Sunday, December 10, 2023

What I Did for Fun in 1994

 In 1993 Ernest Rothrock was attending a martial arts business clinic in Eastern Massachusetts. That Saturday evening I went down into Mass. to meet him after that day's events. I took him out to dinner and then we went back to his motel room to talk. I told him about my desire to create a custom tai chi chaun form just to compete in a local karate tournament just for fun. So he and I worked to craft this form together. It was a lot of fun doing this.


As time had passed, I saw less need to use karate tournaments for my student's study. I was at the point that only my senior students went any longer. My personal program of training covered pieces of many arts. Isshinryu and other karate and kobudo, a range of Chinese arts as well as Tai Chi Chaun. We gave the form the name Yee Ying Jow Pai Chaun Fa, more for fun than anything else. This was not a form I ever taught my tai chi students.  I was just for me.


But I had this form crafted for fun and a desire to see the judges faces when I performed an art they really did not know. While I was very serious about my tai chi chaun I just wanted to compete for the fun of doing so. The tournament was an OPEN competition, not restricted to karate after all.


This was what I did during that day of competition.


I certainly am not the greatest practitioner of Tai Chi Chaun, but O the fun I had watching those judges give me scores.


My custom Tai Chi Chaun form

Yee Ying Jow Pai Chaun Fa

 created for the House of the Samurai tournament in 1994.

Created by E. Rothrock and V.  Smith for that competition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erfEd5duh2I




 


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