Dịch
Rhoda Joy Jacobs with Patrick Watson | Peggy Watson and Vicki Shackford
In honor of the Tai Chi Foundation’s 50 years, each month in 2025, we are publishing blog posts featuring historical material, reflections by TCF tai chi teachers, videos, and photos. We hope the images and words will connect the tai chi community to our school’s many strengths, expand our understanding of the art, and inspire our practice. And who knows? Perhaps something in this series will inspire you to share your experience as well; the door is always open. Welcome to this month’s edition.
May Memories!
Peggy Watson, Vicki Shackford, and Rhoda Joy Jacobs have each been part of TCF since its earliest days. Join them as they share stories rooted the School’s beginning years.
***
Peggy Watson’s Tai Chi Journey
Peggy at tai chi camp with other early teachers: (left to right) Greg Woodson, Peggy Watson, Margaret Olmsted, “Matsu” Matsumoto, Axel Schwolow
Peggy Watson is a senior teacher at Tai Chi Nash. She was married to our school’s founder, Patrick Watson. She is an acupuncturist and teaches Five Elements Acupuncture.
Her story is told here by Senior TCF Teacher and Board Member, Michael G. Tillman.
Peggy Watson
Peggy Watson (b: October 7, 1955)
Peggy grew up in Connecticut. One of her first loves was horses. At age 12, she begged her parents for riding lessons, which they provided. From that moment, her mission was to have her own horse. Her parents flippantly said that if she could save up and buy a horse, she could keep it.
Peggy was determined. She mowed lawns, delivered newspapers, babysat, whatever she could do. She didn’t spend a cent. It all went to her “horse fund.” At the stables where she rode, there was one particularly difficult horse. It was not gentle for the young riders, wild, and would not settle down. Peggy loved the horse. It was a Buckskin quarter horse. She saved $400.
She asked the stable owners if they would sell the horse to her, and they agreed. Peggy asked how much it would cost, and they replied, “How much do you have?” Not knowing better, Peggy responded, “I’ve saved $400.” They said that would be fine. At 15, she hadn’t yet learned the art of negotiation.
However, upon arriving home, her parents seemingly forgot their promise. They didn’t think she could come up with enough money to buy a horse. Peggy had only cried once before, when she was seven and ran into a hornet’s nest. But she cried that evening at the dinner table with her four siblings and parents, reiterating what her parents told her. Her father had just built his pride and joy tool shed on their property. However, he agreed to convert it into a stable for Peggy’s horse.
In high school, Peggy enrolled in an exchange student program, not knowing where she would be sent. She and four others went to Malaysia in 1973. There, Peggy lived with a Chinese family for a year. She loved it! It became one of the defining experiences in her life.
Click to Read Peggy’s Journey to a Life in Tai Chi
Dear friends at camp: (left to right) Miriam Cooper, Peggy Watson, Roberta Walcutt, Toby Davis
***
My Journey with Patrick and Hawaiian Swimming
By Vicki Shackford
Vicki teaching Hawaiian Swimming
I first met Patrick Watson in San Francisco in 1965 when I was 12 years old. He was head lifeguard at Garfield Pool, my neighborhood pool, and he became my swim coach from grades 7 through 12. Patrick was known by everyone as “Pat” in those days.
Our swim team met daily during the school year, and twice a day in the summer. Besides taking us to swim meets, Patrick taught us life-saving skills and Red Cross swim strokes (with lots of drills) and built our stamina (hundreds of pushups and sit-ups on the pool deck). When Patrick was away, Eddie Ukini (a native Hawaiian) coached us at other pools.
Patrick sent me to study with Charlie Sava, who was a coach for many Olympic swimmers, to get certified to teach swimming. Charlie was a strict teacher, and a little gruff. Patrick and Eddie Ukini were also strict, though Patrick was always supportive. I started teaching younger kids under the Red Cross swim program, and I also taught some private lessons through Patrick.
In the summer, Patrick would sometimes take our swim team to Fleishhacker Pool at the beach: a huge ocean-water pool, 50×300 meters in size. The water was heated to only 72 degrees F—cold! One of Patrick’s drills was to have the swim team run on the beach. He also had us do kicking and swimming drills down the long length of the pool. Fleishhacker Pool was where Eddie Ukini primarily worked, and he was one of the people who taught Hawaiian swimming to Patrick.
Read More from Vicki on Hawaiian Swimming
***
Hawaiian Healing Arts in the TCF Curriculum
An essay by Rhoda Joy Jacobs
Rhoda Joy Jacobs was introduced to tai chi in Los Angeles in 1973 with Abraham Liu and continued with Patrick Watson in NYC in 1975. Both Abraham and Partick were two of Professor Cheng Man’Ching’s “Five Worthies”. Rhoda taught Tai Chi and Arica trainings in NYC, Montclair NJ, Maui, Mexico City and for the last 20 years has lived in Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Her extensive practice of the Ho’oponopono has become deeply engraved in her consciousness and has become her natural way of living life.
From its early days, our school has included Hawaiian healing arts in its practice. Our founder, Patrick Watson, lived in San Francisco in the 1960s and 1970s, a center of Asian martial arts and Hawaiian culture. Patrick had the great fortune to learn traditional ways to heal the body and mind from eminent Hawaiian kahunas (spiritual healers, doctors, and teachers).
First, he learned Hawaiian swimming from his kahuna coach Eddie Ukini. While teaching swimming himself, Patrick mentored the young Vicki Shackford, who later became a tai chi teacher in our school. Vicki has preserved the Hawaiian swimming art over the years, teaching it at most of our summer residential tai chi trainings as well as training other teachers in the art.
Second, Patrick learned the bodywork art of lomi from Eddie Ukini and from Morrnah Simeona, a kahuna honored as a healer and a Living Treasure of Hawaii. Lomi is a method of restoring our skeletal structure to its optimum alignment, to strengthen and correct body and movement, relieve pain, and improve energy.
When Rhoda Joy Jacobs, a teacher in our school, suffered a physical trauma to her back after being attacked, Patrick took her under his wing and worked with her for several years, overseeing and fine-tuning her daily lomi practice. At first, Rhoda was in so much pain that she was unable to stand or sit without assistance. With lomi practice, she experienced the gradual restoration of her alignment, her strength, and her ability to move, and she was able to return to teaching tai chi classes.
Third, Patrick learned the practice of ho’oponopono from Morrnah Simeona. Ho’oponopono is an ancient Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness (the word means “to make right”). When Patrick taught the practice to Rhoda, she was able to forgive her attacker and cleanse her connections to all people, things, and events in her current and past experiences. A few weeks before Patrick died, he entrusted Rhoda with the responsibility of keeping lomi and ho’oponopono alive within our school.
Read More from Rhoda About Hawaiian Healing Arts
***
In 1991, TCF leaders were affectionately known as “The Gang of Eight.” Left to right: Gerrie Sporken, Greg Woodson, Peggy Watson, Sherry Kent, Margaret Matsumoto, Margaret Olmsted, Axel Schwolow, Patty Gorman.
As we celebrate 50 years, our school is now led by a Legacy Advisory Committee —pictured here in 2024. Left to right: Els Eijssens – Legacy Advisory Committee facilitator, Margaret Olmsted – Legacy Holder, Greg Woodson – Legacy Holder, Gerrie Sporken – Legacy Holder, Sherry Kent – Legacy Holder, Vanessa Costigan – Legacy Advisory Committee Member, Jonathan Stow – Legacy Advisory Committee Member, Margaret Matsumoto – Legacy Holder.
***
First Discovering Tai Chi and the Tai Chi Foundation?
You can learn more about tai chi by exploring the diverse offerings of the Tai Chi Foundation (TCF). TCF provides live online courses, allowing you to participate in guided sessions in the comfort of your home. These virtual classes offer unique opportunities to connect with experienced instructors, ensuring that you receive personalized guidance and feedback. Additionally, the Tai Chi Foundation offers Teachable on-demand classes, providing a flexible and accessible way to learn at your own pace. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced practitioner, these online resources offer a wealth of knowledge to enrich your tai chi journey. For those seeking a more hands-on experience, check out the regular course offerings of TCF’s affiliated local schools.
TCF is a not-for-profit educational organization that promotes, funds, and teaches programs that enable people to learn tai chi chuan and embody its principles.
Be sure to check out our new TCF 50th Anniversary Shop, where you can find stylish tai chi t-shirts and other great branded merchandise!
The Tai Chi Foundation Editorial Team
Photos courtesy Tai Chi Foundation Inc.
Copyright Tai Chi Foundation 2025
Give a Reply