Tai Chi Competition

We returned to Hong Kong on Thursday in-time for a competition on Saturday celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Li Fai School of Tai Chi.

I'd signed-up several months before for 2 events - Chen-56 and Yang-40 - but I wasn't feeling very confident for a number of reasons.

Dunedin at dawn

Firstly my classes had moved on to new forms - a new Chen routine, the combined 42-form and Chen sword - so we weren't training the forms I would be doing in the competition.

Christchurch at dawn

Then we were traveling for the last 2 weeks,  which disrupted my training.  I was quite diligent in practicing most mornings in NZ at dawn to the sound of birdsong, but I missed getting corrections from my coach.

Auckland at dawn

Finally my run-up to the competition was complicated by a groin strain I'd inflicted on myself 6 weeks earlier in a moment of over-enthusiasm.   So I had to rest and then train gently so it could recover in time for the competition.   Fortunately I got that balance right and was able to train the 2 forms enough to avoid embarrassing myself.

The competition was held in a school hall near Tseung Kwan O and was a nice friendly event.

Under the circumstances, I was reasonably satisfied by my performance although I hope I can do better in the future.   I did both forms fairly confidently although it was a bit rough and I made several small mistakes (e.g balance).

More importantly, although many of the external details of the forms are OK, I still need to do a lot of work to get the internal fundamentals correct.  In particular : moving from the 'dan tian'; 'song kua' (relaxing the hips and bearing weight on the legs); keeping back rounded and bum tucked-under;  proper relaxation and breathing, and emitting 'fa jin' (explosive power).       

So I was happy to get 'silver medal' in both categories.  This perhaps sounds better than it is, since the silver category seemed to cover the 30-70th percentile and Im not sure where I was in that range.

As part of the celebrations, there was an interesting martial arts demonstration and a big dinner on Sunday.   I saw the demonstration but by the evening I wasn't feeling well and unfortunately had to skip the dinner.

The center also produced a very nice memorial album with articles and photos from the various events and photos, and shows how much they have done to promote Taiji and Wushu in the community.

I must say Im very impressed by Li Fai and the center in many ways.   They do a terrific job in promoting traditional martial arts and qui gong, and providing high quality instruction.  Also the atmosphere at the school is always very positive and friendly.   As well as being a great athlete, teacher and organizer Li Fai also seems to have a nice aesthetic sense and a talent for creating a sense of occasion so everything the do is quite stylish.

The album included a short section about our Chen 56 class.   This is our sifu Xui Qiong who is a wonderful teacher and athlete.  I'm very grateful to be able to attend her classes.

To sifu's left in the photo above is our oldest classmate who is 83.  And on her far right is a oversized gweilo,  who after 2 years has just learnt the Chinese words for 'left' and 'right'.