Clonmel instructor practising Tai Chi at famed California retreat
For several years now Tai Chi Clonmel has been practicing and training Tai Chi and Qi Gong in Clonmel, and introducing and teaching new students to this form of meditation and relaxation.
Each summer for the past few years some members have gone abroad for a summer training camp. This year local solicitor Fred Binchy took time out to visit Dr Yang at his Retreat Centre in California.
Fred described for The Nationalist a little of that experience, and also went on to share the details of the activities and plans for the forthcoming autumn/winter training programme and events planned by Tai Chi Clonmel.
Dr Yang is one of the most pre-eminent teachers of Tai Chi today, and one of its most widely published authors, having published over 37 texts to disseminate his knowledge and understanding of the discipline, Fred explained. His latest venture is the development of a Retreat Centre in California, near a beautiful village called Miranda in Humboldt County. This is deep in 'Coastal Redwood' country, and some of the most stunning landscape in the world. There he teaches in a full-time school training programme, the future teachers of Tai Chi, but he also invites resident students in the summer, to take time out, study, and improve their practice.
The day typically begins at 5.30am, with meditation at 6am, a class in relation to your meditation practice, and then seven hours of instruction in Form and in martial applications.
One of the features of the camp is an outside Training Hall in the Mountains. "If you like your training, there could be no better experience, with absolute peace and quiet in its mountain setting where you can head down to nearby Eel river, and the famous Avenue of the Giants. This river famously burst its banks in the 1960s and in its narrower reaches rose 15 metres above its normal levels. How's that for a flood!" Fred described the beautiful area.
"You get a day off to walk in these woods, and experience the extraordinary tranquillity of walking in woods where the trees first established themselves between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago. At their tallest they rise up to 300 feet high and so they survived that extraordinary flood. They are also impervious to fire, and you can often see fire scorch marks stretching 30 to 40 feet up their trunks, but the trees survive.
"Survive everything but mankind that is, as there are only just 50,000 acres left of this extraordinary forest land. An estimated million acres has been clear felled in the past 100 years or so. So the Americans do know what they are talking about when they argue for the preservation of the Amazon basin! In a little period of time, that too may be swept away, with the world suffering irreparable damage, through loss of approximately 7% of the world's oxygen supply."
Although the Clonmel club can't bring the tranquillity of the mountain training hall to you they can bring you some of the training experience in their forthcoming autumn/winter sessions. Classes are normally on Monday evenings at 7.45pm and Saturday mornings (at a time to be decided), but they invite you to check their website, where they will give you details of the scheduled times. Subject to that they can confirm that classes will re-commence from Monday, August 30, and Saturday, September 4. `
Several of the Clonmel students have been training regularly for years now, but every year, and every term some new students join them for the experience, to try out Tai Chi and Qi Gong practice for themselves.
The club's ambition is to establish a base of 30 students in full-time and regular practice. With this base they can hope to expand their own training and knowledge, and presence in the community.
The following is a brief schedule of forthcoming activities from approximately the first week in September:
* Introductory workshop (this has been run successfully for several years now). Date to be decided.
* First week in September: first term of 10 weeks classes commences;
* September 30: Dr Yang visits Ireland (Dublin) for the first time since 2006. This presents an excellent opportunity to experience first hand the weekend training camp;
* Early autumn: introduction to Tai Chi ‘ball’ training;
* Provisional fixture: the club is planning to hold an introductory session to meditation, to allow people an early experience of this relaxing discipline;
* Push hands and martial applications: this side of the training is mainly focused on those students who have been training together for a few years, but everyone is welcome, to learn together;
* School director, Damian Fox is expected to visit for a half day or a day’s training sometime prior to Christmas.
A detailed report on Fred’s time in California can be read at the Club website www.ymaaclonmel.com, together with details of Brian McDonald's trip to the annual Portuguese summer camp.
All enquiries can be addressed to the website, or by text only please to (086)2550845 or (087)7416336.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Weather for Clonmel
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 4 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 6 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South
