Junior Instructors and Students
If you would like to know a litle more about why people take up Tai Chi for health or as a martial art, try reading the biographies below. These personal experiences may help you understand why we practice Tai Chi and why you should.
- Junior Instructor - Shane Robinson
- 5 Year student and valued sounding board -Nik Jago
- The family photograph
Shane Robinson
Junior Instructor
I started training in Karate in 1986 and trained in Derbyshire
and Yorkshire and even on the Isle Of Wight in a number of
styles, where I managed to gain a Black Belt, but not without
a few injuries along the way!
In 1992 I moved down to live in Brixham and started training
at Paignton where in one session we where doing free style
sparring and I recieved a round house kick to the ribs which
put me out of action for a number of weeks. The funniest
thing was the person who kicked me told me about Tai Chi and introduced me to Colin Steven's class at the Y.M.C.A in Paignton. I thoroughly enjoyed the class and I could see how effective Tai Chi could be.
After training for a couple of months in Tai Chi I went back to Karate and I could see that it had improved my reaction time far more than Karate ever had, I was more relaxed therefore faster in blocking and striking. But my Karate Instructor pointed out that my arms and legs were not correctly locked. I realised I was becoming more influenced by the way of Tai Chi than my Karate training, so I knew it was time to choose between the Martial Arts, and I knew after a few months of training in Tai Chi that it was the one for me. So from that day on I stopped Karate and concentrated on Tai Chi, and now I have gained a knowledge of Cheng Man-Ching 37 posture form. My training program consists of San-shou, Da-lu, Broad sword, Staff and Spear forms, and along the way I have trained with many people such as Master Lau Kim Hong, Master Lee and Master Tan Chin Ngee.
In 1996 I took my Black Belt Grading under Master Nigel Sutton, his wife Feng and John Fowler, in which I past and then became an Instructor and from that day I have instructed under the Guidance of my Senior Instructor Colin Stevens.
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Nik Jago
I have been involved in martial arts on and off since I was a teenager and now I am in my late forties. The first art I learnt was Shoto Kai karate. I trained in Plymouth with Viv Nash who was a good martial artist. I eventually drifted away due to my lack of perseverance and was not a reflection on the standard of teaching. Some time later I took up Iaido (Japanese sword) and also did some Kendo. The Kendo I liked because any mistakes in technique were made painfully obvious to you right away. I have also dabbled with a little bit of Wing Chun and Aikido. I then heard about Tai chi (More correctly Taiji) a martial art that was relaxing and used a strange method of developing power that did not rely on upper body strength.
The first person I trained with could not, or would not, answer my questions on Taiji. At this point I almost stopped practising, as it appeared to be some kind of new age Chinese line dance. I was looking for an internal martial art, I knew there were people who could teach the full art. I was lucky to make contact with Colin Stevens; I quickly learnt that the little I had picked up was poor to say the least. So I went back to the beginning and learnt the form again, at last I could learn the real thing.
Colin has always encouraged his students to train with other internal martial artists to broaden their horizons. I have trained with people such as Peter Ralston and Mike Sigman and so far I have found nothing that has contradicted Colin's teaching. In June 2002 I will have been training with Colin for five years. I have enjoyed it so much that I have travelled nearly 50 miles each way at least twice a week since then. I must warn you Taiji is addictive. I was lucky to go to Malaysia three years ago to train with the Chinese Masters, thank you to Nigel Sutton for organising it and also for authoring some great books.
I have always been interested in the functionality of any art I have studied and always questioned anything I did not understand or I felt was not right. Ask Colin I still want answers to difficult questions, but now I get good replies. It does not matter if your interest is relaxation; health or martial art please try it. Taught properly it is not easy, but it is rewarding, and it will reduce your stress levels.
Colin Stevens, Nik Jago, Rita Mikalauskas, Ian Dick, Les Edwards
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