Great River Taoist Center Forums

A crossguard! That's really interesting.

Do you have the red books? If you've had some instruction (which is more than we've had over here), the red books will remind you and give you the details. There was a DVD a long time ago and we had some in Australia but they have worn out and copies only play on old technology. Anything with bluray...

David, a book I recently bought on the Major Methods of Wudang Sword, describes what we know as the Public Yang style. I'm using it to brush up on the basic cuts of the Public style. There is a video clip entitled Michuan Kunlun Taiji Jian on the main GRTC school website. It shows what we usually de...

Training at 4am is what I call pretty keen

Australia has a new GRTC branch in Canberra. I'd like to introduce the leader of this group for your information. He is 21 year old David McCleary. David has been training with me in Taijiquan and Chinese swordsmanship for over a year. He was one of the students attending Scott M Rodell Laoshi's lat...

Anne has done a review of the tournament http://www.chinese-swords-guide.com/mar ... ments.html and the TCSL website has been updated with more tournament news http://www.swordleague.com/2010results.html

So, for those who were in it, what was it like? What are your thoughts? Where are your pictures? Share with us

A great looking line up :D . Unfortunately, for Aussies, there is a small matter of needing about $4000 just to arrive and survive. It won't be too long before we have enough ready for a Pacific Region Tournament, though. Aussies, New Zealanders, Indonesians, Possibly even Chinese and Japanese stude...

I hear there are 13 contestants this year. Good luck to all of you, especially the girls (sorry about that guys ). Wish I was there with you but it can't always be done. Have a great time. Learn lots. Can't wait to hear all about it.

Who is in the tournament this year? And how is the preparation going, everyone?

In order to cut from the very top of the mat, you need a fairly stiff support through the centre. We used quite thick apple branches but the mat still bent in a curve and had to be straightened after higher cuts. There was no such problem after suspending it from a tree. I think a dowel through the ...

Fortunately for me, these mats were a gift from the company because I promote his product on my site. Now I'll write a page on cutting tatami as well. It's good for his business and a product I'm really happy to promote. Several times a year, I intend to spend the $37.50 plus almost $10 in postage t...

It is easier to cut a suspended mat. Even though there is more give, the cuts have less problem going straight through. http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/527/davidcutting021.jpg http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/6660/davidcutting022.jpg http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/4521/davidcutting023.jpg W...

By the time we had finished training in emptyhand and sword forms, the mats had dried out quite a bit. This increased the challenge. Here are the swords we used: http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/6875/davidcutting025.jpg We rolled a couple of mats and set up the first one on a stand. http://img697....

This was my first cut. I've never done it before or even watched anyone doing it, except on Youtube, so it was difficult to judge how much power to put into the swing. The first cut went through one side of the mat and through the branch. http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/3291/precisioncutting164.j...