5 Ways Tai Chi Has Made My Life (and Jiu Jitsu) Better

I've been practicing Tai Chi about 4 years now. I love it. It has become one of my passions. Last year I also started training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at Neutral Ground in Milwaukee.  About 6-7 months ago Jon Friedland, the owner of Neutral Ground, gave me the opportunity to teach a Sunday night Tai Chi class there.

One day I saw one of my fellow Jiu Jitsu brothers at a concert and I was telling him about my Tai Chi class . He asked me how I got into Tai Chi and what I felt the benefits were. In the concert atmosphere it was hard to put together any concrete thoughts so I answered with a very generic "Uh… I don't know. I like it." - Hahahahaha


I feel like these are 2 really good questions though, so I thought I'd take the time to answer them here. Each question is pretty important, so I've decided to separate them into 2 different blogs :) This is part 2 of 2 and focuses on 5 things Tai Chi has done for me in life (and in Jiu Jitsu :) ).

1. Tai Chi makes my body feel electric and alive.
After doing my Tai Chi form my body feels as if I have heightened sensitivity from the inside out. I'm sure some would describe this as 'chi', but I'm more western and the concept of 'chi' just doesn't quite resonate with me as much as some people. Maybe my blood is flowing more or more freely into areas normally constricted by everyday postures such as desk sitting or couch lounging. Maybe its the deep breathing that oxygenates my blood more or maybe its the much needed relaxation my muscles need. I'm sure its a combination of all of those and probably 1000 other things that create that tingle-ey, vibrant feeling that happens through my whole body while doing Tai Chi.

2. Tai Chi calms me down.
Since I started doing Tai Chi, I am able to better control my emotions. This isn't to say I don't get into arguments with people or get upset ever. But when arguments pop up now, I feel more 'in control' of myself and my ego than before I started Tai Chi. Also any post conflict stress seems to melt away almost immediately. Leaving me with a clear mind to examine the situation and hopefully gain perspective from it.

3. Tai Chi trains my body to be more relaxed and flexible.
At Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class people are always remarking about how flexible I am. I don't really practice a whole lot of stretching. Mostly my body is flexible from keeping the muscles relaxed. When my muscles are relaxed there is way more flexibility than a stressed or tensed muscle. In life, this 'muscle state awareness' helps you breakdown and dissect which muscles you actually NEED for any given task. Even in things like driving or cooking there are unnecessarily tensed muscle groups which lead to body stress. In BJJ terms, this extra flexibility might give you an extra few seconds to think of an escape or way out of a bad position before tapping. Or maybe someone doesn't have a submission on properly, relaxation gives you the extra flexibility that you need to not tap on something that isn't done correctly.

4. Tai Chi makes me more aware of my own body
The Tai Chi I do focuses on one 'basic' 37 posture form. The form is refined first from the external/physical aspects - body alignment and positioning. Because the process is an endless refinement of one set of movements, there is a meditative quality that comes into play as you begin to work on the internal aspects of the form such as breathing or muscle states or being aware of your 'center' and balance. This all adds to a heightened body awareness not only when doing the form, but in all aspects of life - walking, driving, rolling at Jiu Jitsu.

5. Tai Chi gives me a fresh perspectives on life
Tai Chi was originally developed from Daoist philosophies. If I find I'm having trouble with something and need new perspective I tend to examine it through a Tai Chi 'lens' where I can put to work the principles of staying relaxed, not trying to meet force with force, and keeping with the 'flow' in all aspects of my life from work to relationships to Jiu Jitsu.

Even after 4+ years, I feel my Tai Chi is just developing. Yet even so,  the benefits above (in addition to countless others) have already enriched my life so much that I will always be on my Tai Chi journey :)

-Shane Olivo
The New Loud

Why (How) Did I Start Doing Tai Chi?

I've been practicing Tai Chi about 4 years now. I love it. It has become one of my passions. Last year I also started training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at Neutral Ground in Milwaukee.  About 6-7 months ago Jon Friedland, the owner of Neutral Ground, gave me the opportunity to teach a Sunday night Tai Chi class there.

One day I saw one of my fellow Jiu Jitsu brothers at a concert and I was telling him about my Tai Chi class . He asked me how I got into Tai Chi and what I felt the benefits were. In the concert atmosphere it was hard to put together any concrete thoughts so I answered with a very generic "Uh… I don't know. I like it." - Hahahahaha

I feel like these are 2 really good questions though, so I thought I'd take the time to answer them here. Each question is pretty important, so I've decided to separate them into 2 different blogs :)

1. Why (How) Did I Start Doing Tai Chi?
I've always been interested in martial arts since I was a kid. I mean what kid doesn't like ninjas? When I was younger and all through high school I had terrible allergies to the outside as well as having asthma which totally dissuaded me from any physical activities or sports. By the time I was in my early 30's, I felt a real itch to start something martial arts-wise but didn't really know where to begin. At this point one of my best friends had been working on Southern Style Kung Fu and then Bagua for about 10 years. I talked to him about starting a martial art - I wanted him to teach me, but at this point in his life he didn't really have time.

The advice he did give was this: "Since you'll be just starting martial arts now, being a little older, you might want to look into some of the internal/softer styles of martial arts like Tai Chi or Bagua." Softer/internal styles of martial arts focus more on what's happening within your body and tend to be more meditative. Tai Chi specifically trains relaxation, sensitivity, center and balance. They focus on a 'soft' power which is, in theory, supposed to be able to overcome harder strength based attacks - though there are very Tai Chi 'masters' skilled enough to demonstrate this adage. Tai Chi is also a form of Qi Gong which has many health benefits from increased bone density to lowering blood pressure.

The Bagua teacher he learned from was very skilled, but only taught the public on Saturdays in Madison which didn't work very well with my work schedule at the studio. So I asked my friend if he knew any Tai Chi places and he said "I know this guy that's really good. He makes these crazy YouTube videos. You should check him out."



That's my Tai Chi teacher Casey in the video. Casey's been working on Tai Chi for about 13+ years. In the winter of 2009, Casey was teaching out of the Neutral Ground space (where I teach now). He had a Sunday morning class that I started going to. 2 years later, in January 2011, I went down to San Diego and competed in my first martial arts tournament, taking home 2 gold medals and 1 silver medal in Fixed Step, Restricted Step and Moving Step Push Hands (Tai Chi Sparring).

I love Tai Chi. It has benefitted my life in countless ways since I started. I'll focus on a few of the most important ones in the second half of this post: What Does Tai Chi Do For Me?

-Shane
The Newloud

Tai Chi Camp 2009 Pt.3

6 PM Wednesday. Seattle. We're in like Flynn. Rolling up right into rush hour. Rush hour is nuts compared to Milwaukee - more like Chicago's rush hour where you're stuck dead - moving feet/minute instead of MPH. We're staying in Seattle with Casey's friend Chris. We have Chris' address, but no map and neither Casey nor I have high tech iPhones. After 30 minutes in traffic, we're about 4 ramps past Mercer Island. We decide to exit and chill out until we get word from Chris afterwork. Hunger is getting the best of Casey. He hasn't eaten much today and we're both on our 34th hour in the car, 30 hours driving, 4 hours combined for sleep.

Casey pulls into the parking lot of a Pho restaurant. Casey goes in to grab something to eat as I stay in the car. I didn't bring very much money, so I'm trying to conserve. As Casey is inside eating, I decide to eat vegetable soup out of the can. Frugal! After I'm done I made this video:



Its ends a bit abruptly. Cut short due to a 'NOOOOOOO!' moment as my mostly-empty can of tomato.based.vegetable soup dumps on the passenger seat of the Fiesta. Quickly I scramble to dump some water on it. Then, realizing I don't have anything to wipe up the pool of tomato-vegetable-water collecting in the back of the passenger seat, I have another 'NOOOOOOOOO' moment.
Briefly I debate in my mind:
'What do I use?'
I look around:
Pillow case? No. That's stupid.
Blanket? No. That's stupid.
The shirt I'm wearing? No. That's REALLY stupid!

Another panicky moment goes by before I settle on grabbing a clean sock out of my suitcase. I get the sock wet and wipe up the soup-water puddle slowly permeating the seat. The Fiesta's seats must by Scotchguarded to hell as the soup and extra water comes right up.

Chris moved from Milwaukee with his wife, Judith. Judith is out of town, so I don't get to meet her. Chris is cool. He's a physical therapist. Like a good Daoist, he's using his Tai Chi in his daily life, sometimes using it on patients. Chris has a dog, Pepe. Pepe is a small, white puff ball who is suppose to be non-allergenic. I am suspect and remain cautious around the animal. Pepe is a super chill and spends most of the time lounging around. He wanders out to Chris' side yard to lay down in the sun if opportunity arises. He seems to respect me. I respect him. I will call him a 'friend'... for now.

Tai Chi Camp 2009 Pt.2

Hey Everyone,

Shane from The New Loud here. In July 2009, I went with my Tai Chi teacher to a Tai Chi camp on Vancouver Island for 7 days. Throughout the trip I kept a blog going that I'll post here. Check it out if you're interested. We have some cool exciting band news coming up soon, but we won't be able to make any official announcements for at least a few weeks. Until then, enjoy these Tai Chi trip blogs.

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So we drove through the night. The Fiesta is picking up everything that's being laid down, including nearly 30 hours of straight driving. I don't have any experience driving a manual transmission. All I have to worry about is how to spend my time - which is proving to be harder than one may think despite a new laptop and a few books. Its really the spotty sleep from the go day that is setting the glacial pace of the trip. I find myself trapped between being too tired to concentrate on reading or doing video edits and not being tired enough to sleep while in motion.

Master Payne is doing well despite minimal rest. We stopped 2wice to sleep in the dead of night when darkness really bears down. The first stop was about an hour and the second time worked out to about 2-3 hours.

Even if I could drive, I think Casey wouldn't have it. He's on a personal mission. He wants to drive this solo. Straight. I understand. I try my best not to get in the way. Other creatures aren't so accommodating, like the skunk that, in the dead of night was running with the flow of traffic or the 2 deer that were just dead still, brimming with potential energy in the passing lane at 3 AM. With a quick turn of the wheel the skunk was avoided. The deer were a bit more of a nailbiter as we could only watch and hope they didn't bolt in front of our beloved Fiesta traveling forward at around 80 MPH. Luckily incident was avoided both times. The animals simply gave us a heart rate boost - cheering us on in their own way - which is a bit better than becoming casualties of our trip or humankind as it were on a more universal level.



As the sun rises, we descend a seemingly endless path which is the back half of the Rocky's coming out of Montana into Idaho. It truly does seem endless - especially after 24+ hours of straight driving.There are depressing scenes of clear cut mountain tops. The brown, barren caps are lifeless now.



I-90/I-94 goes through the northern tip of Idaho. The state seems to be over before I can formulate any thoughts about it other than - Why did they make the state line creep north into a point like that?


Soon we're stopped at Priest Rapids in Washington State. The Priest Rapids area is expansive. It is a calm, scenic pit stop on the tail end of this epic drive. Casey works on a video blog while I investigate the area. I find this cool little desert lizard which unfortunately scurries into a nearby bush, thwarting my attempt to capture the creature on with either photo or video.

Tai Chi Camp 2009 Pt.1

Hey Everyone,

Shane from The New Loud here. In July 2009, I went with my Tai Chi teacher to a Tai Chi camp on Vancouver Island for 7 days. Throughout the trip I kept a blog going that I'll post here. Check it out if you're interested. We have some cool exciting band news coming up soon, but we won't be able to make any official announcements for at least a few weeks. Until then, enjoy these Tai Chi trip blogs.

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It was a rough night, but we're finally on our way. I had everything packed and together by about 11:30 PM. I decided to take a shower and out of nowhere my allergies struck. Sneezing - probably 50-60 times - in the shower, so I know its not contact allergies - must've been something I took in. A low grade asthma attack starts and my eyes are like blood: solid red. Jessi convinces me to lay down to try to calm down. Try to curb the attack. With my chest too tight to take breaths from, I slowly start breathing, low below my intestines up through my stomach expanding my diaphragm. Tai Chi type breathing. Singing breathing. Soon some of the symptoms are beginning to subside enough to fall asleep.

Casey/Miltownkid/Master Payne got to my house at about 8 AM. We hung out for a minute before loading up the 2011 Ford Fiesta. Casey is my Tai Chi teacher. He's also a social networking master. Casey won this contest Ford was running: He and 99 other YouTubers have a prototype Fiesta, due to hit American streets next year.
6 Months.
Free Gas.
Free Insurance. Go anywhere you want. Just stay in the lower 48 and complete a goofy blogging 'mission' once a month. Like this:


As Jessi and I are taking the last of my luggage out to the car. By habit, I lock the front door and bring it closed. Neither Jessi nor I have keys. My Grandfather, who lives in the other flat, is out.

"FUCK!"

After we assess the situation, we decide to hang out and wait until Gramps comes back. Turns out he was just at the store. He's 83 and still walks to the grocery store 8 blocks away. The wait isn't very long at all.

He opens up the door to the house. Jessi is relieved. She didn't have to work today, but didn't necessarily want to spend the whole day in her pajamas in the side yard.

We told my Grandfather we were heading toward Canada by way of Seattle, WA. Before we left he told us this story: