A Farewell Message From Mark Atkinson, Retiring President

At my annual seminar weekend in Hertfordshire at the end of February, I announced my decision to retire from my position of President of the English DYYSG Association. I would like now to take this opportunity to say goodbye and express my sincere appreciation to all members of the Association and to anyone who uses this website to support their interest in Daoyin Yangsheng Gong.

I founded the Association in 1999 at the request of Professor Zhang Guangde, with the express aims of promoting understanding of DYYSG and creating a network of accredited teachers in England.

Ten years on, we have more than 30 instructor members and in excess of 5000 regular participants. Dao Yin is practised not only by people wanting to maintain and improve their general health, but also in a range of medical contexts − diabetes, Parkinsons, HIV, heart disease, even cancer − which I think is a very impressive achievement.

This would sound conceited of me if I were claiming the credit for this happy state of affairs, but I want to use my farewell statement to place the credit squarely where it belongs − in the Longfei Taijiquan Association and in particular with Richard and Simon Watson.

It is absolutely the case that the development of DYYSG in England in the last ten years is inextricably linked with Longfei. The vast majority of accredited instructors are Longfei members, and this is because Richard and Simon placed sufficient trust in me at the outset to invite me to come annually to Hertfordshire and present seminars leading to accreditation. In turn, those accredited instructors have introduced DYYSG to their own students, and thus the aims of the Association have been achieved.

When I founded this Association, my home was in the Channel Island of Jersey, now it is in South West France, neither place a logical or convenient base from which to administer an "English" Association. But, with the development of Longfei's own Dao Yin teaching programme, including regular training trips to China; the awarding of 6^th "Duan" status to both Richard and Simon, and Richard honoured with the title "Ru Shi Di Zi" (close personal student) by Professor Zhang, I feel I can now retire, confident that the continued development of DYYSG in England is assured.

DYYSG will still play a central role in my life of course. I will continue to run my modest club here in France, to work with Professor Zhang's nephew in Biarritz and to try to develop further my own understanding of the theory and philosophy underlying this fascinating system.

Several of you have asked me if when I retire I will also stop offering seminars such as those I have given in Hertfordshire over the years, and indeed that had been my intention.

However, on reflection, taking into account the encouraging comments of many of you who attended my last seminar, I have decided to "leave the door open" where teaching is concerned.

I will certainly consider any invitation to teach I might receive in the future, and if I think I can genuinely offer something of benefit, then... who knows? So perhaps we will meet again.

In the meantime, I live in a house that needs my constant attention, I've got a guitar that I've been intending to learn to play for ten years and I was given a dart board at Christmas, so no lack of choice!

I wish continued success to the English DYYSG Association, to Simon Watson who succeeds me as President, Richard as Honorary Vice President, a personal word of thanks to Erik Foxcroft, who has also become Vice President, for his generous and unstinting work in creating and maintaining the website and a final thank you to everyone who has supported the development of DYYSG in England, and who I am sure will continue to do so.

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