Testimonials
Comments and reviews of Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method, workshops and Master Chen Zhonghua.
Video Clip below
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Iowa workshop participants, please comment on what you learn from this drill.
Todd Elihu : Response Drill is to train not to react locally to the opponent’s touch on your shoulder but to simultaneously move your hand in toward the opponent. Therefore the intention is on hand out and not on the opponent touching your shoulder. It also trains timing.
You can also see a few pictures here.
Workshop Practical Method Chen Style Taichi Quan push hands by Grandmaster Joseph Chen Zhonghua
De Glind 26-27april 2014, Netherlands
These notes are partly chronological and based on how I percieved them. I kept as close as I could to Master Chen’s exact words.
Day one
The workshop started with an introduction. Underlying the art of Practical Method Taiji Chen Style are thirteen dimensions. These thirteen dimensions are divided in two levels. Eight dimensions are related to the air; five are related to the floor.
Click to view the collection in smugmug.com (click the arrow on the side to browse)
The hand on the stick is to show that the hand is being moved by the elbow.
Nearing Christmas, under the bright festive lights of Hong Kong, K.T. Lin and Nicholas Fung (馮嘉傑) from the Hong Kong Chen Style Taiji Practical Method (香港陳式太極實用拳法) organized the year ending workshop with Master Chen Zhonghua. On a mild weekend, more than thirty participants from Hong Kong, the Mainland, USA and Canada gathered to train with Master Chen. A special thanks to Tim Duering and Hán Ruì (韩瑞) who came from Daqingshan to help with the workshop. For two days, Master Chen covered the basics of the Practical Method such as the foundations, movement and Yilu. Master Chen also covered the theory of Chen Taijiquan as well as hands on applications and the intricacy of push hands training.
Good workshop with students from Victoria and Seattle who made the trip. Worked on foundations and a drill to line up two dots on the body.
Han Rui and Tim Duehring joined Master Chen for Hong Kong 2015 workshop
On another perfect Ottawa autumn weekend, Master Chen taught his disciples and Taiji enthusiasts the intricate art of Taijiquan. The organizers (Rachelle, Daniel and James) meticulously planned three days of intense training focusing on Taiji history, philosophy and the unique nature of the Practical Method. the workshop participants was fortunate to have an entire day devoted to the hidden art of Pao Chui. A special thanks to all the students from Toronto and Montreal who made the long trip to take advantage of the hands-on training with Master Chen.
Camille from Port Alberni, and Phil from California joined us.
Four days focused on yilu correction. Master Chen went around while we did yilu and gave lessons based on our errors.
For me, this experience pushed my envelope of what is required from yilu, and I feel a difference on the last day, how my body is more stable in doing it. Master Chen reminded me to keep practicing correctly otherwise I will revert to my old habit.
Some points from my notes:
- keep the head not moving (this engages the core)
- keep the arm shoulder level, while adjusting below
I noticed this kind of motion before from Master Chen but only starting to feel the effect of it in my stability.
In a way Yilu is a progressive system, I only notice the higher difficulty requirement if my body can perform it and can tell the difference when I do it correctly.
Already some time ago now I had an interesting discussion with another person from Germany. There was one aspect showing up, which in principle could be very interessting for all of us who want to learn Taiji.
Here and there Master Chen did point out that in Taijiquan (or at least our style of Taijiquan ..) there is nothing which is related to anything we know from normal life, to the contrary, in general things are totally opposite. Right? Read more
New disciple: Jeff Clevenger and Chris Christopher Thomas Dusek
Notes by Aaron from September 12th and 13th Iowa workshop:
Drills:
stepping foundation drills: power is constant, speed determines the appearance of more force.
Positive circles, negative circles, mixed circles, 6 sealing 4 closing
Romania Workshop 2015
One week ago Master Chen held the first workshop in Romania. Four years ago I myself took my first step in the practical method world, buying the first video: foundation. In these four years I met Master Chen three times in workshops across Europe. It was not easy. Without this modern approach which allows you to work using videos from practicalmethod.com, it would have been impossible for me to make any progress.
Master Chen Zhonghua gave a challenge to perform 20 yilus a day from end of Nov 2014 to May 8, 2015, which amounted to 3200+ yilus in total. Congratulations to Aaron Bartholomew, Charlie Wishon and Kelvin Ho, who have successfully completed the challenge. Patrick Dickson has also completed 80% of the days despite of his injury and surgery. Thanks to all who have participated in the challenge. It has been great fun.
Fantastic first day with applications, foundations and basic “don’t move” information. Great progress was demonstrated by all attendees showing how an extended concentrated learning situation can boost the body and understanding to grow. Grandmaster Chen’s instructions and guidance was as usual extraordinary. More Foundations and Yilu for the second day as well as a disciple ceremony. We are so looking forward to our last day of training and fellowship.
Rick and Wolf joined us from Victoria Island
We worked on separation at the shoulder. This is the first time I have a taste of how to do it, as I heard of this principle before but in the past my body can not do it, or just do it by accident, not in controller manner
The application of separation is not just moving the arm in a separate manner, but it is having two focus in the move. One is to keep opponent contact point steady, and one is to have the arm move not affecting the first focus.
It is unnatural because habitually only do one move with one focus at a time. Master Chen showed me the finer detail of this move, like having a stretch to compensate for the arm move.
Even though it is still cold, many students attend the workshop.There is also discipleship ceremony, push hand tournament and calligraphy during the weekend
“Having been a guest at the Daqingshan Mountain Resort, I can say that Master Chen Zhonghua is a very generous, charismatic and extremely intelligent man. He has a passion for Taijiquan and I am grateful he shares it with the world. Read more
‘For several years I participated training and workshops with Master Chen Zhonqhua and experienced the high Technical and Teaching level of master Chen’s Hunyuan Chen Style and Practical Method.
Linlin came up from Eugene to join us. Master Chen bring up the importance of clear separation in out movement. Breaking down cloud hand into three steps.
Move as if the torso is being carried by the leg, don’t go up and down
Notes from Toronto workshop:
-Make the dot longer to control where they fall. Must add 3rd dimension. Curved line automatically works in 3 dimensions.
-Change of position allows the length to be changed. Do not change the angle. Read more
I met Alfred Yu and Hannes Richter last year when they came to Phoenix to attend Master Chen’s workshop. They could not come to Master Chen’s workshop this year. So, they invited me to go to Irvine to teach the foundation and Yilu. It’s a short trip for me. I took a morning flight from Phoenix to Orange County, by night I got back home.
There are five people came to the class on Sunday, November 16. Three of them were total new to Practical Method. I taught foundations in the morning. I showed them “twisting towel”, “fetching water”, positive and negative circles, explained the purposes of each exercise, their elements in forms of Yilu, the concepts of “don’t move”, “open kua”, and “rotate”. In the afternoon, I taught the first 13 moves of Yilu, then a little push hand. It was a successful day. One person was going to stay just for an hour. It turned out that he stayed for the whole day.
I will go back to Irvine in late January or early February. If you are in the area, please contact Alfred Yu for more details. His email is mralyu@yahoo.com. His phone number is 949-331-2735.
