About ...

Hello, my name is Henry and I am a new T’ai Chi student. I have been practicing this ancient Chinese martial arts for about 6 weeks now and must say I really enjoy it.

I first learned about T’ai Chi in 1997 during my freshman year of college. I was looking around in the athletics department for something to do in between classes and, as I was passing through the halls, I peaked into a room where many people were moving in concert. The movements were slow and everyone was in synched. I stuck around and watched the class curious as to what kind of activity this was. I spoke to the teacher after the class and he said "this is a T’ai Chi class". He explained to me what T’ai Chi was and gave me some information about the class and how to sign up if I was ever interested in joining. I wrote the info down but never ended up signing up for the class. Even though I never got to sign up, I left intrigued by the class and what the teacher had told me about T’ai Chi.

16 years later, I happened to be in a Chinese New Year celebration at a local farmer’s market. One of the activities was a martial arts presentation from a local academy named Mt Song. The presentation included a variety of disciplines, from Kickboxing to Kung Fu styles. But one in particular caught my attention. It was by a guy of about 5’6’’ with very short hair and dressed in a simple garment, something a monk would wear. He performed a routine that immediately brought me back to that time when I peaked in my College T'ai Chi class. But he performed with more precision and style, and he had a fan in hand.

After the presentation I went up to him and let him know how much I had enjoy it. His name is Mario and after our initial introduction I had found out he is the main teacher, also called ‘Shifu’, of the MtSong Martial Arts Academy. I had recalled my brief talk with my college T'ai Chi instructor and how I had left the gym with the desired to learn more, so I asked Mario a lot of questions. We talked about his early training, philosophy, and some of the different disciplines taught at MtSong. I was hooked. He gave me a free pass to one of his classes. Two days later I was there. It has been 6 weeks and I am still attending classes and enjoying every moment.