Cold Mountain Internal Arts

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.

Cannon Fist vid art ~2008 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.

Beautiful art in a good cause. Please consider donating!

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

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!

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

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

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!

Tai Chi Fan for Self Defence 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...

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!

Four Key Methods: Putting it all together! (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...

Hi everyone!

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

The Four Tangibles: Tai Chi Self Defence! (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...

My thanks to Peter Reist for this. One day past International Womens' Day, but worth posting at any time!

I had not heard of The Battle of Glasgow. Quite a story - having barbed wire hidden in floral bouquets to fight off cops with bats!

Things may seem better now, but only comparatively. Certain countries have r**e cultures, in**st cultures, cultures of socially sanctioned femicide. Here in Canada there is complacency about the fact that a woman's place in society is under greater stress due to COVID than a mans. In 2021 we learn that our Corrections officials don't bother to track sexual assault in prisons and that our local women's prison badly needs reform. And few political parties and institutions seem free of this. Meanwhile, despite emotional commemorations of the massacre of women at the Montreal Polytechnique, let's not be expecting meaningful gun reform.

It is important to keep up the fight!

Don't Mess With the Jiu-jitsu Suffragettes It's Edwardian Era Glasgow, circa 1914, and the stress mounting in St. Andrews's Hall is unbearable. Flocks of Suffragettes and policemen are waiting for the woman of the hour, Emmeline Pankhurst, to magically surface and fight against her own arrest — the tension is so palpable, you could cut it ...

The place of the Five Elements in Chinese culture and in the martial arts is profound. One member of our club, Senior Instructor Randall Templeton who has an extensive martial arts background, has investigated this in depth.

He is particularly interested in Tai Chi as an agent for personal change. He outlines his findings at:

Tai Chi and Personal Transformation by Randall Templeton, Associate Instructor Cold Mountain Internal Arts, May 2020 Background Most people in Tai Chi circles today are familiar with the Zhang Sanfeng myth. Historical evidence about this person is lacking, but controversy about him misses the point. The central message in this creatio...