Originally uploaded by markdeso
One of the things I love about Sensei is that he is an excellent story teller. He has had the opportunity to meet a lot of people in the martial arts community. His first T'ai Chi teacher was Robert W. Smith, who was a direct student of Cheng Man Ch'ing, and for a period of 2 years he studied with Cheng Man Ch'ing in New York.
Every so often Sensei will relate an anecdotal story to us. This evening, he talked about a story Robert Smith told him. Robert Smith had a friend, John. John was a gigantic Swed, 6'8" 280 lbs and a hardened war veteran. John was a hard core tough guy. One day Robert Smith arranged a demo from a Chinese martial artist. The martial artist proceeded with his demo and after, John turned to Robert and said, "Quite frankly, I'm not impressed."
At this point, Robert walked over to the person who gave the demo. He simply told him "My friend John would like to see something." His friend walked up to John, put his hand at his stomach, and made a cork screw motion. At first John just kind of wavered, and then he fell to the ground vomiting. At this point, Robert Smith walks over to John, leans over to him and says, "Did you want to see anything else?"
I love that Sensei has these stories he can pull out of his hat. He has many different sides to him, and story teller is definitely one of them.
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