With Teddy Adams. One of the pleasures of martial arts is making new friends.

What a fun evening. As Nancy and Margery bonded (Margery is a sweet and smart person), Teddy and I went to the Kung Fu Room and I asked what he had the most questions about after studying the DVDs and online material.

I believe video training is a great way to learn, but nothing beats hands-on corrections. He still wasn't clear on how to set up the ground path, how to use peng, and how to use the kua.

So we worked on it. I helped him establish the ground through various pushes, showed him how to manipulate it against different directions of force, and we worked on the other body mechanics, including silk-reeling. We practiced fajing on Bob the Heavybag, and I showed how all of the mechanics come together and you "put on the gas" for fajing. Finally, we went to the deck with poles and did some pole-shaking exercises, putting the mechanics together.

Teddy is 75 years old, he has bad knees, but his passion for martial arts is as strong as it was when he was a pilot in the service back in the Fifties and Sixties. He flew missions in Vietnam and later worked for companies as a pilot, traveling the world and seeking out martial arts. You have to respect someone like this.

And even though he had studied some tai chi, and has a deep interest in it, most teachers he has met don't have a clue about internal body mechanics, focusing mostly on the mystical and some sort of chi flow that makes them seem to be very deep and supernatural but does nothing to help students learn tai chi.

That doesn't surprise me one bit. I've been to some of those classes. Many of them, in fact. That's why I teach the way I do.

Within a couple of hours they were gone. "That was fun," Nancy said. Then she shook her head. "People are now dropping by town to meet the teacher." It was pretty cool, but even cooler was the look of understanding in his eyes as we went through different concepts.

An evening well spent. And now we have two new friends.