Damo

Looks interesting, wish I was closer!

I had permission to teach and what I present is my art. people can take it or leave it. The foundations come from the line we have discussed but there are a great many elements from my other teachers. I make no attempt to hide the fact that I practice an art which has passed on to me from a variety of places and people. But I will indeed speak to my Uncle, he did after all teach a part of what I now teach. Everything that I teach from Taiji Quan I have permission for from him. The teachings from other sources have also been approved by my teachers. If there have been any errors though, I will rectify them. Don't want to rub people up the wrong way.

I was taught largely by my Uncle who had his own take on Shen's material. Although the information came down through their line Phil taught Yang TaijiQuan instead of the Taiji37 which Shen taught. The Taiji37 form is, as you may guess, 37 postures long and although similar to Yang has its own distinct qualities. Shen taught largely stationary postures from the Taiji37 system and although I do know the form I never really got on with it. I was taught a great deal more Yang by my Uncle and so consequently this sits better with me. Phil practices Taiji37 alongside his other TaijiQuan. I never studied any more than the basics of Taijiwuxigong with Shen, again the majority of my Qi Gong/Nei Gong comes through Phil which again does not really focus on Taijiwuxigong. The spontaneous movement work is a major part of Shen's work, his courses are bedlum! My Uncle used considerably less. In short, Shen was my Uncles teacher and my Uncle was my teacher although I studied with Shen too. My Uncles Taiji is Yang with input from Shen's internal work. Mine is very similar to my Uncle's. On another note, I liked some aspects of Taijiwuxigong, I was just turned off a little by the sort of attention it drew and it was a bit chaotic for me. Both my father and my Uncle have a strong basis in japanese martial arts and you can definitely tell from their attitudes which are quite structured. I have this attitude as well so it is inevitable that I would not be captured by the chaos of Taijiwuxigong! My current main teacher, master Ni, is very militaristic in his approach to Taiji which quite surprisingly works very well. I like his approach and will continue to train largely with him over the coming years.

Hey Paul, The lineage actually comes down through Phil (my Uncle), I am not aware of Phil having any problems with me. It was him who encouraged me to do this in the first place! I do not teach any of Shen's system. Not Taiji37, not Taijiwuxigong, not Buqi. I teach Yang style TaijiQuan as taught to me originally by Phil, the energy work is heavily influenced by Shen of course, nobody can spend any time training with Shen without being effected by his methods. I dont actually like Shen's version of Taiji very much or his Taijiwuxigong. I can see the benefits but personally prefer the systems of Qi Gong that I practice. I lost interest in Shen's school (Buqi) because of the way they approached the subject of Taijiwuxigong, I was taught primarily by Phil. The spontaneous movement is a very small part of this training, we focus very much on the martial aspect of the arts rather than the medical. I am not saying that I think the medical approach is wrong in any way, I just lean towards martial since this is how I have been brought up. The Nei Gong comes from a variety of sources, a great deal of it comes from the Hun Yuan branch of Qi Gong exercises which I study in Shandong province. I have been involved in the martial arts my entire life Paul, it amounts to quite a bit of time really. I certainly don't know it all as you so kindly write here. I do, however, know what I am doing. Its nice to catch up with you though!...

I've met the Wang from the documentary. Not the guy from the book I am afraid. Wang Li Ping from the book looks like this: http://www.dao-de.org/dragongate/ Somehow not as 'cool' looking as the guy from the documentary!

I like the post above. Especially paragraph number 1

The book is largely the system from Phil combined with my studies over the past few years in China although I was taught with very little theory. Taoism for me is the easiest language to use. There are also elements from Yogic traditions and other sources in order to try and provide the most rounded method of internal development as I currently see it. That being said, it is only an introducation and I am only 28, many more years practice ahead and I am sure ideas will develop and change, I hope so anyway! What do you train in More_Pie_Guy?

Hi More_Pie_Guy The system that I hold the lienage within is Taiji from Yang Chen Fu, Dong Yin Ji, Yao Huanzi through to my two teachers: Shen and my Uncle. A lot of the energy work though comes from Yi JiMay, Xia Zixing's line. Ha ha, Tian Zhaoling is in there somewhere too but not exactly sure how it fits in to be honest. Shen trained with several sources although he claims the purest line came through Yao Huanzi. Shen is also part of a Buddhist lineage that comes through Lama Fahai. Shen was very interested in the TCM side of the studies whilst my Uncle (Phil James) was more focused on the Meditation practice. Phil is very advanced in his meditation studies but only teaches locally which is a shame, he lives in a small bungalow in the Welsh valleys and pours most of his energy into this. I am also a student of one of Feng ZiQiangs line (Ni Yuanhai) but do not hold any lineage in this. I love the HunYuan system of Taiji but do not understand it as well as the Yang system. Hmmm, accomplishments the lineage holders held? Not sure what you mean there? Shen wasin charge of a hospital in China and Phil is really good on the harmonica! Is that any good? Damo I didnt know that Wong Kiew Kit used spontaneous movement. I dont know much about him to be honest, anybody want to share any info on him?

Hi, I dont really write on forums as I am not very good with computers but I saw this thread and thouht I would say hi! I can see why you would have your doubts snowmonki. To be honest, I hate writing about myself on the net and that is why I try to keep my cv kind of brief. Unfortunately I have to put something up to get any students! The name I was given at birth is Damien but everybody has called my Damo since I was tiny. That is pronounced Day-mo, not Dar-mo. As you can imagine, this often makes people presume I am comparing myself to the Indian monk which is really not my intention. Its kind of inevitable though. My middle name is worse though: Winston, I suppose I could shorten that to Winnie but thats kind of silly! I started training on my fourth birthday since my entire family are martial artists and have been for a long time, before I was born. Apart from going to school and college I have always just trained. I hated it when I was younger but grew to enjoy it. I was within the Japanese martial arts until I was 14 I think but then switched over into the Chinese systems although I still train Karate sometimes. I did actually have a break from training when I as 18 for 6 months when I kind of rebelled but dont tell any of my students! To be honest I was bored and went back to it very quickly. I was horrified at exctly how much flexibility I had lost in such a short time... My Uncle is a full Lineage holder under Shen Hongxun and he was my main Taiji instructor for a long time. I trained under him and Shen until a few years ago and so the lineage comes down through Phil. It is, strictly speaking, a Buddhist lineage but there was a great deal of Taoism within the practices. It was Taoism that took my interest and that is what I pursue now.. I set up Lotus Nei Gong in 2005 to teach and so further my own understanding, we are fairly small and low key and I kind of like it like that. The websit is our only real advertisement and we tend to stay out of the politics within the Taiji world. I do not profess to be any kind of master or anything like that. I am just somebody who is very sincere in what I do and has a strong passion for two things: travel and training... Not everybody likes what I do but o well, cannot please everybody all the time. It is nice to chat with you all here and looking through the forum it seems a lot better than most I have been on, there seems to be far less arguments and discussions about what works in a MMA ring! Damo (Damien) Oh yes, the book... The book was put together for my students mainly as a guide to the process we work through in our school. It is not a traditional process as such as I was taught in a rather haphazard manner! I had to try and put everything into a systematic order. This was the Nei Gong process within the book. I am not a natural writer and my first book is a little disjointed but this is made up for by the excellent cartoons put into the book by one of my students, Spencer Hill.

Hi I'm Damo, I'm not really one for forums but this one looks interesting! I'd like to contribute as best I can