Jim Weatherston Flat 31, 6 Windsor Street Maryhill Glasgow G20 7NA Tel: 0798 609 6263 My background is in "Shaolin" Kung Fu, but since 1986 I have been studying T'ai Chi Ch'uan with Sifu Ian Cameron. For the first few years of practice, my interest in T'ai Chi focussed entirely on the martial aspects of the art, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were benefits from the practice which went beyond fighting ability, strength and aerobic fitness. Most noticeable was the complete disappearance of a rheumatic pain in my shoulder with which I had suffered every winter for years. I became a teacher of T'ai Chi in 1994, but two years later I suffered a bad injury to my back and was unable to practise for some time. When I came back to T'ai Chi, I found that I had lost a great deal of fitness, stamina and mobility, and that I was more injury-prone than I had been previously. I thus had to go back to basics and build up gradually again. Since then my attitude to T'ai Chi has undergone a change in emphasis. While I continue to practise the full T'ai Chi Ch'uan syllabus, I have become much more interested in the use of T'ai Chi for relaxation, meditation and gentle exercise for people whose fitness and mobility is compromised, whether by age, ill health or any other factor. Early in 2001, I was given the opportunity to work with an Arthritis Care Group, and have found this to be very rewarding. This group are still among my keenest students. I also teach mixed ability classes in Lanarkshire and continue to study with Sifu Cameron in Edinburgh.