SAM'S 'FOUNDATIONS' IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER!
Foundations of Traditional Taijiquan: Core Concepts and Full Curriculum
Well folks, it’s finally done and at the printer’s! After some twenty years of writing and several more of editing, ‘Foundations’ is ready to make its mark in the taijiquan world. With Forewords by: Grandmaster Liang Shou-Yu, Grandmaster Nick Gracenin, Grandmaster (Joseph) Chen Zhonghua, and Grandmaster Yang Jun.
Foundations of Traditional Taijiquan: Core Concepts and Full Curriculum
The title for this collection of essays, Foundations of Traditional Taijiquan: Core Concepts and Full Curriculum, refers to themes that date back to the mid-nineteenth century origins of Yang-style Taijiquan (Yangshi Taijiquan 楊式太極拳) and the parallel introduction of the Taijiquan Classics (Taijiquan Jing 太極拳經) into the Chinese martial art called taijiquan (太極拳). The theories within are essential for practitioners who would take a core-concept based approach to taijiquan.
Initially, I wrote to consolidate and document my learning and to have a record of my progress. As I began teaching, I created handouts, notes, diagrams, and other reference materials for my students. Those writings were shared by other teachers in their classrooms and on their websites. It has given me pleasure over the years when students have shown me their binder collections of my articles along with materials accumulated from various places.
Master Sam Masich's Foundations of Traditional Taijiquan is a scholarly and encyclopedic investigation of taijiquan theory and practice. Informed by many years of close study with recognized masters and grandmasters, and by years of careful research, teaching and practice, this work adds important insights to the growing body of modern taijiquan literature. Sam takes great pains to clarify the sometimes puzzling maxims and allusive terminology of classical texts, illuminating their cultural, martial and spiritual meanings. This latter effort alone is worth the price of the book.
—Yang Yang, Ph.D., author of Taijiquan: The Art of Nurturing, The Science of Power
