Andy Bulka Tai Chi
Teacher and student of Cheng Man Ching style Tai Chi, in Melbourne,
Australia.
About Andy
Andy has been practicing tai chi since 1990, and teaching since 2003.
Contact Andy Bulka.
He holds regular classes three days a week, and
has looked after classes for other cmc tai chi teachers whilst they are away on
holidays etc. Andy has taught tai chi both
privately and at Confest to classes of 40 participants at a time.
Andy Bulka's teachers were Andrew Barry, with occasional instruction from
Bill Law (student of Master Hsu in Taiwan, who in turn was a student of
Professor Cheng Man Ching).
Andy has participated in various Tai Chi conventions, tournaments and in 2000
went on a sort of tai
chi pilgrimage in Taiwan at the 100th anniversary of Professor Chen Man
Ching's tai chi tournament.
Classes:
Mangala Studios of Yoga & Creative Dance. 73 Grattan St, Carlton, Melbourne, Australia.
Wednesday Nights 6.30 pm
Private classes: contact Andy on 0412-759186 contact
abulka@netspace.net.au
Links
Read my early personal student notes here.
Note - my thinking has grown a lot since these notes were made.
My tai chi musings blog.
My funny Extreme Tai Chi
website.
Join us on World Tai Chi day in
Melbourne, Australia, every year.
Andy Bulka's
software patterns website.
Andy's Cheng Man Ching Website Reviews
- History of Tai Chi Chuan
- Fascinating attempt at a History of T'ai Chi Ch'uan by H. Kurland.
He talks about Yang Cheng Fu, and Yang style factionalism. He
talks about how the Cheng Man Ching form fits into the big picture. I'm
glad he says this: "Several of these
new [Mainland China] forms are designed as competition forms and lack
the essence of the more traditional forms."
http://www.statisticool.com/zmq.htm
Focus on Professor
Cheng Man Ching - "Zheng Manqing is one of the most influential taijiquan
practitioners in history." Lots of photos of him, including a very old photo
where his face is identified in the large group photo and zoomed into and
overlayed over his well known features - proving that its actually him!
- Amazon.com: There Are No Secrets: Professor Cheng Man-Ch'Ing and His Tai Chi Chuan: Books: Wolfe Lowenthal
- Amazon.com entry for these famous and well regarded books. A
controversial comment by a reviewer fascinated me - he says: "it's common
knowledge that Cheng taught select students a set of nei gong exercises that he
found invaluable for taiji and even calligraphy. William C.C. Chen mentions
receiving this training from Cheng in his book about taiji's body mechanics, and
there was a group of Malaysian students (some of whom still teach) who got this
training. Cheng didn't teach any of his American students this all-important nei
gong (internal work) that is an essential part of taiji."
-
- Is this true? What are these nei gong exercises? As CMC
students, shouldn't we endeavour to discover what these exercise are?
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- The Tree of T'ai chi
- An attempt to put together a lineage of CMC tai chi. Of course
it is missing lots of mid and lower level teachers, but at least its a
start. Pity it doesn't mention Martin Inn, one of the most
important CMC teachers in my opinion (though I haven't personally met
him). This site lets you add comments and corrections - maybe
someone
should let him know?
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Tai Chi & Philosophy References
- A collection of links to Cheng Man-ch'ing Tai Chi books, Taoist
Philosophy, DVD and Audio CDs. It includes the method of obtaining
Ben Lo's DVD.
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-
Alexander Technique and Tai Chi
by Stacy Gehman
- The Alexander Technique and Tai Chi. I've always
been intrigued by the connection between the Alexander Technique and Tai
Chi. Here finally is an article about it. An intriguing passage
talks about how to open up the hips: "When practicing a particular movement
in the form that requires the hips to open, when reaching what is a comfortable
degree of turning, test turning a little farther, and direct your attention to
what tightens. Then ask yourself, "What has to let go in the muscles of my legs
and buttocks to allow my pelvis to turn relative to my leg?" Or, "Where am I
holding on that is making it difficult for me to turn?"
- Interestingly, the author says (in a good natured way) that: "The
Alexander work may even be more Taoist than Tai Chi. It has no form, no
exercises to do, not even a set, prescribed process.".
This links up with something I read one (I forget where) that said that
tai chi was not the ultimate in the Tao, or "the way" because it has
structure, whereas the true expression of Tao is beyond that. Good
thoughts, however I'd personally say that tai chi is the best path to help
us get there!
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- Tai Chi Chuan Articles
- An interesting article entitled: A Guide for the Serious Student
by Terry Li. He talks about the “light touch” that is the hallmark of Tai Chi Chuan,
and says that "if a
form looks tense, disjointed, weak or collapsed, or maybe with added
frills and curly hand motions; this person's attainment should be held
suspect. Another principle the Classics tell us is that we should never
use force. If you find a teacher who uses blocks, muscular force, tense
and stiff angular movements in martial demonstrations; then you can be
sure that this person does not understand the precepts of Tai Chi Chuan."
- He also
expresses an opinion on tournaments - not a favourable one!
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Tai Chi Berkeley:
Lenzie Williams
- Tai Chi Berkeley is the school of instructor
Lenzie Williams, a senior student of Laoshi Lo Pang Jeng (Mr. Ben Lo)
since 1975. A proper teacher of the Cheng Man Ching style. I
pushed hands in the corridor of a hotel with Lenzie in 2000 when I
visited Taiwan for the 100th
anniversary of the Professor's birthday.
He was very good and skilled.
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Taijiquan Journal (T'ai Chi Ch'uan Journal)
- Online Journal for tai chi - some free articles, though you have to
pay for the rest.
CMC related Books
Cheng, Man-Ching and Smith, Robert. T'ai-Chi. Rutland,
Vermont: Tuttle;1967.
Liang, T.T. T'ai-Chi Ch'uan for Health and Self-Defense.
Boston: Redwing;1974.
Lowenthal, Wolfe. Gateway to the Miraculous. Berkeley:
North Atlantic Books;1988.
Lowenthal, Wolfe. There Are No Secrets: Professor Cheng Man
Ch'ing and His T'ai-Chi Ch'uan. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books;1991.
Wile, Douglas. Master Cheng's Thirteen Chapters on T'ai-Chi
Ch'uan. Brooklyn: Sweet Chi Press;1982.
Cheng, Man-ch’ing and Robert W. Smith.
T’ai-Chi: The "Supreme Ultimate" Exercise for Health, Sport and Self Defense.
Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc., 1967. Hardbound. ISBN:
0-8048-0560-1
Cheng, Man-ch’ing and Robert W. Smith.
T’ai-Chi: The "Supreme Ultimate" Exercise for Health, Sport and Self Defense.
Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 2004. Paperback. ISBN: 0-8048-3593-4
The Essence of T’ai Chi Ch’uan: The
Literary Tradition. trans. & ed. Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo, Martin Inn,
Robert Amacker and Susan Foe. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books,
1985. Hardbound ISBN: 0-913028-67-3 & Richmond, California: North Atlantic
Books, 1979. Paperback ISBN: 0-913028-63-0.
Cheng, Man-ch’ing. Cheng Tzu’s Thirteen
Treatises on T’ai Chi Ch’uan. trans. Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo and Martin
Inn. Hardbound ISBN: 0-913028-67-3. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic
Books, 1985. & Paperback ISBN: 0-913028-63-0. Richmond, California: North
Atlantic Books, 1979.
Chen, Wei-Ming. T’ai Chi Ch’uan Ta Wen:
Questions and Answers on T’ai Chi Ch’uan. trans. Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo &
Robert W. Smith. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 1985.
Paperback. ISBN: 0-938190-67-9
More links at Tai Chi Health with Tricia Yu | Tai Chi Links