I first became interested in martial arts from a three week Taekwondo program my mom signed me up for as a 7-year-old. I found I had an interest in martial arts, but instead of continuing in Taekwondo I focused my attention on my family sport of wrestling through junior high and high school. I was still very interested in martial arts, but growing up in a small town in Minnesota, there weren't schools anywhere for that. Then I saw a Tai Chi video at the store in 7th grade, got it for Christmas, and loved it.

I self-studied in Tai Chi Chi and other martial art books and videos on and off for years, including Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong's books and articles in Kung Fu magazine, until moving to Minneapolis when I decided to look for a school where I could really begin to learn what so far I'd only experienced in videos and DVDs. I was very happy to find that there was one in the Twin Cities for Traditional Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan. The head instructor is Sifu Calph, whose teacher, I discovered, was Doc-Fai Wong!

The last three years have been amazing learning at Sifu Calph's school, traditional forms, martial applications, and wisdom of tai chi, something I thought I was going to have to move to either New York or San Francisco to find. Minnesota is truly lucky to have this school.

This fall I had the great fortune of meeting and training with Sifu Calph's tearcher, Grandmaster Doc-Fai Wong. That was an experience I will always be thankful for.