now I no longer have the half hour drive each way to the mall and back. Sweet! That alone saves me an hour per day!

Tai Chi Fan Performance

"Fan" is my favourite tai chi routine. As mentioned in an earlier post, it took 5 months of almost daily lessons and practice for us newbies to learn this 3-and-a-half-minute routine in our tai chi group. I was worried that my somewhat arthritic hands would not be able to manipulate the fan. And yes, some days my fan was dropped or flung or only partially opened.

But the surprise issue for me was how hard the routine was on my legs. At times, I could barely keep up. My legs were burning and aching. Everything was happening so fast! But once the routine is finally learned and becomes part of muscle memory, it seems to slow right down to a much more manageable pace.

There are a lot of subtle hand and wrist movements required in using the fan. These movements are not meant to be purely decorative. The teacher corrected one of my wrist movements in class, showing me how to twist my wrist in a certain way before opening the closed fan. "You must gouge your enemy in the side first," she told me.

This photo shows two of the most difficult moves in the routine --

Because we are geezers, we get to do modified versions that are not so hard on us. We don't have to hold the one-legged pose so high or so long. And we don't have to get down anywhere near so low to the ground on any move, including this most extreme one. Thank the Baby Jesus!

Here is a wonderful video of a tai chi master doing the routine. (Just pretend it's me, LOL!) I love hearing the snap of her fan! And watch for the grips and slices you saw demonstrated in the martial arts videos from my previous post --



While I was learning this routine, I would wake up in the middle of the night and that music would be running through my head on an endless loop. Talk about a crazy-making ear worm, LOL!

Performance Fans versus War Fans

A tai chi performance fan is made of bamboo and silk. The one I have is a peony style in black silk, as pictured here in the middle --

A tai chi fan routine is, like all other tai chi routines, based on martial arts. The decorative performance fan is a safe stand-in for a martial arts war fan. These have steel ribs, either blunted or pointed. The inside bottom rib is essentially a knife with a razor-sharp cutting edge. For example --

The Tessen ("iron fan") was created by the Samurai warrior class in ancient Japan, so that they would never be unarmed in situations where their swords, bows or spears could not be carried. A decorative folding fan (Sensu) was an expensive status symbol among the feudal Japanese upper class. Everyone had one, both men and women, so a fan tucked in a waist sash was above suspicion. If attacked, a Samurai could defend himself with his war fan.

Here's a couple of short videos showing how war fans are held and used to inflict damage. The demonstrator is, of course, using a safer performance fan to illustrate the moves. All these same grips and strikes are used in tai chi fan routines as well, although in much slower motion.





My next post will be about the actual tai chi fan routine. And yes, there will be a performance video! Not of me though, LOL, but of a tai chi master.

Practice Makes Perfect

Every weekday morning from 8:00 to 10:00, the tai chi group with which I practice meets in the large hallway of a big local mall before the stores open. Members include men and women in their 20s to their 80s, although most are retirees in the 60+ range (like me). Most members are Asian but there's a fair-sized non-Asian group as well. We practice both tai chi and qi gong over the course of our two hours.

I call this group the best kept secret in Edmonton, because it is absolutely free! There is no cost to participate or learn. The group's founder, his wife and the other group leaders are dedicated to making tai chi and qi gong freely available to all for improved mental and physical health. And they have no other agenda, which is refreshing.

There is a teaching element to the group as well. Lessons usually run for about half an hour. In the past year and a half, I've learned Wu style tai chi, several Yang style routines, a sword routine and a fan routine.

And believe me, none of it came easily! I am not a physically adept person, not an athlete, not a dancer. As Jenn from Coffee on the Porch with Me said in a previous comment, tai chi is like "learning a dance routine for weeks and weeks, bit by bit and then it all coming together." Very true! My initial challenge when I first started was telling my left hand/foot from my right. D'oh!

My next tai chi post will be about the fan routine. It nearly killed me, but I learned it! And it only took five months!

The Truth About Tai Chi

I've been doing tai chi for a year and half now. It's been an eye-opening experience, I must say.

When I started, I was under the naive impression that tai chi was a meditative experience promoting love, peace and zen. Who knows where that idea came from? Probably from watching tai chi's slow and deliberate movements.

This view was reinforced by the charming and seemingly spiritual names for some of tai chi's forms (movements) -- "White crane spreads its wings" -- "Part the wild horse's mane" -- "Fair lady works at shuttle" -- "Step back, ride the tiger" -- "Wave hands like clouds" -- "Playing the lute."

Imagine my surprise to learn that tai chi is nothing of the sort. It is firmly rooted in martial arts. Every form is a fighting move, either defensive or offensive in nature. Like other Asian martial arts, the weapons used are hands and feet. Swords are also used in some tai chi routines. Fans, too. Weaponized fans.

This unexpectedly violent truth was brought home to me when I was learning a tai chi sword routine. I wasn't lifting my sword high enough in one particular form. The teacher grabbed my wrist and forcefully thrust my sword upwards.

"Higher, higher!" she said. "This is a throat slash!"

Yikes.

Now I know why gentle and meditative tai chi is sometimes called "how to kill someone in slow motion."