 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.
The ability to lock the opponent is an important one we need to continuously to improve on in Practical Method. In order to send the opponent to the floor in what seemingly an effortless manner (in reality, it is not really effortless), we always need to lock the opponent first. However, more often than not, especially at the beginning of our learning, we use a lot of brute force to keep the opponent in certain position. However, locking the opponent simply means disallowing him or her to move. As long as the opponent is not moving, the objective is achieved. Read more
CHEN STYLE TAIJIQUAN PRACTICAL METHOD TESTIMONIAL
JAN GOULD and ROSS McLACHLAN, October 2018, Phoenix
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 10 min. In: English Year: 2018 Difficulty:1/5
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 10 min. In: English Year: 2018 Difficulty:1/5
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 10 min. In: English Year: 2018 Difficulty:1/5
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 10 min. In: English Year: 2018 Difficulty:1/5
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 10 min. In: English Year: 2018 Difficulty:1/5
During a discussion on the English speaking Wechat group for PM a very interesting question was pointed out by Pawel Muller from Vienna.
As set by Ping Wei from Phoenix on the chat, the question was noted as what comes to the mind of a PM student, when Master Chen speaks about power.
Alexandra Hasenfratz from BC Canada answered that it’s the ability to move or take down someone or something.
Paul Carlson from Fort Collins as well as Rainer Kummerfeldt from Luebeck, added the concept of power in physics.
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 10 min. In: English Year: 2018 Difficulty:1/5
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 10 min. In: English Year: 2018 Difficulty:1/5
From the 9th to 11th of September 2018, Master Chen and Mister Wang Xin, a big regional liqour manufacturer, took us to Chenjiagou (Chen village), the birthplace if Chen Style Taijiquan!
Read more
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 10 min. In: English Year: 2018 Difficulty:1/5
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 3 min. In: English Year: 2018 Difficulty:2/5
| Instructors: | Master Chen Zhonghua, Instructor Chen Xu, Instructor Ling Zili |
| Date: | Dec 15-16, 2018 |
| Time: | 9:00am to 5:30pm |
| Location: | DJKJ Kung Fu Academy 34 Rosebery Avenue, Rosebery NSW 2018 |
| Topics: | Theory, Foundations, form (yilu), applications and push hands |
| Fee: | $380 for 2 days, $220 for 1 day. |
| Suggested preparation for first-timers, get yourself familiar with the following: | |
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| For more information and registration, please contact: Brian Chung practicalmethodau@gmail.com +61 423 035 857 |
After returning from Tai An, unfortunately I caught a cold, so I stayed home a couple of days to sleep it off…
eventually, some good ol’ chinese noodle soup did the trick 😉
So I could enjoy the Rizhao sunrise again…
Master Zhonghua Chen and the Rizhao Chen Zhonghua Taiji Academy team are participating in the Chen Village Push Hands Competition. Master Chen was invited as a guest.
Master Chen Zhonghua and students at Chen Village Competition 2018
Read more
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 10 min. In: English Year: 2018 Difficulty:1/5
In the night from 19th to 20th of August, I arrived on Daqingshan. After I slept of my jetlag, there’s been an early morning gathering for some radio station interview on the 21st. Read more
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 10 min. In: English Year: 2018 Difficulty:1/5
In this video, Master Chen demonstrated how to destroy the opponent’s integrity on contact, and how to aim at the opponent centre.
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 10 min. In: English Year: 2018 Difficulty:1/5
In this video, Master Chen demonstrated how to engage with Levi the Bull, who had tremendous amount of power. Master Chen went in without letting Levi detecting and powering up, and didn’t execute the final action until the setup was complete.
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 10 min. In: English Year: 2018 Difficulty:1/5
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 10 min. In: English Year: 2018 Difficulty:1/5
While tumbling to the ground, I have made up my mind to study from Master Chen.
Back in 2003, after watching Master Chen’s Youtube videos, I sent him an email asking if I could observe his class. Among the videos, his demonstration with Michael sticks out. Despite a much more petite statue, tossing Michael around seemed effortless for Master. Later on, I found out that Michael isn’t only a 9th-degree black belt, but he is also a cop who has caught over 200 thieves. Simply put, he is no slouch.
Master Chen Zhonghua’s 28th Daqingshan Seminar on Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method and Hunyuan Taiji was held from August 11th to 17th, 2018.
Over two hundred students participated at this event. They came from Indonesia, Portugal, and all over China. The youngest participant was 6 years old and oldest was 80 years of age.
28th Daqingshan Seminar. Master Chen Zhonghua teaches a concept each morning during the early morning session at the Taiji Square on Daqinshan.
28th Daqinshan Seminar Group Photo with Pang Chaoli
28th Daqingshan Seminar Group photo with Ling Ziming
Precision is a word consistently used in Practical Method Taijiquan. But what does that mean in terms of practice? One aspect during Yilu is to not only complete the movement, but to know exactly where that move is aiming towards (which is why knowledge of applications is important). It is not enough to repeat the move, but to understand the energy alignment and aim. As our training continues to develop, and we become more aware of additional body parts (ie: to become aware of the elbow, become aware of the hip, etc.), we are able to aim more pieces towards the same objective – making the move more effective as each body part compounds power on the next.
That same exactness and consciousness of movement is required during push hands. When the foot is being moved, it’s not being moved forward or backwards, but to a very specific spot. The practitioner needs to be aware of exactly where that foot needs to be for that situation, and move it there with purpose.
Every interaction needs to move towards a goal. Too often we push to get a feeling of the other person, to practice getting in a favourable position, waiting for the opponent to make a mistake to capitalize on, etc. This is following our own familiar pattern. Within taijiquan we must be able to change the energy of the interaction without changing the shape.
Efficiency of movement is not changing the position/contact points in order to get into a place that is familiar to us. Rather, it is often to be able to capitalize on the position you are already in. Become comfortable despite being in an awkward position. You have to be able to let go of your ideas on what is a bad position in order to achieve a certain objective. It is often when we feel our body is uncomfortable that our body fights back, getting in our own way of being able to do what we need to do. The mind needs to let go first, train, and the body will follow.
http://practicalmethod.com/2010/05/yilu-detailed-applications-1-online-video-trailer/
For the second consecutive year the North American Practical Method Training Camp was held at Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This seventy acre retreat, located in a mainly residential section of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, provided a relaxed and private location for training. While the center is an outreach ministry of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration it is an informal center with an emphasis on ecology and the many varieties of spirituality. It is easy to mistake the sisters for the volunteers working in the garden or helping maintain the grounds. One of the sisters, who is 80 years old and teaches Tai Chi Chih, a form of Qigong, can often be seen driving a tractor on the grounds. She took a break from her work to watch a group of us practice the First 13. Another sister told me she was happy to see our large, primarily, but not entirely, male group stay at their center, because we provided a different type of energy than is usually found there. My point in mentioning this is to suggest that the folks at Prairiewoods appeared to have enjoyed us being there
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 10 min. In: English Year: 2017 Difficulty:1/5
Master Chen’s disciple Ping Wei will again conduct Irvine 1-day workshop. This time Ping will share with us his new understanding on “not-moving” and his lesson plan for his community college teaching. He will also revisit Foundations, more details on First 13 moves and beyond. First timers, beginners are all welcome.
Registration for the workshop is required for all newcomers; the deadline is 9/14/2018. Since Winston will be out of the country next few weeks, Al Yu will be the contact person for this workshop and Winston will still be back in time for the workshop.
In the interim, please direct all inquires to Al Yu at (cell) 949-331-2735, or via email: mralyu@yahoo.com.
My name is Edward Liaw; I currently reside in San Diego, California. I was accepted as Master Chen’s 283rd disciple during the 2018 North American Practical Method Training Camp in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, alongside Nathan Heintz and Spencer Jones. Every day, I am grateful for being a part of a passionate and supportive community of practitioners, students, and teachers. Read more
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 10 min. In: English Year: 2017 Difficulty:1/5
My name is Benjamin Benefiel and I live in Phoenix, Arizona, USA with my wife and two young daughters. On January 21, 2018, I became Master Chen Zhonghua’s 259th disciple along with taiji brother Winston Wang. I grew up near Chicago, Illinois before moving to Phoenix area for graduate school in 1999. My appreciation of martial arts began as a child with karate lessons and a love of ‘kung fu cinema’. During my 20s and early 30s, I studied various styles of martial arts intermittently (including Baguazhang, Xingyiquan, and Deng family Sengmenquan, as well as a very small amount of experience with Yang style Taiji which was taught only as a health exercise). Chen style Taijiquan always held a strong fascination for me, but I was never fortunate enough to find a teacher. Read more
Presenter: Chen Zhonghua Length: 10 min. In: English Year: 2017 Difficulty:1/5
