One of my students, Kim Kruse, won first place at a big karate tournament in Dubuque a couple of weeks ago. She was competing in the brown belt division with the Chen 38 form (she's not yet a brown sash, either).

We enjoy performing Chen tai chi among martial artists of different styles, to drive home the fact that tai chi is a powerful martial art.

The beauty of the 38 is that it combines fluid, spiraling movements with fa-jing, and for a tournament like this, we put fa-jing throughout the form to emphasis the martial aspects.

Everyone else was busy that weekend, so Kim was our lone representative. She took third in sparring in her division.

Congratulations, Kim!