While on our recent cruise, both Sally and I were interested to see the following in the activities listing:

"TAI CHI - Sam Moor shares the enjoyment and benefits to be gained by the practice of Tai Chi."

As martial artists, we are always looking to expand our knowledge, and this was a perfect chance to try a different art, and one that had always intrigued me. I knew little about the art apart from what I had seen on television, and my ignorance always led me to believe that this was something that you practised once you were too old or unfit to undertake a high impact martial art such as karate.

How wrong I was.

My perception, I suppose, had been built around seeing Tai Chi practitioners using very slow movements and what looked like very little effort. Let me assure you now, I was not prepared for the physical and mental effort needed to replicate what looked like fairly simple moves, and found myself relaxing while working out at the same time.

Sam, our instructor, has been practising Tai Chi for the last 12 years after experimenting with other martial arts. His movement looks so fluid and the moves so simple, until you try to copy. We were lucky enough to be able to attend ten one hour sessions during our holiday and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. However, we both appreciate that Tai Chi, like all other martial arts, is not something that you can learn and perfect in a short amount of time, and we are therefore planning to continue our training at home, and with Sam, when time allows.

The reality for all of us is that no matter how much you think you know, or how good you think you are, you always end up right back at the beginning again. As long as you have the desire to improve, and are not prepared to believe you have mastered everything, you will always have something to learn or perfect, week after week, month after month, year after year.

Sam lives and teaches in Hove, East Sussex, and his website is http://www.sussextaichi.co.uk/. We are looking to arrange for Sam to visit the club and give our students an introduction to Tai Chi in the near future.