My Teachers
I started tai chi in 1986. I met my first teacher, Bill Grizzle, in a local gym while we were pushing weights around. He saw my Ed Parker’s Karate Studios t-shirt and asked who my teacher was. You should have seen his eyes bug out when I told him Ed Parker was my teacher. (Not sure who that is, ask Mr. Ellis.)
I had read a lot about tai chi and asked him what his teacher would say if he knew Bill was weight-lifting since they generally frown on it as being too external. He told me Master Liao would not be happy. We got to talking and arranged for Bill to come down to my studio. I would teach him some weapons work and he would teach me the Temple style tai chi he was doing. Bill is still at it today and teaching at Master Liao’s academy in Oak Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb.
Master Way-Sun Liao is world-renowned in the art and wrote the commonly used text The Tai Chi Classics. http://www.amazon.com/Tai-Chi-Classics-Shambhala/dp/1570627495 He was the youngest master recognized on Taiwan. Bill began teaching me and he taught some classes at my school. It was Bill who got me started on the path.
When I moved to Florida I started looking for a teacher who could continue my education. I saw an article in a local magazine and called that person. She did a very simplified version and told me to “just make it up.” I was appalled.
I kept hearing two names come up in Ft. Myers, where I lived. They were Peter Annazone and Tom Baeli. I managed to connect and over the past 20+ years we are still friends and in contact. Peter taught me the chi-kung I teach, those being the Eight Pieces of Brocade or Eight Treasures. He also taught me the Four Corners tai chi. Tom had influence on Peter as well, being that he had studied directly with Professor Cheng Man-Ching while in New York.
Tom was a bit of a rolling stone and studied with well-known masters in New York and San Francisco. In San Francisco he worked with Stephen Chang and Ben Lo, both outstanding practitioners. He also trained with Bob Amacker, a tai chi fighter under Professor and who now splits his time between Hawaii and Moscow, where he has a club. Bob recently published an in-depth book on the art, The Theoretical Basis of Tai Chi Chuan, and it’s deep, real deep.
Tom had gotten out of the Army where he had done some Tae Kwon Do in Korea and was looking for this thing called tai chi. Tom literally buttonholed people on the streets of Chinatowns on both coasts looking for entrée to a school. He had injured himself in a parachute jump and walked crab-wise. He heard that maybe the art could help him regain his natural gait. And it did.
Tom wound up learning from Professor in New York and even dated his daughter. He migrated down to Florida where I met him. One of my students found him and dragged him in one day. He later admitted he was a bit apprehensive. That stems from attitudes one will find in prejudice between systems and karate people generally looked askance at tai chi. Like most prejudice, it stems from ignorance. I guess Tom knew of my reputation in the martial arts community and wasn’t sure what to expect. What I remember most from the meeting was that he looked around the school and said to Peggy, my student; “There is no violence here.”
Tom would stop by when it was quiet at the studio and we got to talking and showing. When I saw him do his art and describe the mechanics I knew I had met a high-quality practitioner. I formally asked him to teach me and I took lessons with him for almost 20 years until I moved to Texas.
Tom taught at my studio from time to time, did seminars and even traveled with me to England once. He has always been forthcoming with the encyclopedic knowledge he possesses. Tom has been a huge help to me and my students and friends.
I’d like to call him Sifu but he refuses the title and prefers the Chinese alternate, if you must, of student. I rather like that.
Thanks, Tom.