About

 

My name is Derek Croley. When I was a kid, I played every sport available to me. Which, where I lived, was football, soccer, and baseball. Later on I added wrestling and track. Also, I started doing karate and kickboxing when I was 8. So, and this will come as no surprise, I’ve had a TON of sports injuries. I’ve separated my shoulder, broken all kinds of bones, strained, busted, battered, and pretty much messed up everything else as well. All from sport fighting, football, basketball, and so on.

I started doing Tai Chi in High School because I thought it was cool looking. I liked it enough to move to China after College, where I took private lessons in Tai Chi and Qi Gong (and a secret art called Yuan Gong Chan Chuan) under a guy named Liu Chan Shan. What I didn’t realize at the time is that I was learning something secret, something special. As it turns out, Shifu Liu taught me Yuan Gong Chan Chuan, and then asked permission from his teacher Po Rin Fu.

When I moved back to the States, I started my own martial arts school- this was in 2000. We’ve been open ever since, have multiple locations, and done well! In 2005 or 2006 (I forget which) I was introduced to George Xu (Xu Guo Ming), who is my forever teacher. I travel as often as I can out to California or to China to train with him. He encourages working towards a deeper understanding. In that effort, I’ve also trained with Yu Xioalin, Yun Yin Sun, Wu Ji, and a whole lot of other Masters from China.

Well, with all of the sports that I played and all of the sport fighting that I did, I realized in my mid 20’s that my body was a train wreck! I didn’t have enough money to get medical attention, so I had to do something! Then it came to me. I already knew exactly what to do. So I dedicated myself completely to healing myself with the teachings I had already learned. And it worked. I can do a complete squat (my knees weren’t good enough for that before), I can lift my right arm up to the side (couldn’t do that since I was in my late teens), and a whole lot more. Basically, my body works again.

And now, here’s the thing.  I’ve gone so far past that. With the help of my teachers, and a whole lot of practice and personal work, I’ve figured out some pretty deep levels of training.  This is the kind of thing that always inspired me.  I wanted to know the secrets. I wanted to know the high level personal growth and spiritual practices that just didn’t seem real. I don’t have all the answers, but I do have several of the high level teachings of Tai Chi and Qi Gong.  I want to share them with you.  Let’s get started.

Derek is:

*** A Vice President and Head Instructor of WACIMA ( the Worldwide Association of Chinese Internal Martial Arts).

*** A Master Instructor Under George Xu.

***Author of “The 6 Steps to Self Mastery” and “Ancient Secrets, Modern Tactics.” 

***Offical Certified Trainer for PMA Martial Arts as well as WACIMA.

***Has a 9th Degree Black Belt in one martial art, and 8th in another, and a 7th in a 3rd.  As well as a whole lot of other Black Belts in pretty much anything that interested him over the past 40 years of training.

***Is a Shifu (teacher) under Liu Chan Shan.

***Has lived and trained in China, trained all over the US, and even a little in Israel.