Taiji Practice Group in CAMBRIDGE, MA
For native Chinese, information in Chinese for Patrick Kelly's school in Shanghai at https://9cloudstaiji.com/
Our Group
We make a serious effort to train the specific taiji system taught by Patrick Kelly, the only non-Chinese "inner school" student of Huang Xingxian. Our group is led by Charlie Liu, a novice student of Patrick.
Our main aim is to develop ourselves internally, and we train taiji to establish a solid base for the deeper meditation practice. This group is for people looking to make a serious sustained effort toward that aim using the specific system we train. We currently meet daily and require regular attendance minimum twice a week to remain in the class.
Training Curriculum
We follow a very specific and systematic approach to training refined by Patrick Kelly based on his own efforts to organize what he learned from Huang Xingxian. A typical practice session in this school would include:
- Huang Xingxian's 5 loosening exercises
- Zheng Manqing's 37 posture short Yang form
- Yang Chengfu's 108 posture long form (after proficiency with short form)
- 8 basic fixed pattern push hands exercises
- brief guided meditation
- More advanced in future: quickfist, push hands applications and moving step
Both our fixed pattern push hands (precise partner exercises used as collaborative training tools) and meditation are key components of our practice for developing the deep mind, and we introduce both from day one.
Instructor Bio
Charlie began studying taiji in 2001 with Liam Comerford, a student of Zheng Manqing. Through that class he met Ben Lo (Luo Bangzhen), who he practiced with on a weekly basis in San Francisco from 2008-2010. Work led Charlie to Shanghai in 2010, where he sought out local taiji schools and pushed hands with friendly strangers in the park. These experiences convinced him to stick with practicing what he learned from Liam and Ben, until he met Patrick Kelly in 2014.
Charlie has been training Patrick Kelly's approach since then, mostly studying with Patrick's student Tim Suh in Chicago from 2015-2017. Charlie moved to Cambridge in 2017 and started this group in March 2021 to build a local community to regularly train with. Tim Suh and Guillem Bernado have supported this effort by visiting to give live seminars several times a year.
Charlie's main goal at the moment is his own training, and he teaches with the intention of having a good training group for his own fixed pattern push hands practice.
Contact: freshpondtaiji@gmail.com