Editor’s Note

Nasser Butt

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Welcome to Volume 24 of Lift Hands Magazine!

I cannot believe that another year has already flown by and we are now standing at the cusp of 2023! Where has the time gone?

2022 was the year after Covid, when the world finally started to move again, and while it was a tough year for many, it was a relief to get back to some kind of normality.

The Lift Hands family has grown with each passing year and the magazine has moved on from strength to strength. We have officially entered Year 7, since the launch of the magazine in November 2016 — a remarkable achievement and one which could not have been accomplished without the many, many, many good souls and friends out there who have helped in so many different ways. As always — a massive thank you to you all for your contributions, no matter how big or small. I genuinely feel humbled by the love and support which I have received.

Hopefully, by the time the magazine is published, you will all have had your fill of festivities, merriment and the obligatory overdosing of food, and will be ready to put your feet up for a good read.

Once again, the articles are top draw! Thank you to each and every one of you who have taken the time out, especially during the holiday seasons around the world, and sat down to write for the magazine. The usual suspects have come up with the goods once again.

Greg Lawton, my dear friend, has signed-off with an excellent Part 3 to his series Embracing The Blade. It really has been a gemstone. Katherine Sensei, despite being not so well, got one of her team members, Dr Dimitrios Zacharopoulos to write an excellent article on injury prevention. We wish Katherine Sensei a speedy recovery and hope that it will not interfere with her enjoying of the festive period.

I would like to say a massive thank you to Howard Choy for being so accommodating and prompt with the extended 20 Questions which I put to him. His answers are not only illuminating, lifting a veil on Yang family Taiji in Hong Kong and elsewhere, they are also inspiring. I hope that at some point in the future I can sit down and do another interview with him in person.

Lift Hands Magazine is now available to buy as a digital download from peecho.com. The links are all available on our FaceBook page and I will be adding them at the back of the magazine as well. For those wishing to purchase a digital download, simply copy and paste the Volume link into your browser and follow the instructions from there.

March 2023 will see Volume 25 of Lift Hands Magazine — we will have made it to a quarter of a century… let’s make this an even bigger bolder issue to mark the occasion!

As we close the year, let us remember all our fallen brothers and sisters in our Martial Family — We bow to them and honour them all.

Meanwhile, I’d like to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a peaceful, healthy and prosperous New Year.

See you in 2023!

Nasser

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