The Tai Chi Notebook

In this episode of the Tai Chi Notebook Podcast I’m joined by Chris Paines, a BJJ black belt from Staffordshire in the UK. Chris gained a level of fame in the BJJ world for a seminar he taught at a BJJ Globetrotters camp called “How to Defend Everything”, which was wildly successful, especially when that seminar went on YouTube. It got over 100,000 views. Chris has gone on to develop a system for...

In this episode Richard Moon, a lifelong martial artist and performer, shares his journey from playing in a jug band and performing with bands like the Grateful Dead to becoming deeply involved in yoga and eventually Aikido, which he encountered by accident and learned as a "way of life more than a way of fighting."  Richard Moon describes developing a "very freestyle, jazz-oriented...

Episode 41: Teaching Tai Chi as a Martial Art with Nick Walser and Ian Kendall In this episode I talk to two Wudang Tai Chi teachers from Brighton, UK: Nick Walser and Ian Kendall. Both students of the late Dan Docherty, they have continued to practice the tai chi that Dan taught them and developed a new training system called 5 Snake. 5 Snake is a unique and powerful method for finding flow, resi...

Welcome to episode 40 of the Tai Chi Notebook Podcast! Today we’re joined by my friend Benjamin Palmer. Ben has been running a Xing Yi Quan training group in deepest darkest Somerset for a good few years now, but Ben has also been training Mishima Kempo, an eclectic Japanese martial art and is thinking of starting a class in that soon. We share the same Xing Yi teacher, Damon Smith who has been a...

My BJJ book, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: The Ultimate Illustrated Guidebook, co-authored with Seymour Yang is now on pre-sale at meerkatsu.com. The first edition will only be on sale until June 11, so if you want a copy, order now! In this podcast I talk to Seymour about how we made the book. This is a self-published limited-edition print run. It’s a gorgeously-printed hardback edition. At over 260 pages...

In this podcast I talk to internal martial artist Ethan Murchie about this teacher Vince Black from whom he learned xing yi mixed with elements of Sufism and Shamanism, as well as the North American Tang Shou Tao Association which Vince set up and is still running today. We also cover the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal medicine (the Huangdi Neijing) which Ethan teaches through his Living Nei...

Simon Thakur is the founder of Ancestral Movement "An ecological approach to movement and mind-body practice, exploring ancient ancestral patterns of movement and awareness built into our bodies, rediscovering the power, grace and ease of natural movement and our bodies’ innate connection to the rest of the living world. In this episode we cover many subjects including Yoga, Chinese Martial A...

Alan Wycherley runs the YouTube channel 'In Defence of the Traditional Martial Arts' and is a tai chi practitioner who is interested in using the art as a practical self-defence system. In Defence of the Traditional Martial Arts: https://www.youtube.com/@indefenceofthetraditionalma Twitter: https://x.com/alwycherley The Fajin Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thefajinproject Podcast by The...

Baguazhang misconceptions with Edward Hines My guest for episode 35 is Edward Hines, a long time Baguazhang student of Lou Dexiu. Ed started training Bagua in Taiwan way back in 1991, and has continued ever since. He now teaches online at I-bagua.com and has books about Baguazhang you can find on Amazon. To frame our chat we decided to cast around for the most common misconceptions you hear about...

This episode of The Tai Chi Notebook podcast is slightly different to a regular episode. There isn't a guest, but that doesn't mean I'm alone... This episode is brought to you using the power of AI. I fed a recent blog post from The Tai Chi Notebook into Google's NotebookLM, an AI that produces a podcast based on your article, just to see what would happen and the result was so goo...

My guest for the latest episode of The Tai Chi Notebook Podcast is Tina Faulkner Elders, chief instructor of the RuYi School of Taijiquan and Qigong in Aberdeenshire. We talk about Tina’s training in qigong, first with her father, then in Beijing, China, and then on Wudang mountain itself, the legendary home of Taoism. Links: RuYi School of Taijiquan and Qigong https://ruyischool.com/ Facebook pag...

In episode 32 of The Tai Chi Notebook Podcast, I’m joined by Augustus John Roe, who is an author and martial artist living and working in Vietnam. In our interview I get a chance to ask Gus about what traditional martial arts are like in Vietnam, how the MMA scene there developed and how popular Tai Chi is, not to mention the surprising involvement of Ho Chi Minh in the early development of the 24...

Randy Brown is a Mantis Boxing and BJJ black belt coach teaching in the USA. In this podcast we explore how Randy has reworked his Mantis Boxing to explore the grappling potential hidden in its forms and how they can interact with his Brazilian Jiujitsu. We talk about a range of subjects including self defence vs sport, weapons vs barehand and how to turn dead systems into living arts again. Links...

Nabil Ranné is a Chen style teacher living in Berlin who offers classes and online training at CTN Academy https://www.ctn.academy/ Nabil is a student of Chen Yu who is the only son of Chen ZhaoKui and grandson of the famous Chen Fake. Here’s what we talk about: Timestamps: 1.00: Nabil’s background in martial arts and what attracted him to Chen style Tai Chi 3.40: What is Jin in Tai Chi? 7.30: Wha...

This month's guest is Richard Johnson a long-time student of Joseph Chen of Chen Style Practical Method. As well as a Tai Chi practitioner and teacher, Richard is a full time movement coach working with athletes, so he brings an appreciation of athletic movement to his views on Tai Chi. In our discussion Richard delves deeply into the internal workings of the Chen Style Practical Method and we...

Jess O’Brien is the author of the book Neijiaquan and co host of the Neijiaquan podcast, which he runs with Isaac Kamins. Since 1999, Jess has studied extensively under BK Frantzis. Over the years, he has also trained with other, preeminent internal martial artists like Luo De Xiu. He has been active in martial arts since his teens. In this episode we discuss what drew Jess to the internal arts an...

Bruce Lee will be no stranger to anybody listening to The Tai Chi Notebook Podcast - even 50 years after his death he remains the most famous martial artist in the world. But could he actually fight? World Champions in karate competition have gone on record to point out that he never once competed in tournaments. So, were his martial abilities simply a trick of the camera? My guest for this episod...

Bājíquán (八極拳) or shorter just Baji, is commonly known as “the martial art of bodyguards”. It emphasises the use of attacks that close down the distance as well as explosive close combat techniques such as combinations of elbow, knee and takedown techniques. Both Rikard Elofsson and Miika Wikberg are senior Baji students of Lü Baochun, based in Finland who has over 40 years’ experience in the t...

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Tai Chi Notebook podcast! My guest today is Simon Cox, who co runs the Okanagan Valley Wudang (https://www.okanaganvalleywudang.com/) with his wife Brandi in Penticton, British Columbia. Simon and Brandi spent six years living and training in China under master Yuan Xiu Gang at the Wudang Daoist Traditional Kung Fu Academy. While there they studied Kung...

Episode 24: Tai Chi and Taoism on Wudang Mountain with George Thompson George Thompson is a film maker and Tai Chi teacher who studied on Wudang Mountain in China under Master Gu. His videos at https://www.youtube.com/@George-Thompson have been watched by over 15 million people and has over 200K subscribers. He runs the Wayfinder Academy at https://www.wayfinder.academy through which he teaches on...

In this episode I catch up with my old Xing Yi training partner Mike Ash who has been doing marital arts for years. We talk about how we met, Mike's training history and the different martial arts he's trained in over the years as well as his latest adventures in Yang style Tai Chi and Chi Kung. We also discuss what makes a martial art popular and the current trend towards MMA, why Tai Chi...

In the latest episode of the Tai Chi Notebook podcast host Graham is left all on his own without a guest, so he’s decided to pick up a book and read it to you! He’s gone for The Tai Chi Classic, one of the core works which make up a collection known as The Tai Chi Classics. Graham goes through the text a paragraph at a time and gives his interpretation of what the classic is saying. We hope you en...

Hello and welcome to the first Tai Chi Notebook podcast of 2023! Happy Year of the Rabbit!  My guest for this episode is Will Wain Williams. Will has a background in Taiji Mantis Kung Fu, which he trained in China, where he also lived for 13 years. He’s  traveled around Asia documenting ancient Kung Fu systems for his YouTube Channel Monkey Steals Peach ( https://www.youtube.com/@MonkeyS...

Matt Hill is the owner of the Systema Academy in Wiltshire, England. Matt has a long history in martial arts, starting with Aikido, training under Morihiro Saito Sensei in Japan in the early 90s. From there he joined the Parachute Regiment leaving as a Captain in 2003. After this he started training in Systema under Vladimir Vasiliev and now teaches Systema, Bushcraft and leads groups trekking thr...

Salvatore Pace, or Salvo for short is a 3rd degree black belt in Brazilian Jiujitsu and owner of Gracie Barra Bath, the Head Quarters of Gracie Barra in the South West of the UK, Gracie Barra West Wilts and co-owner of Gracie Barra Gillingham. He is a two time NAGA European Champion and Grappler's Quest champion. Salvo grew up in Sicily and had a passion for martial arts as a young boy, practicing...