Gigi Firicel Resume

I was born in May 1973 in the south of Romania. When I was a kid in the Communist era, I saw a Chinese martial arts movie in the theater.
This had a great impact, I remember going with friends to the woods and trying to copy what we saw in the movie. A fascination filled with a certain mystery for this segment of Chinese culture that is martial arts, has been triggered in me and has accompanied me all my life, despite all everyday things that distract you from what you feel. Later I practiced Quan Ki do- a style with Vietnamese influences and also from southern China-ethnicity Hakka. The training was scarce after the age of 32, as I was more and more busy with my job. I’m a surveyor and I work in the field of cadastre. As the years passed, the regret of having left the practice of martial arts increased. At the age of 36 I started looking for a Taiji instructor. In this area the offer is very poor so I appealed to the Internet help. After 2 years of searching I decided to take the step towards Practical Method. The way I felt was that it was something realistic, complex, relative to science and not ambiguous esoteric stuff. I started practice in 2011, I learned  yilu by myself: for me it was not difficult to learn the form, since the old style I practiced had this characteristic. Anyway, my image of the form in 2011 is totally different from today. The first video I watched was “Zhuan Guan ” and after that I had a period of 3-4 years in which I plunged into the world of Taiji theory with the help of the videos. A whole new  fascinating world  opened up, bringing some freshness and hope. It was the motivation behind several thousands yilu. I first met Master Chen in Prague 2012. For the first time I saw another interpretation of the martial contact. I followed him through these years to workshops in Europe, too rarely, unfortunately. But even these few hours spent together contributed a lot in my further evolution. To see and feel what is the application in Taiji, is totally different from what is seen in the video.
What I’ve won in these years of Taiji?
-I am much balanced about the mental attitude of understanding the phenomenon.
-I have an inner confort in which I feel good in my own skin, which I have never had before or at the beginning of practice. For example, I’ve always had a restless sleep, more emphasized after 35 years, which led me to seek a cure.
-I’ve always had an inner aggression which was eliminated layer by layer, not totally, but with a substantial improvement. And it contributes to my inner confort. The most beautiful moments I’ve lived after practice. Twenty Yilu and I feel all the flavors of the leaves of the trees surrounding you. It seems nothing, but it’s the taste of childhood that many seek and never find.
-I have the same inner physical force. After 35, this force is gowing down.You can regain this force by practicing taiji. You can  also have “taiji fruits”,  like I name the  new borns in the family.
This year I was in China and I saw a totally different world, from which I would like to enumerate a few things:
-a different culture that gives great importance to the practice and promotion of martial arts, even to the administrative-political level.
-a place specially built for this, with all the facilities included. Nothing is missing and if you’re a gourmet person like me, you have to train a little more.
-a master in his element who has time to share his art in detail. We stayed a few days in Rizhao and it was a day when  for a few hours, Master Chen showed us non stop applications. Different people, different approaches, angles etc. Although it’s been almost seven years  since I started, I’ve never seen anything like it. Combinations level is unlimited.
-after the period of accommodation over the flight and time zone, the effects of the practice is showing up. One of them is that the level of collagen grows, you can feel this on the face.
-chinese people are happy with visitors, they are kind people and very dedicated to practice, involvement of family etc.
If you are a person who wants to invest in yourself and your health or martial art skills, this is the ideal place. Personally I will continue on this path in my own rythm. If you live in my area and you are interesed in to practice, discuss about this  don’t hesitate to contact me. You can find me at practicalmethodromania@gmail.com, tel. +40726928923 in Cluj-Napoca,Romania.