| I came to tai chi in middle age, have been learning and practicing Wu Style tai chi chuan since joining Wu’s Academy, Bethnal Green in 2001 and I train nearly every day. Familiar with many types of western exercise, when I started training tai chi I could not understand how the complex but ─ as a beginner ─ not very strenuous movements began profoundly to stretch and strengthen my body, even though I regularly swam and walked for exercise. As I learned more about the art I began to marvel at the depth and breadth of the philosophy of tai chi chuan and the coherence of the system evolved by the Wu family as transmitted by my teacher, Sifu Gary Wragg. This sense of internal consistency in Wu style practice has only increased the deeper I go into the art. I joined the Academy’s instructor training programme in 2003, am now certified as an Advanced Instructor since 2009 by the Tai Chi Union for Great Britain, and teach regularly at Wu’s Academy, Bethnal Green and elsewhere in London. I became a Closed Door student of Sifu Gary Wragg in 2009, and certified as Advanced Instructor and Disciple of the Wu family in 2012. Over the years I have occasionally entered competitions and won medals in hand and weapons forms. Later I joined the Judges Training Programme and am an experienced judge of forms and pushing hands at tai chi competitions in the UK and Europe. I am also a qualified Personal Trainer, and teach privately in London where I encourage people who are older or have ongoing health problems to reach beyond their expectations to improve their health and wellbeing through lifestyle change. I find that my tai chi underpins and informs this work too. I originally trained as a research scientist gaining a PhD in Biomedical Sciences (Physiology), and worked in academic research for most of my career. |
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