My beginning with Tai Chi Chuan

I had an interest in Tai Chi for many years, read a few books on Chi, Tao Te Ching and a few others I can’t remember.  Often as with many people, time is a major consideration, we have busy lives so I didn’t get fully involved for some time.

The martial art of Tai Chi is also known as Tai Chi Chuan or Tàijí quán.  It is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for both its defence training, its health benefits and meditation.

My experience

It was about 2003 when I started to look for a local Tai Chi class.  I found a class at The Friends Meeting House, Horsefair in Banbury. It is an old listed building in the centre of Banbury.  The instructor was Sid Revill of the Rising Dragon Tai Chi School. (Click the below image)

The classes involved a lot of warm up and exercises, which I later found out to be Chi Kung or Qi Gong exercises.  These are mostly moving, breathing, and meditation exercises used for the purposes of health, spirituality and martial arts training.

The style of Tai Chi was the Yang style.  I started learning the short form.  As well as teaching the Yang form and Chi Kung, Sid also taught pushing hands at most lessons.  These are partnered exercises used for learning to interact with a partner.

On average there were about ten people at Sids classes.  A mixture of men and women and the age range was probably between 30 and 70.

I worked my way through the Yang style short form over several months and eventually learnt to practice it alone without assistance.  As with most pursuits to become fluid and perform to your desired level you have to practice regularly in your own time as well as with your teacher.

Tim Butt practicing Dr Chi Chiang Tao short form in December 2020

Short and Long Form…

I later moved onto the Yang style long form, 108 movements.  I used a DVD by Richard Farmers to assist.  Richard Farmer is the founder of Rising Dragon Tai Chi School where Sid had learnt his Tai Chi.

I continued Tai Chi and Chi Kung for several more years with Sid.

More to follow coming soon on Sid Revill and Tai Chi. My next Tai Chi Blog:

Tai Chi Chuan – My Lineage