Lee style tai chi chuan
The Lee style of tai chi chuan is closely related to a range of disciplines of Taoist Arts taught within the Lee style including Chi Kung, Tao Yin, Chinese Macrobiotics, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Taoist alchemy, Feng ShouKung Fu, and weapons practice. It was first brought to the West in the 1930s and was popularized by Chee Soo (see image left) who was the President of the International Taoist Society from 1958 until his death in 1994. There are five distinct areas of development: 1.Physical, 2.Mental, 3.Breathing, 4.Sheng Chi (Internal energy) and 5.Ching Sheng Li (External energy).Forms
The Lee style includes a number of forms comprising set sequences of movements. These movements are based upon fourteen basic stances which are named after animal movements. These stances are also grouped into sequences with names like "Drive the Tiger Away" and "The Fair Lady Weaving".
Sticky Hands
I Fu Shou is an exercise in which two people participate. Each person tries to upset the balance of the other whilst maintaining his or her own stability. Contact is through the arms and hands throughout the exercise. No matter what stance is adopted, there may always be a weakness in the balance of the body whether one moves left or right, backward or forward, upward or downward, and it is by taking advantage of these six directional weaknesses that the participants in I Fu Shou try to ‘uproot’ each other - to cause the other to lose their footing. The most difficult way to do this is to lift the other off the ground, but even this may be achieved provided that one has practiced diligently and developed a faultless technique.
Self Defence
Whirling Arms and whirling Hands are two of the exercises in the Lee Style which are used to teach basic principles of Self Defence. Weapons: Tai Chi sword and Tai Chi stick.