History

My name is Alisdair Scott, usually abbreviated to Al. I am founder and instructor at Curious Horse Taijiquan and organiser of the annual week long  Tai Chi Caledonia international event held on Stirling University campus every summer.  

My Taiji experience began in 1998 with Bob Lowey’s Seven Stars School of Taijiquan. In 2002 I became an instructor teaching the Seven Stars School’s health syllabus and the following year graduated to teaching the full syllabus.

Over the years I have  regularly attended a variety of European Taiji training events and workshops and continue to do so. These include Tai Chi Caledonia, Rencontres Jasnieres, Nils Klug’s annual Push Hands event in Hannover and Ivo Marvan’s Push Hands event in Prague, amongst others. This has given me the opportunity to attend workshops presented by some notable teachers including Ken Van Sickle, Mario Napoli, Katy Cheng, Jan Silberstorff, Faye Li Yip, Gianfranco Pace, William C. C. Chen, Paul Silfverstrale and Luigi Zanini.

In 2007 I met Canadian Sam Masich at Tai Chi Caledonia after which I regularly attended his workshops. These covered different aspects of sensing hands, Yang Style Taijiquan Baduanjin, weapons forms and partner work, Yang Style 108 Long Form and applications from the form. In 2017 I was lucky enough to have Master Sam Masich accept me as his student in The Masich Internal Arts Method which is now the focus of my study and training.

In 2019 I was honoured when Master Sam Masich formally accepted me as an “Indoor Student” (Tudi) in a private ceremony in his Berlin Studio on 18th August. This was confirmed in a public ceremony in Brighton on 9th November.

Having attended every Tai Chi Caledonia since 1998, I became very close friends with its co-founder, Ronnie Robinson. On his sad passing in 2016, I honoured Ronnie’s fervent wish for Tai Chi Caledonia to continue in his absence. Along with Aileen Mandic, Ronnie’s senior student, we are ensuring that the event indeed continues and are striving to maintain its high standard of teaching and its welcoming and inclusive energy.

Curious Horse Taijiquan is registered with the British Council of Chinese Martial Arts and I am registered and insured with them as an instructor.

I am also registered as a Full Instructor, Grade A, with the Tai Chi Union for Great Britain.