Tao Tai chi chuan 

David  lipka . 

 

David Lipka is the principal teacher at Mindful Tai Chi and is an advanced instructor with the Tai Chi Union for Great Britain. His in depth Tai Chi training has been specifically within the Wu style Tai Chi Chuan of Wu Chien Chuan as developed by Ma Yeuh Liang and Wu Ying Hua (Shanghai)

He is a Tudi (indoor student) of Dr Jin Ye, the grand daughter of Ma Yeuh Liang and Wu Ying Hua. (Family Tree). He has also studied under the supervision of Ma Jiang Bao with David Barrow.

 

He is also trained in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Shiatsu and is a Member of the Shiatsu Society (M.R.S.S.)

David has a degree in Education from Sheffield University and has over 20 years experience of teaching and managing in Secondary, Further and Higher education working in the areas of Communications and Staff Development.

He is a full time Tai Chi teacher and Shiatsu Practitioner

 

 

Grand Master Ma Jiang Bao 

 

In 1986 Grandmaster  Ma Jiang Bao came with is father Ma Yueh-liang to Europe to teach Wu-style. Ma Yueh-liang returned home after four months, while Ma Jiangbao stayed and now lives in Rotterdam. He and his students teach in many countries in Europe as well as in South Africa and Japan.

 

Wu-style was created by a Manchurian named Wu Ch'uan-yu (1834–1902). Wu was a student of Yang Lu-ch'an, (founder of the Yang style), and Yang Pan-hou. Wu Ch'uan-yu’s son, Wu Chien-ch'uan (1870-1942), loved martial arts from his youth and studied under the tutorship of his father. After 1912 he continuously developed the teaching t'ai chi ch'uan at the Beijing Sport Research Society, gradually refining his father’s style. His two sons, Wu Kung-i and Wu Kung-tsao, were his first students.

 

Wu Chien-ch'uan’s eldest daughter, Ma Jiangbao's mother Wu Yinghua (1907–1996), started studying t'ai chi ch'uan with her father at a very young age. In 1935 Wu Yinghua was also appointed deputy director of the Chien-ch'uan Association in Shanghai. She married her father’s student, Ma Yueh-liang (1901–1998), and throughout her life she taught with her husband all over China. In martial arts circles she was regarded as one of the most renowned teachers. Ma Hailong, the eldest son of Wu Ying-hua and Ma Yueh-liang, also studied t'ai chi ch'uan from a young age and is now the president of the Chien-ch'uan Association Shanghai ... 

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Great Grand Master Ma Yue liang（马岳樑）

Ma Yueliang was also a medical doctor who graduated from the Beijing Medical College in 1929 and specialized in Hematology. He established the First Medical Examination and Experiment Office and ran the blood clinics at Zhong Shan Hospital in Shanghai. Like Wu Ch'uan-yu and Wu Chien-ch'uan, Ma was of Manchu descent. Ma was educated both in the traditions of China and in Western science.

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There are accounts that Ma was a gifted martial artist in his youth. He had studied a number of martial arts including, Shaolinquan, Three Emperors Pao Chui, Baguazhang and Tongbeiquan. However, Wu Jianquan would accept Ma as a student only if he concentrated on Wu-style taijiquan. From about age 18, Ma exclusively studied Wu-style taijiquan. Wu Jianquan started the Jianquan Taijiquan Association (鑑泉太極拳社) in Shanghai in 1936, and Ma became the deputy director of the Association. Ma studied Taijiquanwith Wu Chien-ch'uan until the death of his teacher in 1942. The Jianquan Association still exists today internationally and remains a resource for the study of Wu-style taijiquan.

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It is difficult to overstate the importance of Ma Yueliang and his wife in the emergence of Wu-style taijiquan after the Cultural Revolutionin China. Even at an advanced age, Ma was chosen as one of the 100 Best Martial Artists in China. Wu Ying-hua and Ma continued to teach in Taijiquan until their deaths. They taught a large number of students in Shanghai and in their travels to New Zealand, Germanyand elsewhere. They published several books on Wu-style taijiquan. Ma and Wu Ying-hua's Wu style sword/weapons book includes a family picture with several of their closest students. Ma Yueliang also publicly practiced a number of formerly closed door (private or family secret) forms and methods so that they would not be lost. In public, Wu Ying-hua would often demonstrate the Wu style Slow Set and Ma would follow by demonstrating the Wu Style Tai Chi Fast Form. Ma taught many high level students, among whom was Fei Gua-ching who is still active in the Jianquan Taijiquan Association in Shanghai. Li Li-Qun is one of Grandmaster Ma's oldest and closest living students. He was the deputy vice-secretary of the Jianquan Association (Chien Chuan Association) in Shanghai under masters Ma and his wife Wu Ying Hua.

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Ma Yueliang and Wu Ying-hua are survived by their children and grandchildren, including: Ma Jiangchun (b. 1931), Dr. Ma Hailong (b. 1935), Ma Jiang Bao (b. 1941, d. 2016) and Ma Jiangling (b. 1947). Ma Jiang Bao lived in the Netherlands and taught traditional Taijiquan throughout Europe. Their adopted daughter Shi Mei Lin now lives and teaches Wu-style taijiquan in New Zealand. She also has students in France and in the United States (Tucson, Arizona).

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Great Grand Master Wu Yinghua (吴英华)

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Wu Ying-hua began studying t'ai chi ch'uan at age nine, and by age seventeen, she was a full-time teacher in her father's school. In 1921, she was invited to teach t'ai chi ch'uan in Shanghai. In 1928, her father followed her to Shanghai and she became his teaching assistant. In 1930, she married Ma Yueh-liang who was Wu Chien-ch'uan's senior disciple. In 1935, Wu Chien-ch'uan founded the Chien-ch'uan Tai Chi Chuan Association (鑑泉太極拳社) in Shanghai. Wu Chien-ch'uan died in 1942.

After the Cultural Revolution, at about 1980, it became possible to teach t'ai chi ch'uan publicly in China. About this time her brother Wu Kung-tsao was released from prison and moved to Hong Kong. Wu Ying-hua and Ma Yueh-liang, remaining in mainland China, created a simplified Wu t'ai chi ch'uan form and were again able to have public meetings of the Chien-ch'uan Tai Chi Chuan Association. They taught a large number of students in Shanghai and in their travels to New Zealand, Germany and elsewhere. Together with Ma Yueh-liang, Wu Ying-hua published several books on Wu-style t'ai chi ch'uan. The books “Wu style Tai Chi Chuan: Forms, Concepts and Applications of the Original Style,” “Wu Simplified Tai Chi Chuan,” and “Wu style Tai Chi K'uai (Fast) Chuan or Wu Style Tai Chi Fast Form” have been collected in a single volume in China. They also co-authored a Wu style sword book. Wu Ying-hua was the senior instructor of the Wu family from 1983 until she died in 1996.

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Great Grand Master Wu Chien Ch'uan 吴鉴泉

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Wu Chien-ch'uan was taught martial arts by his father, Wu Ch'uan-yu, a senior student of Yang Luchan and Yang Pan-hou. Both Wu Chien-ch'uan and his father were hereditary Manchu cavalry officers of the Yellow Banner as well as the Imperial Guards Brigade, yet the Wu family were to become patriotic supporters of Sun Yat-sen.

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At the time of the establishment of the Chinese Republic in 1912, China was in turmoil, besieged for many years economically and even militarily by several foreign powers, so Wu Chien-ch'uan and his colleagues Yang Shao-hou, Yang Chengfu and Sun Lu-t'ang promoted the benefits of t'ai chi ch'uan training on a national scale. They subsequently offered classes at the Beijing Physical Culture Research Institute to as many people as possible, starting in 1914. It was the first school to provide instruction in the art to the general public. Wu Chien-ch'uan was also asked to teach the Eleventh Corps of the new Presidential Bodyguard as well as at the nationally famous Ching Wu martial arts school.

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As the focus of t'ai chi ch'uan teaching in his time changed from a strictly military art to a discipline made available to the general public, Wu Chien-ch'uan modified the teaching forms he learned from his father somewhat. Wu Chien-ch'uan's changes to the initial forms shown to his students included smoothing overt expressions of fa chin, jumps and other abrupt time changes in the training routines in order to make those forms easier for the general public to learn.These modified were preserved and taught in various advanced forms and pushing hands, however.

Wu Chien-ch'uan moved his family to Shanghai in 1928. In 1935, he established the Chien-ch'uan T'ai Chi Ch'uan Association (鑑泉太極拳社) on the ninth floor of the Shanghai YMCA to promote and teach t'ai chi ch'uan.What he taught has since become known as Wu-style t'ai chi ch'uan and is one of the five primary styles practised around the world, the others being Chen-style t'ai chi ch'uan, Yang-style t'ai chi ch'uan, Wu (Hao)-style t'ai chi ch'uan and Sun-style t'ai chi ch'uan.

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The Chien-ch'uan T'ai Chi Ch'uan Association schools have subsequently been maintained by Wu Chien-ch'uan's descendants. He was succeeded as head of the Wu family system by his oldest son, Wu Kung-i, in 1942. His second son, Wu Kung-tsao, also became a renowned T'ai Chi master. Wu Kung-i moved the family headquarters to Hong Kong in 1949.Today the Association still has its international headquarters in Hong Kong and is currently managed by Wu Chien-ch'uan's great-grandson, Wu Kuang-yu, with branches in Shanghai, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and France 

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Several of Wu's disciples also became well known t'ai chi teachers. Prominent in that number were the senior disciple, Ma Yueh-liang, Wu T'u-nan and Cheng Wing-kwong. His daughter Wu Yinghua and her husband Ma Yueh-liang continued running the Shanghai Chien-ch'uan T'ai Chi Ch'uan Association until their deaths in the mid 1990s.

 

The Personal  benefits of Practice Tai chi chuan . 

 

The benefits of attending a Tai Chi class are many. For me personally I have been able to withstand the long winters without being subdued to cold and flu, my lung function has increased by 200ml, my weight has increased by half a stone and my overall health is fantastic to say I have CYSTIC FYBROSIS. With practice you develop a strong healthy body, muscular refinement, smooth easy movements, constant shifting of body centre of gravity enables one to develop a keen sense of balance also helping functions of the brain, your body becomes more agile, you have more stamina to do things and overall a real awareness of your body movements and wellbeing.

 

I personally love doing Tai Chi and feel that the time and energy is well spent. It's given me so much back in return for the effort I put in. I use Tai Chi daily to help with coping with CYSTIC FYBROSIS regulating my lung function through the practice of QI GONG exercise’s or FORM PRACTICE. Practicing Tai Chi helps regular systematic strain relief and is ideal to sufferers of many illnesses normal and chronic including asthma, bronchitis, osteoporosis of the joints, cardiovascular heart problems , nervous disorders, and so on, practice of Tai Chi helps one to understand one's self better in order to help others.

 

The groups I attend are very friendly, warm, energetic ,relaxing, funny, insightful, knowledgeable, it has a long lasting and deep profound meaning to me close to my heart and the people around me. It leaves me with a great sense of wellbeing and achievement after a Tai Chi class. The people are really nice to get along with all sharing their common interest in health and wellbeing for the individual and for their fellow students.

 

All in all Tai Chi has saved my life. It has given me a sense of wellbeing beyond what my words could ever describe it has given me the confidence to accept my illness and to happily go about my daily living as before i was bound by the thought that there was only pain and suffering now I can happily live my life peacefully knowing Tai Chi can help. I am currently researching to try and find ways to promote TAI CHI for the general public and to raise awareness for CYSTIC FYBROSIS sufferers to have a better quality of life through the practice of Tai Chi.