the back is feeling a bit better today. i’m totally and utterly giving credit here where it’s due. tai chi is saving my ass.
a bit of back story:
i used to do a martial art called tukong moosul and studied under master yi, the guy on the wikipedia entry. he was awesome, the coolest and a true martial artist. man, i’ve rarely been in around anyone with that kind of presence.
unfortunately for me, i wasn’t ready at the time. not dedicated enough, though i did realize what a special thing it was to learn from him. sadly, he removed himself from the school for a time as well and while i learned much from his head student (still miss james and kate and think of them often) it was not quite the same. james and kate, our friends, moved back to texas after a while and then we, too, moved and left the school. it was a brief period of time, but it left a huge impact on me.
after moving, i had a brief flirtation with hapkido, another korean martial art, but it just didn’t click. i went for many years since without this influence in my life. only now am i coming back to it, albeit in a much more low impact way.
i don’t think my body could hack doing kung fu or tukong moosul or karate, it’s just not in any kind of shape to handle the high impact of those forms. tai chi, on the other hand, is regularly practiced by the elderly. now that sounds about up my alley. interestingly enough, it can be low impact and gentle enough for senior citizens, but with hard work, tai chi can also be a very strenous workout. not to mention all the benefits of the mind/body/spirit stuff that goes with it.
and i have to say that it makes me all fuzzy inside just knowing that there’s potential for learning some weapons forms as well. there’s some gorgeous sword forms, fan forms and even spear forms.
i’m not getting ahead of myself here. i don’t even have the first set of positions down yet, but with any luck and guidance, i’ll find a way to stick with it and this will become something that will challenge me and keep me going for the rest of my life.
