About Me

I joined my first Tai-Chi class in Golders Green, London, with a remarkable woman, Ursula Smilde, in 1979 when I was 24 years old and working in advertising. I felt that I had literally " come home ". I just knew it was exactly the right thing for me to do. I was one of Ursula's early students and she was one of Gerda Geddes early students.

Gerda Geddes taught the Yang style, long form and was the first person to teach Tai-Chi Chuan ( supreme ultimate fist ) in the UK back in 1969. Gerda Geddes taught at The Place in London and is credited with having an impact on contemporary dance because she taught many dancers. She died in 2006 and wrote an excellent book: " Looking for the golden needle ". Frank Woods wrote a book about her life: " Dancer in the light ". A really fascinating life.

Having learnt parts 1, 2 and 3 over a period of 2 years with Ursula, she came back from various trips to Bangkok and introduced us to an older variation of the yang style long form. This was from a very well respected Chinese master called Tang Liang Tia.

This was more fluid and dynamic and enjoyable to practice. Ursula Smilde-Hiatt wrote a brilliant book " The Tiger's Mouth - A Taoist journey towards the source ". Amazon printing, July 2015. Described as a " masterpiece ".

After working in advertising for 5 years, I spent 5 years in marketing. I was burnt out by then and moved to Marden, Kent and married Jenny. She had been taught Tai-Chi by taoist monks in China and completely smoothed out what I was doing. So you could call the form I practice a simplified taoist version but it is probably very close to the original form.

I started teaching full time in early 1986, gradually building up my classes. My classes included one for people with " special needs " at the Maidstone leisure centre for 9 years and a year at 5 Acre Wood school. One class was on the Isle of Sheppy for people with physical difficulties, the Freedom centre ( a drop in centre ), for about 20 years and a residential home for adults with severe physical difficulties, The Little Oyster. In amongst these classes were many private classes and I spent about 20 years with Adult education. Combined classes averaging around 100 students per week for quite a few years .

An average Tai-Chi class lasts for one hour. The first half consists of gentle warm up exercises and the second half is about practicing the form. Each week builds on the previous week and over time the practitioner is able to perform a smooth flowing series of movements which is very relaxing and beneficial in many ways. ( See "The Benefits of Tai-Chi" page on this site for more information ).