Recovering from the Chen Zhonghua Workshop

Wow, I can't believe the weekend is over. Attending the Chen Taiji Practical Method workshop with Chen Zhonghua was definitely an eye-opening experience for me. So many topics were covered in regards to foundations and taiji fundamentals as well as hand-on demonstrations and applications.  Often times, I would feel as if my world was flipped upside down, not understanding what I felt or saw... Needless to say, right now I am recovering both physically and mentally from the 3 day workshop. The great thing about Master Chen is his willingness to demonstrate abstract taiji principles in concrete actions. His demonstrations pulled back the veil on a lot of taiji mysticism.  He would show you and let you feel exactly how and why a slight movement of the arm would send someone toppling to the ground (in reality, it's not really the arm that's moving, but more on that later... ;))  One of the funniest things is Master Chen would call someone up to grab him or put him in some type of locked position.  The chosen volunteer would ask how he should perform the grab/lock and Master's Chen response would always be, "Anything you want."  A couple of moments later with little to no effort from Master Chen, the volunteer would either be on the ground or 3-5 feet back from their starting position.  I will write in more details later regarding the topics and more on my experiences as I try to wrap my head around things. One of the coolest things about the workshop was getting a chance to meet a great bunch of people. I even had a chance to meet a fellow taiji blogger in addition to some readers of my blog! For me, blogging is about exploring ideas and connecting with people. For the most part, it's just me shooting my thoughts out into the blogosphere and from time to time I will get some feedback, however there's nothing like meeting someone in real life and exchanging ideas and techniques.  I am grateful to those who take a couple of minutes out of their lives to read my ramblings on taiji.  It's humbling to know some have made room in their mayonnaise jar for a little bit of wujimon ;) [edited: Note, this is just an intial feedback about the workshop. See part 1 of my multipart summary for more: Chen Zhonghua Workshop Summary Part 1 ]