For more than a year now, Sven Gusowski from Practical Method-Berlin visits us each monday at our office at Freie Universität Berlin (FU Berlin) to do fifteen minutes of basic foundations exercises. We basically do variations of the positive circle and learn movements that can be easily repeated at home or anywhere.
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News : Blog
You can follow Master Chen’s blogs here.
The 2019 London Practical Method Seminar is held from March 23 to 24.
伦敦讲座London Practical Method Workshop 20190323-Group
Hi everyone!
I have been practicing Yang style Tai chi and qi gong for the past 5 years and recently have very much interest in the practical method.
I practice the foundations and learn the yilu choreography.
My spine structure shows major lordosis and kyphosis with forward head posture. The years of practice improved it maybe a little, but it seems that my spine would be able to be improved up to a point.
A straight spine is crucial for Tai chi capability… and every once in a while I get discouraged. I practice everyday, and it is a major part in my life, so I´m sure I would never stop.
Please shed some light, about the importance of spine alignment.
Every comment would be appreciated.
Thank you!
Alon
You can also see a few pictures here.
As a mechanical engineer and athlete who has been practicing Taijiquan (Yang Style 85 form) for several years, I was happy to discover Master Chen ZhongHua’s “Practical Method” on the Internet. I’m just thrilled about his martial art, humanity and kind to teach Taiji.
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Greetings to all
My name is Niko Papadakis.I have been practicing Chen style Tai Ji Chuan PM since Oct. 2015 .3 1/2 years of consistent practice.
I started with John Dahms & Brennan Toh in Ottawa.From there I began my journey in PM as I attended my first workshop with Chen Shifu. I continue to attend workshops 2-3 times per year.
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It is with great pleasure that we announce two new disciples of Master Chen Zhonghua in Sydney, Australia!
Sifu’s Rory Trend (No.334) and Paul Pryce (No.333) were both welcomed to the family on December 16th, 2018.
The ceremony was held at Rory’s “Trend Training Centre” where you can find Practical Method classes every week.
For more information contact: rorytrend@gmail.com
Master Chen (centre) with Paul Pryce (L) and Rory Trend (R)
Paul Pryce offers tea to Master Chen under the watchful eye of Grandmaster Hong Jungshen
Master Chen instructing Paul Pryce and Rory Trend to pay respect to Grandmaster Hong Junsheng’s image during the Discipleship ceremony
Rory Trend and his Sponsor, Sifu Rick Pietila
Rory Trend and Paul Pryce
Disciples Paul Janssens,Rick Pietila, John Saw,Brian Chung,Rory Trend and Paul Pryce
James Strider – Fulltime Training Blog Wk5 2019
On the 24th January, just 3 days after arriving back from Perth, Australia, I got the call from Master Chen to hurry on up to Beijing and meet Massimo Giorgianni, our representative in France for the Practical Method, at Beijing airport where he was arriving the next day for his first visit to China and my first Fulltime guest for 2019!
During the last Toronto workshop, Master Chen mentioned some common sense guidelines for asking questions at live workshops with him. He said there are only really three valid questions while he is instructing:
- Mater Chen, I did not *see* that clearly, can you please show me again?
- Master Chen, I did not *hear* you clearly, can you please repeat that again?
- Master Chen, I did not *feel* that clearly, can you please do that again?
At another previous workshop he instructed not to rephrase his words, (e.g. “so you’re saying…”). He uses very specific words and they should not be changed.
James Strider – Fulltime Training Blog Wk4 2019
PRACTICAL METHOD IS AN INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY!
As part of my new role as the International Liaison Officer for Master Chen here in China, I’ve already had the pleasure of meeting and greeting Massimo Giorgianni from Toulouse as he arrived in Beijing for an 8 day stay in Rizhao, Read more
-I missed the first hour.
To manipulate and opponent requires gradually altering the “friction” of the contact points. We need to be able to go from 10 units of friction to 8 units to 6 to 4 to 2 as we do a move, and we need to be able to do this more quickly than the opponent can adapt to us. This is very difficult to do, it requires a lot of foundations. When someone is pushing us, if we have too much yang we will lose, too much yin and we will also lose.
The universe was nothing, and then was created through a rotational force. Therefore, a rotational force cannot be countered. This does not mean a rotational force can do everything. However, the progress of a rotational force is unlimited; 360 degrees. An external straight line has an end.
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关于学习方法：
1、假设你处在婴儿的学习阶段。只需要听和看就够了。
2、忽略你自己的想法。
3、反复复制师傅的动作。
4、如何提问：针对刚讲解的部分，询问需要重复的动作和再次解释没听清楚的部分。
I will attempt to recount what Master Chen shared about learning the morning of 3/2/19 at the Toronto workshop.
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On Sunday, February 10, I had the good fortune of attending the Taiji Tournament that is always held as part of the annual Phoenix Chinese Week. This festival celebrates many aspects of Chinese culture, including history, food, art, opera performances, and- of course- martial arts. I have attended the tournament several times in the past as a spectator. As a newer disciple, I decided that it would be good for both myself and the promotion of Practical Method to finally participate. Read more
To anyone who’s interested in participating in this year’s Berlin workshop with Master Chen, please click here for further information and sign up:
http://www.practicalmethod.de/angebote/anmeldung-czh-in-berlin/
Looking forward to seeing you there 😀
Best,
Sven
Details coming soon!
www.practicalmethod.pl/en
On Tuesday, 1/29/2019, I was invited to the radio talk show in Phoenix, Independent Talk 1100 KFNX. The show was live streamed on Facebook, Successful Aging.
I just attended Chen Zhonghua’s Phoenix workshop last weekend. As usual, I thought I was pretty good thanks to all the practicing I had done since last year in Iowa, and as usual, Zhonghua threw my confidence into the toilet.
It was a great workshop, although overwhelming. At least I’m more comfortable with what I think is the most important thing that was taught, namely don’t think. Just follow the directions and don’t question them. This is a big thing for me, someone who is always up in his head comparing and questioning. Turns out that thinking is just a distraction from practicing, which is the only way to learn what is being taught. How to get out of my head? I think the answer is to practice as intently as I can. When I do that, I notice interesting things and have occasional exciting insights. It’s that excitement that keeps me going and that keeps practicing tai chi from becoming like a diet, where it takes willpower to force me to do it.
The second biggie I came away with is the need to segregate all the parts within each movement. I learned that when two parts within a movement go at the same time they are double heavy. I had not been separating the parts, which made for a prettier form, but was not leading me in a good direction. So far, I’m just working on the part up to the pound mortar of the first section of yilu. It is so hard! But it’s starting to feel right, especially if I practice it with stalking power. With that power, each segment of each movement seems to slip into place.
These two things are enough for me to practice right now. I’m already starting to feel human again and it’s a given that my confidence will be back by this summer in Iowa, just in time to be destroyed by the master again!
Over the past 12 years of training under Master Chen, I can safely say that his emphasis on how to train correctly to obtain true “ability” (ie. being able to demonstrate effective martial/physical application of the movement(s) in question) through the Practical Method are a combination of Consistency, strict Adherence to the Rules of “Not Moving” (or Rotation) and, last but not least, getting used to “Eating Bitter” (or as Master Chen would say “You must become comfortable in your uncomfortableness!”) every day.
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It was not until I tried to follow the first of the essential videos of Master Chen when I saw the difference, and practically feel the changes in the body.
Precise instructions, every time!
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In 2015 I stayed one month at the Daqinshan Practical Method training centre of Master Chen’s. One evening training session Master Chen was explaining one of the facets of the importance of the Chen Style Tall Hand Posture during all your exercises (yilu, push hands and foundations unless stated otherwise). This account is my subjective view on what he explained and invite everyone to add their thoughts or to correct me, please.
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James Strider – Fulltime Training Blog Wk1 2019
Having been living in Rizhao for the past 7 of the 9 months since leaving Perth, it’s high time I started my blog again!
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North American Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method Training Camp 2019 ~ In memory of Tim Duehring 8
Hi everyone,
I’ve been looking up and down the webpage to find out what the following abbreviations mean. In words, at least :))
LFSB – ?????
SWPE – sink waist press elbow
SYYZ (?) -?????
All come up in the New York 2018 workshop and the vid doesn’t talk about the remaining two. I GUESS SYY means “seperate yin and yang” but I am clueless about the “Z”
Can anyone help me out? And yeah, I am aware that the mere wording means nothing and I’ll probably not be closer to being able to do it than before but I am CURIOUS 🙂
Thanks in advance!
Barbara
I was having a discussion with my disciple brother Brennan Toh about what I have been working on with my long term students Gerry and Emily, with specific attention to Lie , one of the 8 techniques of Taiji. At the North American Practical Method Training Camp last year Brennan was taking me down with this same technique, except his upper/lower body separation was crazily effective….he took out significant space from below without his top moving (his top continued to match my upper body). This lead to him suggesting the following drill: Read more
You are looking at the aftermath of the Hong Kong workshop. Apparently, Master sent Wu (the guy fixing the wall) flying into the wall I hope the action is captured in the video:
 20th Anniversary of Ottawa-Gatineau Workshops |
Each year, Master Chen have tirelessly come to Ottawa to share his special insight in the art of Taijiquan. This year makes the Twentieth Anniversary of those annual workshops. Disciples Rachelle B.and James T. organized a series of workshops, special events and produced a commemorative T-shirts for each participants inorder to honor this special occasion. Participants from Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City joined in our celebration. Over the weekend, there was a special seminar on Silk-Reeling, a review of the concept of Internal and External and many other facets in the training of the Practical Method of Chen Style Taijiquan. |
Over the past weekend at the Hong Kong workshop, Master Chen’s move on KT trigged the fall detection feature on the Apple Watch Series 4:
https://www.popsci.com/apple-watch-fall-detection
The incredible thing was that KT hasn’t fallen. He merely was knocked away from Master Chen. Obviously, this blow has enough acceleration and gyration on KT and in turn the Apple Watch asked if KT needs medical attention.
Will we see the day that we can use the watch replacing the needs for mats?
Any engineers here can shed some light on the physics?
I was privileged to spend a couple of days with Master and Master Sun. Here are my notes:
The opponent completes the circuit. When you are about to fall, that is when your power transfers. This goes back to an explanation where Master propped up two cards leaning on each other. Master said that his previous videos showing this technique received a lot of flack since it looked like he was stumbling.
The shoulder has to rotate while the Kua moves up. What is outside is outside. Inside is inside. Hand coming in is the result of failing to achieve this.
Elbow in is the only focus. Any other focus causes power to go to other parts.
Only up and down. No sideways. I have been leaning during Walk Obliquely. Read more
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13
-No move, only rotate
-Rotation –> power
-Friction (feet) eventually on the opponent
-Action and Attachment
-Movement without movement
-move –> you become dead (like a top spinning, then starting to wobble, then falling over)
-Stretch –> life Read more
Day one
Moving Steps positive circle instructions
Do not involve torso, Do not lean
Torso and elbow are locked, isolate torso from hand and foot, Stretch is a must.
Use front of the torso to catch the opponent at 45 to front
And use rear Kua and elbow to throw the opponent
Elbow coming and Kua going out must be like a pair of scissors
If the elbow is on Kua it’s locked and if it’s not connected there is no bite.
Initially, do not worry about power, only direction.
Train your body to become a pair of scissors.
CHEN STYLE TAIJIQUAN PRACTICAL METHOD TESTIMONIAL
JAN GOULD and ROSS McLACHLAN, October 2018, Phoenix
