Simon Thakur is the founder of Ancestral Movement "An ecological approach to movement and mind-body practice, exploring ancient ancestral patterns of movement and awareness built into our bodies, rediscovering the power, grace and ease of natural movement and our bodies’ innate connection to the rest of the living world.

In this episode we cover many subjects including Yoga, Chinese Martial Arts, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Tai Chi, Shamanism and more!

Simon's website: https://www.ancestralmovement.com/

The Tai Chi Notebook: https://thetaichinotebook.com/

Alan Wycherley runs the YouTube channel 'In Defence of the Traditional Martial Arts' and is a tai chi practitioner who is interested in using the art as a practical self-defence system.

In Defence of the Traditional Martial Arts: https://www.youtube.com/@indefenceofthetraditionalma

Twitter: https://x.com/alwycherley

The Fajin Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thefajinproject

Podcast by The Tai Chi Notebook (c) 2025

https://thetaichinotebook.com/

Baguazhang misconceptions with Edward Hines

My guest for episode 35 is Edward Hines, a long time Baguazhang student of Lou Dexiu. Ed started training Bagua in Taiwan way back in 1991, and has continued ever since. He now teaches online at I-bagua.com and has books about Baguazhang you can find on Amazon.

To frame our chat we decided to cast around for the most common misconceptions you hear about Baguazhang, and address each of them, one at a time.

Links:

www.i-bagua.com

thetaichinotebook.com

This episode of The Tai Chi Notebook podcast is slightly different to a regular episode. There isn't a guest, but that doesn't mean I'm alone...

This episode is brought to you using the power of AI. I fed a recent blog post from The Tai Chi Notebook into Google's NotebookLM, an AI that produces a podcast based on your article, just to see what would happen and the result was so good that I decided to put it out as a real episode! See what you think.

Original blog post:

https://thetaichinotebook.com/2024/09/16/how-to-do-takedowns-and-throws-in-tai-chi-xing-yi-baguazhang-or-any-martial-art/

My guest for the latest episode of The Tai Chi Notebook Podcast is Tina Faulkner Elders, chief instructor of the RuYi School of Taijiquan and Qigong in Aberdeenshire. We talk about Tina’s training in qigong, first with her father, then in Beijing, China, and then on Wudang mountain itself, the legendary home of Taoism.

Links:

RuYi School of Taijiquan and Qigong

https://ruyischool.com/

Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/RuyiAberdeenshire/

Youtube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsfluLjYWYdD7T8HhJ7BZOQ

The Tai Chi Notebook

http://thetaichinotebook.com

In episode 32 of The Tai Chi Notebook Podcast, I’m joined by Augustus John Roe, who is an author and martial artist living and working in Vietnam.

In our interview I get a chance to ask Gus about what traditional martial arts are like in Vietnam, how the MMA scene there developed and how popular Tai Chi is, not to mention the surprising involvement of Ho Chi Minh in the early development of the 24-Step Tai Chi form.

Links:

Augustus John Roe:

https://www.augustusjohnroe.com/

Ho Chi Minh Tai Chi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfIl0dKrP0c

https://thetaichinotebook.com/

Randy Brown is a Mantis Boxing and BJJ black belt coach teaching in the USA. In this podcast we explore how Randy has reworked his Mantis Boxing to explore the grappling potential hidden in its forms and how they can interact with his Brazilian Jiujitsu. We talk about a range of subjects including self defence vs sport, weapons vs barehand and how to turn dead systems into living arts again.

Links:

https://randybrownmantisboxing.com/

Nabil Ranné is a Chen style teacher living in Berlin who offers classes and online training at CTN Academy https://www.ctn.academy/ Nabil is a student of Chen Yu who is the only son of Chen ZhaoKui and grandson of the famous Chen Fake.

Here’s what we talk about:

Timestamps:

1.00: Nabil’s background in martial arts and what attracted him to Chen style Tai Chi

3.40: What is Jin in Tai Chi?

7.30: What makes Tai Chi different to other marital arts?

11.15: What is the strategy for Tai Chi?

16.00: What is the function of Tai Chi push hands?

17.55: Competition push hands vs Tai Chi push hands

22.20: The Xin Yi podcast and how do you train applications in Tai Chi

28.00: Real life self defence situations

36.00: Martial arts vs marital sports

44.02: Zhan Zhuang: Standing pillar practice

46.55: Chen style FaJin methods and their purpose

55.00: Nabil’s book and getting in touch

Links:

———

Nabil’s website: https://www.ctn.academy/

Nabil’s training history: https://www.ctn.academy/blog/learning-taijiquan-with-chen-yu-nabil-ranne

Nabil’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taijigongfu/

Find out more about The Tai Chi Notebook Podcast at: www.thetaichinotebook.com

This month's guest is Richard Johnson a long-time student of Joseph Chen of Chen Style Practical Method.

As well as a Tai Chi practitioner and teacher, Richard is a full time movement coach working with athletes, so he brings an appreciation of athletic movement to his views on Tai Chi.

In our discussion Richard delves deeply into the internal workings of the Chen Style Practical Method and we talk a lot some interesting movement principles based around rotation. We also talk about how the Practical Method is different to the Chen Village style of Tai Chi.

You can get in touch with Richard using his email address trukinetix at gmail.com

Find out more about this podcast at www.thetaichinotebook.com

Jess O’Brien is the author of the book Neijiaquan and co host of the Neijiaquan podcast, which he runs with Isaac Kamins.

Since 1999, Jess has studied extensively under BK Frantzis. Over the years, he has also trained with other, preeminent internal martial artists like Luo De Xiu. He has been active in martial arts since his teens.

In this episode we discuss what drew Jess to the internal arts and how he trained with various different teachers before becoming a student of Bruce Kumar Frantzis.

Links:

Neijiqaun podcast: http://www.theneijiaquanpodcast.com/

Water Tradition Internal Arts: http://www.watertradition.net/

Find out more about this podcast at: www.thetaichinotebook.com