Every January I get a large number of calls from people who feel they have a duty to make a new year resolution which involves them calling up a variety of "Martial Arts", "Exercise Activity" or "Health Lifestyle" teachers with their passionate desires to shed the extra poundage acquired during the festive excess.

Unfortunately for me Tai Chi comes under all of the above categories so I end up fielding no end of inappropriate enquiries. So this year I made my own resolution and that was to find out if they were

1. Really interested in learning the Taijiquan fighting art
2. They were physically up to it
3. They had the mental toughness to learn in an intimidating environment
4. They were not afraid to get hurt

and if not then tell them where to go, i.e somewhere else.

This has vastly reduced the number of people who will come to see me but it has had the advantage of deterring all those who just liked to waste my time.

I am also constantly surprised by the lack of fitness,observation and basic ability of certain Black Belts from other arts who claim they wish to learn an internal art but drop out soon after starting because they either can't let go of what they have learnt, can't do what I show them in a couple of lessons, get thrown about by people who don't have any belts at all and don't give them the respect they think is their due. It takes a special person to discard years of training when a better way of doing something appears, and in my experience they are few and far between.

To cap it all this year I was contacted by a local teacher who claimed he wished to learn from me who then had the temerity to ask me to visit his class to discuss what I could do for him. He then started bombarding me with spam about seminars and videos of his art. I told him in no uncertain terms that he had asked to learn from me and not the other way round. I have had others who wished to trade information with me, but it always is the case that they want to learn my stuff and I have no interest in their stuff whatsoever. Suffice it to say he still asked to learn from me but one of the tenets of our school is not to teach untrustworthy or disreputable characters. I believe that a man should be judged by his actions so he will get no joy from me.

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