Health and Well Being Programme - Tai Chi and Kung Fu Reflection by Perenara

Today we had our first ever Tai Chi lesson with our instructor Mr Gordon. First he told us a little bit about him and that he has done different types of Tai Chi and Kung Fu and has black belts in most of them. He has also been in the army for a number of years but then he left and went back to martial arts. He also has a son and a daughter at his daughter's birth the doctor said that she may not live but now she is 24/25 years old and is a doctor she has also done martial arts her whole life. Half way through our lesson we all got into a circle he told us this was the sharing circle we had to tell him our names, one thing we like, one thing we dont like and a random act of kindness that we have done recently.

He taught us some moves to help defend ourselves and maybe others. He taught us the Tiger pushing mountain, Inform and Open gate. Tiger pushing mountain would help us to push over our opponent and if they hit us we can protect ourselves. At the beginning 0f all our classes we go in to this form so that he can tell us what we are doing through out that lesson. And the Open gate this one will help us to face our opponents and be ready at the same time weather they are at the front of us or at the back of us.

He also asked us to share a random act of kindess he gave us an example to make sure that we knew what he was talking about. To me a random act of kindness is when you use your initiative to do things without being told to do it and doing something that will be helpful and not something that would make everything worse or bad.

He has taught us a lot of things but he said that whatever I teach you here you take it with inside of school outside of and out in your community. By that I think he means use all those skills he taught us how to breathe properly and I think that was to try and calm us down and in the community we could use this when we are angry. And if for any reason you get to a point where you need to protect yourself to use those stances that he has taught us because they are all to do with protection.