Saturday March 1st, we were joined by Shīgōng (師公) Gary J. LaChapelle Jr. of New England Kung Fu, who presided over a test for students who met all promotion qualifications.

Testing candidates, by last name:

• Laiba Ahmed

• Hrishi Arun

• Fernando Dos Santos

• Treven Force

• Nischal Gupta

• Louisa Mahoney

• Ryan Mahoney

• Jackson Maslow

• Tim Maslow

• Scott Merriam

• Brighid Morgan

• Cormac Morgan

• Michael Quirk

• Harvey Thompson

The students performed very well. All students passed the test, and will receive their new sashes during the March 22nd Ranking Ceremony.

Thank you to Shīgōng (師公) Gary for presiding over the ranking, as well as to the following students for showing up to support their classmates:

• Jo Gao 助教 Justen Force

• Jo Gao 助教 Grey Shea

• Jo Gao 助教 Kevin Sheppard

• Andrew Craig

• Yolanda “Pi” Stafford

Photos are available on our Facebook and SmugMug pages.

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.

Photos are available on our Facebook and SmugMug pages.

Students from Metrowest Kung Fu and New England Kung Fu gathered to celebrate Year of the Wood Snake.

We started off the New Year by travelling to Shifu Gary’s school in Oxford MA for our first Combined Sparring Class of the year. Students from the Maynard and Oxford schools, guided by Shifu Gary, worked on implementing body mechanics from Tai Chi and Push Hands into their sparring practice. They worked on understanding distance and structure through a series of drills, and of course, we had lots of fun practicing free sparring with each other.

It is very important for students to have as diverse a pool of sparring partners as possible, so we’re very grateful to Shifu Gary and Shifu Cheyenne for hosting this event.

Photos are available on our Facebook and SmugMug pages.