Tai Chi Ranking & Combined Sparring Class
Metrowest Kung Fu student Olga Smirnov receives her Tai Chi Red Sash from Shifu Gary J. LaChapelle Jr.
Saturday February 15th, we had two special events:
TAI CHI RANKING
Congratulations to our students who received their next sashes!
To Red Sash:
Olga Smirnov
To White Sash:
Megan France-Peterson
COMBINED SPARRING CLASS
After the Tai Chi ranking concluded, Tai Chi and Kung Fu students attended a Combined Sparring class, run by Shifu Gary of our parent school, New England Kung Fu. Our “Combined Sparring Classes” are extended classes in which students focus on reaction drills, i.e., push hands and sparring. It is a safe and beginner-friendly to get introduced to fighting, and to work on integrating techniques and principles from our Tai Chi and Kung Fu forms into our fighting.
For push hands, we worked on basic sensitivity drills, while strengthening our ward-off 掤 (péng) and root 根 (gēn).
For sparring, we worked on basic punching combos, and then integrating sweeps/throws into our punching combinations. The two schools had a lot of fun learning together. Special thanks to Oxford students Marty, Tavish, and David for travelling all the way to Maynard from the Worcester area despite an impending snowstorm. Thank you as always to Shifu Gary, Shifu Cheyenne, and Jo Gao Cameron for helping to teach the Maynard students and keep the connections between our two schools strong and supportive.