Swimming Dragon School

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What is Taijiquan? Some people have seen on TV, films of China or the far east in which groups of people are doing strange slow meditative movements in parks in the early hours. Westerners have been intrigued and have desired to learn more. It has been explained to them that the movements are performed to tune in to the energies of nature or the cosmos, for reasons of health. Many westerners are now beginning to practice the movements. What many do not realise however is that Taijiquan may be translated as Cosmos Boxing and to tune in fully and gain the full health benefits the movements must be learned in their proper context of a superlative martial art. This does not mean that practice must involve any aggressive or strenuous exercise but on the contrary movements are usually slow and there are normally no matches or competitions.

Would it suit you? Only you can decide.

There are many styles of Taijiquan, the five main styles Chen, Yang, Wu, Woo, and Sun, and within each style instructors differ in what they teach and how they teach it. Yang Style is the first to be taught to the wider public and is thus it has now become the most wide-spread, but every teacher seems to have a different version.

Of the main styles, Chen is the original Taijiquan and Sun is the youngest. Both do not yet “suffer” from the great diversity of the Yang Style. There are also other styles such as a style called the Lee Family Style, which is unknown now in China but very popular in the UK due to the teaching efforts here of the late Chee Soo. Although the Chen Style can claim to be the original style of Taijiquan it was itself based on similar arts much older. There is no single, purest or best style of Tai Chi (Taijiquan), total numbers of styles may be numbered in the hundreds. Beware of instructors sales talk, you must decide which is best for you as an individual.

To read more try the following links.

LINKS: About Sun Style Tai Chi

Tai Chi for Health,

Traditional Sun Family Taijiquan Association UK

International Sun Family Taijiquan Association

Traditional Sun Family 97 Tai Chi form set

Non Traditional Competition Tai Chi 73 Form Set

Tai Chi for Arthritis, Based on the Competition 73 forms

Variable Easy Tai Chi for Health, based on Traditional Sun Family Tai Chi forms

Tai Chi Finder

Sleeping Lion Sun Family Taijiquan Derby

The Swimming Dragon School practices what suits us and that is Traditional Sun Family Style Taijiquan and the other Traditional  Sun Family internal arts (Sunjiaquan) as developed by probably the greatest of Chinese martial artist of all time, Sun Lutang. The principal instructor of the School is a pupil of Mr. Dave Martin of Leister who was an indoor student of Sun Lutang's daughter and was asked by her to represent the Sun Family arts and teach Taijiquan in the UK by starting a Traditional Sun Style Association here.. 

We have also attended courses with Dr Lam in England studying the much publicised and internationally famous modern Tai Chi for Arthritis programme as devised by Dr Paul Lam of Australia, which is based on movements copied from the modern International Competition version of Sun Style. 

Dr Lam's work has inspired us to offer our own simplified, easy to learn and teach programme, for arthritis and also general health. Our new Welsh programme has been based on the more gentle movements of Traditional Sun Family Style.  We do not train instructors of Dr Lam's programme, but if any one in Wales wants to be trained as an instructor in our own new short programme in order to start their own local class, then they are most welcome to come for our , low cost, fast track training in Variable Easy (Sun Style) Tai Chi for Health.

What we offer may well suit you. Our fees are low compared to many other Taijiquan groups and are a reflection of our non-profit making policy and in no way indicate the true value of the subject matter you will study. 

If you are new to martial arts there are many good instructors around but how will you know? Certainly not by who charges the most. You will be advised to beware of instructors who do not have first aid qualifications or professional indemnity insurance and are critical of other instructors or other martial arts but praise themselves to try to convince you to pay them high fees and maximize their profits. The general public do not know much about Tai Chi so can easily be mislead.

If you are curious then come and watch us, but please only join us if you decide to make the art part of your life as we have. To derive benefit you must have the will power to stick at it as a lifetime pursuit otherwise you will be not only wasting your own time but ours as well.

If what you value in life is prizes or winning competitions then please take up some other pursuit.