How have you started CMA

[Martin2]

Hello everybody,

just thought about how I have started Tai Chi Chuan (see below). Would like to know, if you have also interesting stories?

Greetings

Martin2

Since my childhood I was interested in Asia. I read a lot and trained for a short time Judo. 1985 I started Aikido and Teakwondo at the University of Duesseldorf/Germany. I enjoyed these martial arts very much. In 1986 an Aikido-friend asked me:: "Hey, I have heard there is a real Tai Chi-master new in town. Shall we have a look?" I said: "Tai Chi Chuan, what is this?" He said: "I do not know either, but it is said, the teacher is very good." So we went to have a look and met Ma Jiangbao and we booked a course. I was the youngest one (19 years) and had no idea what this was all about. But afterwards I trained Taekwondo and thought, Tai Chi Chuan is not a bad warm up for it. But even after a short time Tai Chi Chuan and Ma Jiangbao started to attrack me magically and so I train it still with him today.

[ParryPerson]

I was raised in a religion that frowned on MA's, but my father and my uncle were both very interested in it, and I couldn't help but be interested in it as well. When I was younger, my father always rented Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee movies when my mother was away, I thought using a power like that for good was something that would be the greatest thing ever.

Sadly, I was never allowed to take any kind of classes, but I researched and and researched. This may sound funny but, I was drawn to a game called "Street Fighter 2" when I was younger because I may not have been able to take MA's but, I could act like one in a video game. It quickly became my favorite.

I grew up, life got a bit odd and then settled down to where I could finally take classes. I looked for a good school more than an art near me, and became interested in bagua.

[klonk]

I wondered who had my flagpole.

[Shanghaijay]

I used to smoke ganja and race Mongolian ponies with a dude named Zhang San Feng. He would blow incredibly precise representations in smoke of the Yijing hexagrams . . . they never lasted very long (things change, y'know). He would get really stoned, stand up by the campfire, then begin to sway and rock slowly, like a piece of seaweed moving underwater. I would throw the kettle at him, boots, saddlebags packed with Ulan Baator's finest . . . he just swayed and they slipped by him. Finally I poked him with a 13-foot-long flagpole we'd ripped off from one of the Manchu Banner battalions after a night of partying with Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Zhiyi. Made contact with his center, set and thrust, and got hurled a good forty feet back and fifteen feet up into the grove of pine trees (lucky for me). "H-h-h-how did you do that?" I asked, wiping the pine pitch from my hands after climbing down. Zhang leaned down (he was a big hairy dude, easily 7 feet tall), his eyes widening, the whites looking like New Jersey highway maps. "Taiji," he whispered, breath reeking of chou doufu and cannabis resin . . . then he disappeared in a clap of thunder.

That was a couple of centuries ago and ever since then I've been searching for and on occasion finding glimpses of that ol' dance between yin and yang embodied in the intent and shenfa of practitioners of CMAs, most recently with an 88-year-old man in Beijing with the surname of Zhang, who does some very skillful things and may just be some distant cousin several times removed of San Feng. You never know.

Tom you can safely quit your day job and start writing kungfu novels. I think you would have no problem supporting yourself.

Jay

[Strange]

LMAO

actually, when i was in secondary school my principal wanted everyone to have an extra curricular activity... or have coffee with him in his office. i wasnt in the least interested or looking for any martial skills; but my class mate said hey why not join us sunday morning... compared to having coffee with the principal?... u know the ans and the rest is history

[GrahamB]

I started for the sake of my energy twin.

[qiphlow]

i started because graham's energy twin was in the local taiji class...
...and she was smokin' hot.

[GrahamB]

Stop looking at my energy twin like that, you perv!

[qiphlow]

i can't help it. she's got a phenomenal ass.

[chrislomas]

I started because I like watching Qiphlow watching Grahams energy twin do Taichi.

[Chanchu]

Was out of shape wanted to get back into condition- can't run unless dog chasing me, won't lift weight unless someone pays me.
CMA is fun for me, has a use and has many, many great benifits, don't need if any equipment or special clothing, once you learn it don't need much money- if any, to take advantage of what you have learned- you can practice it the rest of your life and enjoy it. If any equipment or special clothing is needed- that's up to you.

The Chinese Zombies and the Hu Li Jen that live in the attic of the Rice Bowl Restarant just down the street- had nothing to do with it...

[Bao]

Back in 1987 in Sweden, almost nobody knew about taijiquan. The few who practiced it then were mainly interested in it as a martial art. At that time I had a cousin who was practicing ninjutsu(Bujinkan)! So, that meant for me that I wanted to be just as cool as him. But sadly, my hometown didn't have any ninjas, only karate, Judo and that kind of stuff that I wasn't interested in at all. But in some strange way, I found a guy practicing taijiquan! I had never heard about the art, so I was extremely impressed by what he demonstrated (on me). In a couple of years, tai chee got publically well known - but everybody thought it was just health exercises for old people. Damn, I lost coolness factor - from believing I was almost as cool as a Ninja, I found myself having the same coolness factor as a senior with arthritis! Caring about my persona, I eventually tried some Muai Thai and Shaolin (home-made McDojo) stuff. But I stuck with my Tai Chee. My teacher had told me that this was he only style known to be able to beat all other style, so I knew it was really the Great Ultimate fighting art! Despite the legends and the high Chee(qi)-factor, Taijiquan helped me a lot in many strange ways and in some odd situations, so it become a certain love-relationship that was very hard to break. I can't give it up, just can't - It's like a sort of marriage with certain obligations to it. But for some years ago, I took a mistress in her sister Xingyi, but strangely (and happily) enough, Taiji doesn't object to it.