Vale Dragon Sports Massage Therapy

11/05/2024

Available in the comfort of your own home. Most Evenings and Weekends.

11/05/2024

Mobile Sports Massage Therapy. In the comfort of your own home. Available most evenings and weekends.

27/02/2022

02/02/2022

I am looking forward to the Fan Dance event this Saturday. Weather forecast is looking dodgy, but should be good fun.

29/12/2021

Training for a big event or just in need of a MOT? Mobile Sports Massage therapy in the comfort of your own home.

28/11/2021

Having a great day of strapping and taping. At Next Step Therapy in Neath.

28/10/2021

From one of my favourite writers.

LOOKING PAST DISCOURAGEMENT

Plenty of people are discouraged when they try to learn Taijiquan or Taoist philosophy. It all seems so complicated, the terms are in another language (even if you read and write Chinese, the classics are another matter altogether), and then there’s the paradox of the knowledge. It’s never just “one thing.”

I’ve seen it repeatedly. People think that they’re too old, or too out of shape, or too limited in knowledge, or too clumsy, or too emotionally damaged.

You know what? None of that applies.

All you have to do is want it. That’s it.

Do you see how wonderful that is? Schools reject your applications. Doctors don’t pay attention to your needs. Employers won’t respond to your inquiries. You walk into a gym and everyone looks the other way. You see someone you would crawl across a continent to prove your love and they won’t speak to you. When you run two blocks to catch a bus, the driver slams the door right in your face. You can’t get a table in a restaurant because they don’t like the way you’re dressed. But in Chinese martial arts and in Taoism, all you have to do is to want it.

Now I know that there are a lot of arrogant and greedy teachers, and that’s unfortunate. They ultimately are degrading the system. They declare: I would rather let the tradition die than teach it to the unqualified. Damn if that isn’t exactly what’s happened. Enormous swaths of knowledge and skill have been lost in the last century just because of that attitude.

But there was a counter attitude in traditional Chinese culture: martial arts, healing, and Taoism was for the people. During the last century, martial arts was also known as The National Art (國術) in part because the country was threatened by foreign invasion and the people were suffering from illness, natural disaster, and poverty. So back then, the masters did their best to help everyone.

So if you have a good teacher then all you need to do is show up and try. Whatever state you’re in is your starting point. Whatever you do is fine because it becomes the baseline for the next step. Generations of people started out as “unqualified” and became great masters through steady perseverance.

You can too: just try every day. Step by step.

20/09/2021

Full day walking to Llyn Y Fan Fawr yesterday followed by 2.5 hrs martial arts tonight. Great start to the week.