Don Wells 20 Pinewood Road Airyhall Aberdeen AB15 8NA Tel: 01224 310904 My Tai Chi has taken an unusual path. I was 53 when I first started. A year later a few of us, instead of bemoaning the loss of our teacher, set up a practice group which became Aberdeen Tai Chi Chuan '88. We managed somehow to struggle through the rest of the square form and I "emerged" as the leader/secretary/dogsbody.   But it was only when we got in touch with Sifu Ian Cameron that we began to realise the depth and spirit of the Wudang style. Some of us travelled occasionally to Edinburgh and he started to visit Aberdeen twice a year, a practice which has continued over the last 11 years. I was awarded a Five Winds Intermediate Instructor certificate in September 1997 and in June 2000 moved up to a full Instructor. But I know that in many ways I'm starting afresh every day. I've "tasted" other styles of Tai Chi; I can follow a leader through the Beijing 24 step form without falling over and I once tried the Chen style. Nearly forty years ago I tried stepping into the square ring but one win and two losses told me that I wasn't cut out for full contact. In our classes in Aberdeen and Ellon we look for quality of movement in every aspect of Tai Chi. I say "our" because my wife Margaret has come a long way with me on the teaching road. This group of Chinese ladies is demonstrating the Wudang square form in Aberdeen - that's Northeast Scotland, not Hong Kong. When I was first asked to teach them Tai Chi, I was very reluctant ("coals to Newcastle"?) but I was assured that none of them had ever learned it, and no one in all Aberdeen's Chinese community was able to teach them. It wasn't easy but I learned a few Chinese words, like "forward" and "back" and they quickly picked up phrases like "shoulder width" and "turn the body". It's a pity that the class had to stop but we still see some of them now and again at our annual Tai Chi picnic or the evening classes. What keeps me hooked on Tai Chi? I still get as much pleasure out of simple movement drills like turning and stepping as I do from completing a vigorous weapon form.