EVENTS/ CLOSINGS
CLOSED VETERANS DAY – Monday November 12, 2018
CLOSED THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY- November 22nd & 23rd
USWA 2018 CHALLENGE TOURNAMENT
This tournament took place in Gaithersburg MD at the Marriott Washingtonian Center on October 7. The event brought together many competitors from the US Wu Shu Academy as well as from several other schools in the Tri-State area. The event was well run and the great Wu Shu coach, the legendary Wu Bin was there as a special guest. He is best known for being the coach of the Beijing Wu Shu team which has a long history of being the top Contemporary Wu Shu team in China. Zheng Gui Feng, Jet Lee and Wu Jing (Jackie Wu), are former team members and well known as top martial artists or as martial art movie stars. Linda Krakaur and Marketa Ebert represented WST well and both medaled in form events.
The only negative to the event occurred when a particular Tai Chi judge from a school in VA openly and obviously decided to show inappropriate bias in the scoring of his own students. This, unfortunately, is not new to martial art or any other competitive sport. This young, inexperienced judge could not see that not only did other judges see what was going on but competitors and spectators commented on the disparity between his scoring and the performances of his students as well. He was called on it and will hopefully be more respectful to the event and to his fellow judges, the competitors, and the spectators in the future.
US MARTIAL ART OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS
On October 14, 2018, the 10th Annual event sponsored by the World Fighting Martial Arts Federation took place at Queens College in NYC. The event was well attended and there was a large selection of application arts that took place. Events ranging from point fighting, continuous light and middle contact fighting up to full contact MMA, Wing Chun Chi Sau, Tai Chi Push Hands, and short and long weapons sparring all occurred next to various empty hand and weapons forms from Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Philippine and other sources.
The competition, once began, moved briskly through the various events and high quality judging as well as appreciative spectators made this a fun and memorable event.
NEW ONGOING FEATURE ON OUR WEB SITE
The first Installment of “Something to Meditate On’ is currently available on our Qigong / Meditation Page. It is produced by long- time collaborator, training partner and good friend Henry Brennan. He has an extensive background in the martial and energy arts beginning about 45 years ago. His specialty is energy cultivation with a focus on passive and active work along with methods and strategies of how to apply these skills in one’s daily life.
He shares some of the concepts of the work by providing snippets of wisdom and knowledge a couple of times per month on our Qigong/Meditation page.
Interested individuals can also now begin online training with him and learn to use the distilled exercises and methods of this path. I recommend that you feel free to check in bi weekly for the next nugget along this path toward potentiating oneself.
NOVEMBER SWORDPLAY CLASS
We will meet for sword basics and application class this month on Wednesday November 14th, 2018 from 7:30-9 PM. Bring a sword, eye protection and groin protection (optional). All students are encouraged to attend regardless of experience.
WEB SITE CONTACT PAGE – Don’t forget to sign up if you haven’t already.
We humbly accept suggestions as to how we may improve the site so that it may be easier and more usable to friends, and to current and future members. Sign in to get newsletters and other information concerning the latest goings on in and around our schools. Also see us also for our latest great video additions, messages, and new innovations on health and martial arts under Wu Shen Tao on our Facebook page.
FREE COMMUNITY PUSH HANDS -
Our weekly Community Tai Chi and Push Hands Open workout is alive and well (25 years and counting). We hold the Free Takoma Park Community Workout, 3 blocks away, at the Roda Movement Center which is located at 7014 Westmoreland Avenue (just off Carroll Avenue) in Takoma Park, MD. It is located just behind the Gazebo located on Carroll Avenue and across from the House of Musical Traditions. The workout takes place on Thursdays from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM. Feel free to contact us at longmen987@gmail.com if you have questions or concerns.
QUOTES OF THE MONTH
"Far away, there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead. "
Louisa May Alcott
"Our freedom can be measured by the number of things we can walk away from."
Vernon Howard
" What has made America amazing has been the fact that throughout our history, throughout the more than 200 years of our history, there have been men and women of courage who stood up and decided it was more important to look out for the future of their children and their grandchildren than their own political futures. "
Scott Walker