Sing Ong Tai Chi - Newsletter

Vol. 06-1 25th January 2006

Last year has been an excellent year for training. We had great seminars by Professor Yek in March as well as the Annual Camp for Sing Ong Tai Chi Instructors in July at our Chans Martial Arts HQ.

We also celebrated Sing Ong Tai Chi’s Tenth Aniversary with a dinner in Christchurch at the Chung Wah Restaurant and in Auckland. There were demonstrations of the Six Tendon Relaxing & Joint Moving Exercises, Five Relaxing Exercises, Forty Two Universal Tai Chi Form and Shao Lu by the Canterbury students and instructors. The Senior Instructors demonstrated the Professor Cheng’s Thirty Seven Form, two parts of the One Hundred & Eight Step Long Form and Fixed Push Hands Drills. Michael Yek and Prof. Yek performed excellent renditions of the Tai Chi Sword Form and the Tai Chi Walking-Stick Form respectively. Prof. Yek also demonstrated his effortless and incredible “Free Push Hands” skills.

Michael Yek presented a lovely jade Tai Chi sculpture to Prof. Yek on behalf of all the students and instructors. Michael Yek, Mike Kinney, Marcus Simons and myself also paid homage to our beloved teacher. The one hundred and thirty members and guests also received commemorative coffee mugs besides enjoying their dinner.

The commemorative booklet have turned out to be quite a lot more substantial than first thought. It includes essays by Prof. Yek, instructors and many students. It is well bound with an embossed hard cover and pictures in full colour. The essays will be valuable reading with good and some very rare information for the serious student. The estimated cost is $40. Please let us know if you want to buy a copy. It will not be sold to the public.

Prof. Yek will be holding the Christchurch seminar on the 11th and 12th of March. Grading will be in the morning on the 11th. We have been so fortunate to have Prof. Yek teach us for the last ten years. Every year he has something new and special to tell us. Most of the instructors and senior students are eagerly anticipating what we will be learning this year.

Taichichuan’s incredible concepts and array of psychophysical drills makes it an exceptional martial art. The training of Taichichuan, as often touted, truly has great health benefits for the practitioner. But alas, these are not available to be bought, sold or bequeathed without qualification. The person must have a teacher that has true knowledge to help him/her understand the nature of TCC. If they understand, they need to believe and accept it. After which they need serious commitment to learn the concepts and drills that should be taught systematically.

TCC does not make any exceptions for anyone. The student need to receive the appropriate information at the appropriate time. When it is available too early it will not mean anything and often even lead to misunderstanding and spoiling the chances of learning it at all. Having it too late, obviously means valuable time is wasted.

The student must also train seriously and sufficiently with the appropriate information to fully appreciate it. It is only then, that the next parcel of information, is useful. Any attempt to rush through to learn the next bit, before the former is properly practiced, will result in failure. The whole part, as well as what is stacked on top of it, will have to be unlearnt and then relearnt later if at all possible.

Yet, everyone should be able to learn TCC well if they have the right teacher. They just got to be training regularly, be patient and not be greedy.

Time marches on relentlessly but there is much to learn and train. If we do not get on with it, time will soon pass us by. When there is an opportunity to train we must use it wisely and not squander it. It may be that when we want to train later, we may not have the time, health or teacher anymore. Prof. Yek often quotes: “When the flowers are in bloom, you should pick them, as you will only have twigs after they wither.” So we must train seriously now and implore our loved ones to train so as not lament the lost opportunity later.

May chi be with you,

S C Chan

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