Martial Arts Montage!: T’ai Chi and Seiken-Do

Ladies and gentlemen, I have quite the treat for you guys. With the brilliance of Adobe Premiere and with old footage from my articles about the Teesside University fighting clubs, I’ve been able to put together not one, but TWO martial arts montage videos!

Firstly, here’s a video on the Teesside University T’ai Chi club I visited early on this year. The link to the original article is down below…
T’ai Chi

The second video is about the Teesside University Seiken-Do club which I also visited this year. The original article for that is down below too…

Seiken-Do

Students Learn The Art Of T’ai Chi

DEVELOPING FORM: The club demonstrating a T’ai Chi form in certain stages.

Chinese martial arts are unlike many forms that have come and gone.

Hundreds of Chinese martial arts have emerged from the shadows over time and the majority of them aren’t actually used for use of combat at all.

T’ai Chi is a physical AND mental martial art, focusing on developing ones health rather than martial arts skill.

For this reason, many practitioners use this as a method to get fit rather than to use in combat.

Despite this, T’ai Chi is still a form of fighting that can hold its own against any average Joe.

LEARNING: Instructor Stephen Brown teaching attacks to the group

CHINESE martial art T’ai Chi has found its way to Teesside University as way to help students feeling the pressure of their studies.

The Teesside University T’ai Chi society was formed as a way to ease the minds of students with its work on health of the body and mind.

Stephen Brown has been instructing for 4 years at the club and he couldn’t wait to take instruction.

Stephen said: “I was in one of the classes and I’d already been doing teaching when one of the teachers left.”

“And I said “Well I’ll keep it going and continue to teach it” to keep the club going.”

“I’ve been doing it for 4 years now and it has been a great experience.”

FOLLOW THE LEADER: Members attempting to follow the moves showcased by Intstructor Stephen

Stephen has been studying yang style T’ai Chi for more than 10 years and has been studying chen style T’ai Chi for 6 years.

It is the Chen style that is taught in the club, which Stephen has a lot of differences from the yang style.

Stephen said: “From the chen style stemmed some other styles like yang style.”

“Chen style is gaining preference becauseit has more of a balanced nature to it whereas yang is very soft and gentle.”

“The chen tends to be of equal hard and softness so it has both ying and yang aspects.”

FLOW: Following the flow of the move with the instructor

Regardless of what style is taught, Tai-Chi is a style which really benefits those with an interesting in protecting themselves.

Stephen said: “T’ai chi helps with self-defence and when I say self-defence, the first thing in self-defence is the health of the body.”

“One can’t defend themselves if they can’t defend themselves against themselves.”

“It allows the user the ability to release one’s mind from the daily activities.”

T’AI CHI MOVES: Stephen demonstrates a form for his students to follow

Stephen continued the group on after was graduating with qualifications in Visual and Web Applications.

Stephen believes it is an exercise that can help ease stress levels, especially for students.

Stephen said: “If you’re a student and you walk away from studies and come back with a fresher mind, you can always tackle something.

“Now that’s difficult to do, because how do you walk away from something well if you go and do something and you study something else?

“You’re not resting the mind, but if you do something that’s a study of movement like t’ai chi is, there’s no serious difficulty in moving the body in co-ordination with one’s will, but doing it precisely is relaxing but not tense.”

CLUB UNITED: Club showcases their skills as one.

Member and current student Sean Wilkinson encourages students to get involved in order to ease the heavily loaded student mind like it has for him.

Sean said: “I think you should give it ago, because it does help your mind and your body.”

“Not only is it a physical activity it’s a mental activity.”

“After hours of doing this, your mind is completely clear and it’s still a martial and is used for self-defence.

Sessions are usually on from 2:00pm to 4:00pm every Sunday in the Brittan Building, but this can be subject to change.

To find out more about the club e-mail them at taichi@tees-su.org.uk.

Students Hitting Hard With Teesside University Seiken-Do Club

AT THE READY: Members prepare to strike at the Seiken-Do Club

NOW I know what you’re thinking… just what is Seiken-Do?

What is this martial art all about?

Well prepare yourself to be introduced to the longest running martial arts club in Teesside University history – Teesside University Seiken-Do society!

HARD-HITTING SHOTS: A member works on his striking ability

Starting nearly 20 years ago, the martial art was introduced by Roy Cullen as a way of combining his knowledge of the arts of Brazilian Jiu-Jistu and Jeet Kune Do into one form.

The constituent styles in SKD are Jeet Kune Do, Wing Chun, BJJ and Russian Systema taught within a framework including developmental psychology and encapsulated by teaching methodology.

Jeet Kune Do is the style that was used by martial arts legend Bruce Lee, who believed the majority of martial arts were too rigid and formalistic to be practical in scenarios of chaotic street fighting.

The Seiken-Do form was developed from Jeet Kune Do to become the ultimate defence when it comes to real-life situations you could find yourself on the streets.

FRONT KICK: Paul delivers a hard front kick to the pads

In fact, Paul Standen of the club believes that Seiken-Do is so distinct of an art that there is no real style involved and is based on improvisation rather than technique.

Paul said: “There is no style to this art.”

“Seiken-Do is a set of principles and you follow principles rather than a style.”

“We take a lot of arts and a lot of techniques from different arts and use them the way Bruce Lee did.”

KICKS EVERYWHERE: Brutal kicks dished out in the Seiken-Do class

During his time as a Teesside University as a consultant, Cullen started off a Jeet Kune Do class there which was later developed into the Seiken-Do club.

The club was the most popular martial arts class at the University for many years and has hosted some of the biggest names in the martial arts world for seminars as well as having students participate in MMA competition.

With other fighting clubs being formed, the club found itself overshadowed by the more well-known martial arts and saw a decrease in interest.

However, it stills remains a University society and club chairman Jack Serpell believes the art is a lot less restricted than them other forms.

Jack said: “Seiken-Do isn’t a sport as such.”

“It’s more of a defence art”.

“It’s so much more flexible and interchangeable than other forms.”

SELF DEFENCE: Paul teaches us about defending yourself against a weapon attack

Paul Standen has been fighting for nearly 30 years and has spent about 15 years in Seiken-Do.

He feels that the martial art is something that you could benefit a lot from in as early as your first session.

Paul said: “It’s a good skill, if you want something that you can do straight away and doesn’t take 5 years to get good at it.”

“After your first session, you can do something that’s significant.”

“It really is as simple as that.”

PRACTICE: The members work on their craft

The club is open to all Teesside University students and chairman Jack, who is a student himself, does not believe the club to be a huge burden on his studies.

Jack said: “The training times are very flexible for students.”

“We are training Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays and it’s really beneficial.”

“If you can’t make one night, you can always make another.”

There is a lot of flexibility as the club is on at 7:30pm to 9:30pm on Thursday, 11:00am to 2:00pm on Saturday and 12pm to 3pm on Sundays.

So there’s plenty of sessions during the week if you can’t make it one day.

To find out more about the club you can go to their Facebook page “Seiken-Do UK” at this link https://www.facebook.com/SeikenDoUK.