Stop beating your body up to get fit, practice tai chi instead!

Old Man’s Badass
Tai Chi Health
Secrets Revealed
for Vim, Vigor and Vitality after 40

If you’ve been searching for a natural, balanced and proven way to get stronger, healthier and fitter after age 40 without the detriments of extreme exercise methods, then what you are about to read may be the biggest breakthrough of your life.

Let me explain:

My interest in Tai Chi began in 1992, when a friend, Norman, told me, “After you’ve been practicing for a while, it will be like a breaker switch got turned on inside your body. You’ll be lit up with energy you never knew before.”

This was something I had not heard before and it made me curious. Could such a statement be true, or was it just hype?

I talked to some other people who were practicing tai chi. They told me about the various styles and how different they were, then they made suggestions about where I could go to learn and the benefits I could expect.

The benefits these men raved about ranged from increased balance to heightened awareness, from increased strength and mobility to a forever young libido.

And then they told me about the psychological and spiritual benefits, such as feelings of tranquility and peace of mind – as well as the reduction of stress, anxiety, depression and P.T.S.D.

Oh, boy. This was what I was looking for – straight across the line.

More than a Health Exercise

And then I heard that tai chi wasn’t just an ancient health exercise with proven benefits for those suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure, back and joint pain. Tai chi was also, for those who wanted to know, a kick-butt martial art… if you were fortunate enough to find an instructor who knew it as one and would teach it to you.

This made me wonder: How can something that is practiced in a relaxed, slow manner be not only a health exercise but also an effective martial art?

As a national collegiate wrestling champion, I found this almost impossible to believe. Before then, I never practiced anything slow – so how exactly was it going to increase my ability to react and respond quickly?

Curiosity Took Hold of Me

Well, curiosity got the better of me. It took hold of me. I enrolled in a class that was over an hour away, in Sunnyvale, California, where I got started with learning Chen Thunder Style Tai Chi with Master Adam Hsu.

I loved the training, but after several months of driving so far, I found a local master, Ted Mancuso, and began learning Yang Style from him.

Additionally, at nearly the same time, a Chinese English professor who had recently moved to California, Master Pan Runzhi, began teaching me Wu Style. He was 73 years of age at the time, and was always full of enthusiasm. He was also as nimble as a cat and lived to be 96 years of age.

Of all the instructors, Master Ted Mancuso was the most thorough, giving me explanations in English that benefitted me greatly.

After a few years of training in tai chi, however, I took a break and got involved in Shuaijiao kung fu, where I quickly found out that all the throws and maneuvers in the art were based upon the tai chi principles of relaxed, seemingly effortless movement.

Winning National and World Kung Fu Titles

After winning both national and world championships in Shuaijiao, I began learning other styles of martial arts in the United States and in China.

And over the ensuing years, while practicing these other arts, my body began to get beat up. While this was happening, I longed to get back to practicing tai chi to heal my body and reduce stress.

When I finally did return to practicing tai chi, back in 2014, I made rapid progress. So much so that one of my teachers, Steve Contes, told me on numerous occasions that I was the best student he had ever coached. Although I appreciated the compliment from Steve, I didn’t let it go to my head as I wanted to remain in learning mode.

Trained in China

Over the next five years I made numerous trips to China to train with various masters. One of them, Master Zhu Tian Cai, after seeing my skills in a seminar, encouraged me to come train with him in person.

I jumped at the opportunity to train with him in more detail and learned a great deal, which I am forever grateful. But my curiosity didn’t stop there, so I trained with other masters as well.

But there was one not-so-tiny detail about the training that I didn’t care for, and that was the fact that these tai chi masters rarely taught any martial arts applications of their art. Almost everything they taught foreigners was for health purposes only. I understood that there was a waiting period, where you had to prove yourself, but I knew I had already proven a great deal with the championships I had won.

A Shift in My Training

My training situation changed in 2019, when I traveled to another small village in Henan Province, China, and began learning a different style of tai chi, one that I had never heard of before: Zhao Bao Taijiquan.

I met with Master Wang, who was 62 at the time, in Zhao Bao Village, to see about getting private instruction with him. He asked for a demonstration. I stood up and began going through the tai chi I had been practicing.

Master Wang clapped when I finished, then stood up and asked me to watch him.

He stood motionless for a few seconds, and as he did so I felt an energy coming off of him that I had never felt before from any other tai chi master.

As Master Wang began his opening movement, my skin began to tingle. I felt a large bubble of energy surround me.

I sat in stunned silence as he moved from posture to posture. The whole time he moved the energy I felt never let up.

When Master Wang finished, he sat with me and began discussing the history of this style of tai chi.

I told him that I only wanted private instruction with him.

He smiled and agreed to meet with me twice each day, during which time he would not just show me the form, but the applications of every move in it.

I trained with Master Wang for well over a month, which might not seem very long, but he catapulted my skills to a whole new level. In fact, when other potential students came by, he would have me demonstrate what I learned for them, then turn to them and say, “And he’s only been with me for a couple weeks.”

I worked my ass off with Master Wang. I was not just learning forms, but getting thrown around, joint locked, hit, kicked and so on, by a man who was "no spring chicken."

A Surprise Request

When I returned to the U.S., I practiced the 108-move form Master Wang taught me every day. More importantly, though, I practiced a short set, known as the “Four Corners,” that Master Wang told me was of utmost importance, as virtually everything you needed for health purposes, or for a fight was contained within the first five movements of this short form.

After one year of daily practice, other martial arts teachers and masters in the United States began to encourage me to create my own style of tai chi, one that integrated my vast experience and knowledge as a collegiate wrestler, kung fu world champion, submission grappler and student of tai chi.

I was reluctant to do so, at first.

Then along came my friend, Dale, who was training in another martial art that got my attention. It was a blend of Thai, Indonesian and American martial arts, taught by a grandmaster, Pendekar-Kru William Sanders.

Similar to tai chi, Sanders' art (Pukulan Cimande Pusaka Fon Jerng Sanders) was internal, and it could also be practiced for health purposes and fighting.

I jumped into learning Sanders’ art as I continued to practice Zhao Bao tai chi. I found Sanders’ spiraling techniques “off the charts.” And after three years of daily practice, I became a “Guru-Kru” in Sanders’ art.

As I practiced each day, an interesting and amazing thing happened. The more I practiced what Pendekar-Kru Sanders taught me, the better my tai chi got. I was adding additional nuances and spiraling movements to it that I learned from him.

That was when the idea to come out with my own tai chi form finally made sense to me. But instead of teaching the entire 108-move form, which can take a long, long time to learn, I decided to stick with the short form that Master Wang insisted that I practice daily.

And that form, which I refer to as Badass Tai Chi, is what I am now offering.