Cold Mountain Internal Arts

07/15/2022

Zander Townend and I shot this video in 2008 at Calvin Church, Kitchener, Ontario. The objective was to provide Chen-style Beginners with an easy-to-follow, articulated, very simple, learning aid which broke the Chen Cannon Fist form down move by move while avoiding the distraction of fa-jin.

My hair is no longer red and my postures not as low but, in comparison, the video has worn rather well. This version of the Cannon Fist is very much influenced by Grandmaster Jou Tsung Hwa from whom I learned it in the mid-90's.

Chen Cannon Fist by Steve Higgins at Cold Mountain Internal Arts in Kitchener about 2008. The is a private slo-mo instructional vid with some articulation.

03/18/2022

Beautiful art in a good cause. Please consider donating!

CANZONA CHAMBER PLAYERS PRESENTS:Chamber Music For Tai Chi Forms & Weapons | The Ironwood QuartetA VIRTUAL RECITAL FOR UKRAINE* In lieu of concert tickets, C...

10/21/2021

I remember seeing a video of a somewhat condescending English journalist interviewing Edith Garrud, probably in the 60's when she was rather elderly. He wanted to know what she would do if her did...this? And she promptly, from her armchair, put him down with a jointlock!

Self defense skills are just as important now as they were back then! Part of every cultivated person's education!

08/11/2021

Our Toronto friends Evonne Tan and Jonathan Krehm performing at Stratford!

I'm looking forward to getting back to some performance in public!

07/08/2021

Great to see this kind of collaboration!

05/25/2021

An article (revised) about Tai Chi Fan for Self Defence is now at: https://www.coldmountaininternalarts.com/single-post/tai-chi-fan

I've been ZOOM - teaching a very combative version of the Flying Rainbow form since fairly early in the pandemic. It is my hope that this article will inspire interest in this very fascinating and demanding implement!

The Tai Chi fan / Taijishan is considered to be a heterodox short weapon of recent provenance in the Tai Chi tradition. Unlike the Japanese Samurai fan, the Chinese fan does not have a military tradition behind it; its primary function was to elegantly generate a cooling air current rather than to s...

04/22/2021

Well, here's the fifth in our series of 5 articles but, upon reviewing them, I see that I forgot a sixth article with some interesting material about basic skills like how to walk. So look for it in a day or two!

In the meantime, this article outlines a very basic set of 4 skills which together constitute an effective self-defence method. They build on what has been presented so far, but are not overly defined here. That is because, if you have any training, it should be adaptable to this method.

Enjoy!

(with thanks to Cold Mountain Associate Instructors Randall Templeton and Tanya Korovkin for their assistance; photos by Doug Haas and the one of me and Tanya by Peter Reist) The following four methods are the inner keys to many combative applications. They are not THE 4 FUNDAMENTAL METHODS. They ju...

04/09/2021

Hi everyone!

This is the 3rd. in my series of 5 articles about self defence. I hope this helps!

(CMIA Blog entry #19) In a previous entry (The Four Intangibles: Nov. 5, 2016) we explored the psychological pieces which should be in place as prerequisites for effective self-defence. We have also looked at the issue of Self Defence Before the Fight (July 13, 2016) - how to reduce or manage the ne...