My personal training clients will know well that I am an ardent fan of kettlebell training and the striking improvements to overall strength and fitness that you can attain with regular practice. Always a lover of the unconventional and slightly strange (hope my partner doesn’t read this!), when I first encountered the kettlebell almost two … Continue reading Three Reasons I Love Training with Kettlebells
Category: martial arts
Those who are new to tai chi may well not realise that there are several different styles, some of which can look and feel very different. At the end of the day, if the style is taught well, the benefits are pretty much the same but you may want to spend some time investigating … Continue reading History and Benefits of Chen Tai Chi
Keep up to date with WCA... View this email in your browser Hi everyone, It's the summer holidays already and whilst classes are quiet this month, there's plenty going on behind the scenes to get you excited for September onwards - including a new weekly kung fu class for children. Read on for news of … Continue reading August Newsletter
套路 - tàolù Taolu is the pinyin romanisation of 套路. In this context 'tào' is a classifying word for anything regarding sets or collections of things, 'lù' is a journey, road, path. In English we speak of martial arts forms, sets, routines. The Japanese term 'kata' is often used also. Plato was of course the … Continue reading Tào Lù and the Platonic World of Forms
Welcome to another edition of the weekly White Crane Online blog. Over the past few weeks we have been exploring topics in and around the theme of Taoism. Last week I introduced the core concept of Qi (if you missed it, you might want to read it here first) and I explained a little bit … Continue reading Martial Qigong
As you pick up a leaflet, or see a poster or find us on Google, this may well be a (very valid) question that pops into your head! Martial arts are suitable for everyone I think one misconception is often that martial arts are only for a select few people who fit into a certain … Continue reading So, why should I make martial arts part of my new year’s resolution?
The Chinese Martial Arts have a long, colourful history that is almost as fascinating to learn about as performing the arts themselves but the history/legend of the origins of the martial arts in China all lead back to one common source, the Indian monk Damo (also known by his Indian name Bodhidarma), who travelled from … Continue reading A brief history of Damo and the origins of the Chinese Martial Arts