Full Time Blog – James Strider

by James Strider on 2018/06/10

The 6th Daqingshan International Competition

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Daqingshan Mountain from the Pagoda

The start of my stay in China coincided with the 6th International Daqingshan Competition (April 28th to 30th this year), a yearly gathering that Master Chen started to promote both Taijiquan forms (a series of choreographed movements particular to each Family style) and also to provide a stage for a large scale Push Hands (a means of practicing Taiji techniques whilst trying to unbalance your opponent) tournament.

Hundreds of competitors came from around the globe to share, compete and challenge themselves on this wonderful stage, set in the beautiful setting of Daqingshan. I personally competed in my first competitive Push Hands bout (lost it!) and performed the Yilu (first form), gaining a score of 90.3, which I was very happy with.

Having heard so much about the competition over the years it was an absolute thrill to finally be a part of it, along with international Taiji brothers and sisters from places such as Bulgaria, USA, Canada, Indonesia, Singapore, Mongolia, Australia, India and of course China. Such is the scope of Master Chen’s teachings that he has now truly crossed the globe promoting the Practical Method, both online and with his workshops, and this yearly competition is where disciples and students alike can gather together to share knowledge, test each others skills and create lifetime friendships.

After the comp I stayed on with a few others, eventually moving to the nearby city of Rizhao where the main teaching takes place outside of workshop/competition time. And this wonderful, friendly, green and coastal city will be the subject of my next post!

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About James Strider

James is a Practical Method and Hunyuan Taijiquan practitioner and International Instructor & Liaison Officer for Master Chen Zhonghua. James was taught Chen Style XinYi Hunyuan Taijiquan by the late Grandmaster Feng Zhiqiang himself in 2004 in Holland and met Master Chen Zhonghua in 2006 via his then Master Chen Liangsheng. James has studied with Master Chen Zhonghua in the Czech Republic, Netherlands, Singapore, China and Australia, becoming his official Disciple in 2013. In April 2018 he started a full time training schedule with Master Chen in China at both Daqingshan and Rizhao. James now resides between Perth, Australia, Daqingshan International Training Centre and Rizhao, China, working and teaching full time for Master Chen Zhonghua as the schools International Instructor & Liaison Officer. You can contact him on WeChat ID: PracticalMethodPerth Email: james@practicalmethod.com.au Tel: Australia: +61 447799515 - China: +81 18766335391

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

John Ryan June 10, 2018 at 5:38 am

Great pics and good story. Well done and thanks for sharing James.

Reply

Vincent June 14, 2018 at 4:59 am

Wonderful James!

Reply

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