Tai Chi Park 2021

This weekend, I had the good fortune of spending the day in Tai Chi Park in Wantage, New Jersey. This annual event is organized by Sifu Bruce La Carrubba, in memoriam Master Jou, Tsung Hwa.

Last year, the event had to be entirely virtual due to COVID. This year, it’s a split event: one Saturday in person, followed by a weekend of virtual events. I guess you can say I have next weekend planned out for me already.

I enjoy this event, since I get to learn new things about tai chi and qigong from amazing teachers and practitioners. And I get to spend time with friends I don’t get to see often, and play tai chi.

Here I am with my friend, Dr. Luke Jih:

I thoroughly enjoyed the four workshops I attended. The first was a qigong seminar; I always like to see what movements other people are doing, and to learn new things. My last workshop was with my friend, Dr. Luke Jih (pictured above), and focused on Taoism.

My middle workshops were both with Shifu Stephen Watson, who is a national and international champion in push hands. He did one seminar on hand exercises, and another on weight shifting to promote balance while moving. You can see the two of us below, performing a two-man “single whip” movement, and engaging in a bit of push hands horseplay.