Paul Finn, Sarfraz Rajwadkar  and I, Jim Turner, from the JDIATCC Stratford City attended this weekend course at the Limehouse Headquarters in June. Like many others, I found the Health Instructors Course an invaluable opportunity to be able meet other practitioners of JDIATC Short Form, to have the chance to sense other peoples posture and the prospect of being taught by Master John Ding. The weekend is a thorough revision of not only the Short Form but also the warm up exercises and the Chi Kung meditation. The training room is light and airy giving feeling expansiveness, the floor slippery, emphasising need to stay rooted, the tone of the weekend is serious and demanding. Much information is given that requires assimilation and accurate corrections of The Form are expected on an individual basis but underlining all this effort was also a great atmosphere of great enjoyment.

Another great Snake Form workshop in Hamburg.

You always know when you’re standing at the bottom of the hill that the view from the top is going to be great. Even on the way up when you’re slogging though the trees, your view obscured and the track winding upwards, seemingly endlessly, you come to a small spot where the trees break, you can stop and rest, admire the view and think, ‘wow this is great, and I’m not even there yet..’.

The Tai Chi for Health weekend proved to be an interesting mix. Having been a seasoned tai chi practioner for many years now, I find it interesting to come back and re-visit seminars thatI have attended previously. It allows me to re-evaluate my learning and my own concepts of tai chi. We started off with the usual warm up exercises and then moved quickly into looking at key movements in the foundation form. While the foundation form is used as the basis for looking at the health aspects of tai chi, the fundamental concepts remain the same as the tradational long form.