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In this episode Richard Moon, a lifelong martial artist and performer, shares his journey from playing in a jug band and performing with bands like the Grateful Dead to becoming deeply involved in yoga and eventually Aikido, which he encountered by accident and learned as a "way of life more than a way of fighting."  Richard Moon describes developing a "very freestyle, jazz-oriented approach" to Aikido, which eventually led to corporate coaching with Chris Thorsen and international peace building initiatives with Louise Diamond and a $30 million project in Bosnia funded by Dan Whalen. Richard Moon emphasized the importance of centering, intentional transformation, and harmonizing with the universal movement through practices like the "universal breath" and the "drop back, sink open" technique, concluding with O Sensei's teaching that "Aikido is the realization of love."

Episode 41: Teaching Tai Chi as a Martial Art with Nick Walser and Ian Kendall In this episode I talk to two Wudang Tai Chi teachers from Brighton, UK: Nick Walser and Ian Kendall. Both students of the late Dan Docherty, they have continued to practice the tai chi that Dan taught them and developed a new training system called 5 Snake. 5 Snake is a unique and powerful method for finding flow, resilience, and calm through partnered close- quarter practice, and they're here to tell you all about it. Find out more at: https://5snake.co.uk/ and 5 Snake on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. Read my latest blogs on tai chi and martial arts at: www.thetaichinotebook.com

Welcome to episode 40 of the Tai Chi Notebook Podcast! Today we’re joined by my friend Benjamin Palmer. Ben has been running a Xing Yi Quan training group in deepest darkest Somerset for a good few years now, but Ben has also been training Mishima Kempo, an eclectic Japanese martial art and is thinking of starting a class in that soon. We share the same Xing Yi teacher, Damon Smith who has been a previous guest on my show. I visited Ben’s Xing Yi class a couple of weeks ago to teach his group some grappling and afterwards we sat down for a chat, and a nice cup of tea, so here we are in Ben’s kitchen! Links: Mishima Kempo: http://mishimakempo.com/ FoxFist: https://foxfist.com/ Xing Yi UK: http://www.xingyi.org.uk/

My BJJ book, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: The Ultimate Illustrated Guidebook, co-authored with Seymour Yang is now on pre-sale at meerkatsu.com. The first edition will only be on sale until June 11, so if you want a copy, order now! In this podcast I talk to Seymour about how we made the book. This is a self-published limited-edition print run. It’s a gorgeously-printed hardback edition. At over 260 pages, with 970+ beautiful illustrations this is the ultimate coffee table BJJ book, but it doesn’t just look good, it’s designed to teach you the techniques of BJJ. We’ve got all our favourite BJJ moves from basic movements, standing techniques, sweeps, guard, guard passing, submissions and escapes. There’s also a section on the history of BJJ and lots of advice on training, strategy, concepts and principles of the art. Shipping shouldn’t be too expensive either. Remember, this is a limited edition run and when they’re gone, they’re gone! Get yours today at Meerkatsu.com

In this podcast I talk to internal martial artist Ethan Murchie about this teacher Vince Black from whom he learned xing yi mixed with elements of Sufism and Shamanism, as well as the North American Tang Shou Tao Association which Vince set up and is still running today. We also cover the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal medicine (the Huangdi Neijing) which Ethan teaches through his Living Neijing website, the meaning of Chinese terms like qi, peng, lu, ji and an, as well as his tai chi teacher Liang Dehua and the Yang Shouhou lineage of Yang family tai chi. North American Tang Shou Tao Association https://www.natsta.org/ Living Neijing https://livingneijing.ca/ Liang Dehua https://taijiacademy.online/

Simon Thakur is the founder of Ancestral Movement "An ecological approach to movement and mind-body practice, exploring ancient ancestral patterns of movement and awareness built into our bodies, rediscovering the power, grace and ease of natural movement and our bodies’ innate connection to the rest of the living world. In this episode we cover many subjects including Yoga, Chinese Martial Arts, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Tai Chi, Shamanism and more! Simon's website: https://www.ancestralmovement.com/ Simon's new online practice group https://www.ancestralmovement.com/member-site-homepage-1 The Tai Chi Notebook: https://thetaichinotebook.com/

Alan Wycherley runs the YouTube channel 'In Defence of the Traditional Martial Arts' and is a tai chi practitioner who is interested in using the art as a practical self-defence system. In Defence of the Traditional Martial Arts: https://www.youtube.com/@indefenceofthetraditionalma Twitter: https://x.com/alwycherley The Fajin Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thefajinproject Podcast by The Tai Chi Notebook (c) 2025 https://thetaichinotebook.com/

Baguazhang misconceptions with Edward Hines My guest for episode 35 is Edward Hines, a long time Baguazhang student of Lou Dexiu. Ed started training Bagua in Taiwan way back in 1991, and has continued ever since. He now teaches online at I-bagua.com and has books about Baguazhang you can find on Amazon. To frame our chat we decided to cast around for the most common misconceptions you hear about Baguazhang, and address each of them, one at a time. Links: www.i-bagua.com thetaichinotebook.com

This episode of The Tai Chi Notebook podcast is slightly different to a regular episode. There isn't a guest, but that doesn't mean I'm alone... This episode is brought to you using the power of AI. I fed a recent blog post from The Tai Chi Notebook into Google's NotebookLM, an AI that produces a podcast based on your article, just to see what would happen and the result was so good that I decided to put it out as a real episode! See what you think. Original blog post: https://thetaichinotebook.com/2024/09/16/how-to-do-takedowns-and-throws-in-tai-chi-xing-yi-baguazhang-or-any-martial-art/

My guest for the latest episode of The Tai Chi Notebook Podcast is Tina Faulkner Elders, chief instructor of the RuYi School of Taijiquan and Qigong in Aberdeenshire. We talk about Tina’s training in qigong, first with her father, then in Beijing, China, and then on Wudang mountain itself, the legendary home of Taoism. Links: RuYi School of Taijiquan and Qigong https://ruyischool.com/ Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/RuyiAberdeenshire/ Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsfluLjYWYdD7T8HhJ7BZOQ The Tai Chi Notebook http://thetaichinotebook.com

In episode 32 of The Tai Chi Notebook Podcast, I’m joined by Augustus John Roe, who is an author and martial artist living and working in Vietnam. In our interview I get a chance to ask Gus about what traditional martial arts are like in Vietnam, how the MMA scene there developed and how popular Tai Chi is, not to mention the surprising involvement of Ho Chi Minh in the early development of the 24-Step Tai Chi form. Links: Augustus John Roe: https://www.augustusjohnroe.com/ Ho Chi Minh Tai Chi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfIl0dKrP0c https://thetaichinotebook.com/

Randy Brown is a Mantis Boxing and BJJ black belt coach teaching in the USA. In this podcast we explore how Randy has reworked his Mantis Boxing to explore the grappling potential hidden in its forms and how they can interact with his Brazilian Jiujitsu. We talk about a range of subjects including self defence vs sport, weapons vs barehand and how to turn dead systems into living arts again. Links: https://randybrownmantisboxing.com/

Nabil Ranné is a Chen style teacher living in Berlin who offers classes and online training at CTN Academy https://www.ctn.academy/ Nabil is a student of Chen Yu who is the only son of Chen ZhaoKui and grandson of the famous Chen Fake. Here’s what we talk about: Timestamps: 1.00: Nabil’s background in martial arts and what attracted him to Chen style Tai Chi 3.40: What is Jin in Tai Chi? 7.30: What makes Tai Chi different to other marital arts? 11.15: What is the strategy for Tai Chi? 16.00: What is the function of Tai Chi push hands? 17.55: Competition push hands vs Tai Chi push hands 22.20: The Xin Yi podcast and how do you train applications in Tai Chi 28.00: Real life self defence situations 36.00: Martial arts vs marital sports 44.02: Zhan Zhuang: Standing pillar practice 46.55: Chen style FaJin methods and their purpose 55.00: Nabil’s book and getting in touch Links: ——— Nabil’s website: https://www.ctn.academy/ Nabil’s training history: https://www.ctn.academy/blog/learning-taijiquan-with-chen-yu-nabil-ranne Nabil’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taijigongfu/ Find out more about The Tai Chi Notebook Podcast at: www.thetaichinotebook.com

This month's guest is Richard Johnson a long-time student of Joseph Chen of Chen Style Practical Method. As well as a Tai Chi practitioner and teacher, Richard is a full time movement coach working with athletes, so he brings an appreciation of athletic movement to his views on Tai Chi. In our discussion Richard delves deeply into the internal workings of the Chen Style Practical Method and we talk a lot some interesting movement principles based around rotation. We also talk about how the Practical Method is different to the Chen Village style of Tai Chi. You can get in touch with Richard using his email address trukinetix at gmail.com Find out more about this podcast at www.thetaichinotebook.com

Jess O’Brien is the author of the book Neijiaquan and co host of the Neijiaquan podcast, which he runs with Isaac Kamins. Since 1999, Jess has studied extensively under BK Frantzis. Over the years, he has also trained with other, preeminent internal martial artists like Luo De Xiu. He has been active in martial arts since his teens. In this episode we discuss what drew Jess to the internal arts and how he trained with various different teachers before becoming a student of Bruce Kumar Frantzis. Links: Neijiqaun podcast: http://www.theneijiaquanpodcast.com/ Water Tradition Internal Arts: http://www.watertradition.net/ Find out more about this podcast at: www.thetaichinotebook.com