Chen Xiaowang’s Annual Seminar For the second year running this year’s seminar with Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang was held in the plush setting of the Daresbury Hotel. Held over 2 evenings, the topic of study was the Old Frame First Form. This is the traditional foundation routine of Chen Taijiquan. This was a great opportunity for everybody to learn from the current head of Chen Family Taijiquan. We cannot overstate how important it is to take advantage of these moments. He spends most of the year travelling and teaching and his programme is getting ever busier. Last year he taught his first open seminar in China for Chinese students for nearly twenty years. We were fortunate to be invited to this event which was attended mainly by instructors from throughout China. Grandmaster Chen has committed to teaching three week long seminars in China next year. This year he has also added Bulgaria and Portugal to his route. It was really nice to see some of the new faces training with Grandmaster Chen for the first time. Also great to see the school developing as Instructors Mary McGregor and Lee Davis-Conchie supported the event with their own students. Chen Xiaowang always says that seminars provide the opportunity to learn and that the student must then take what they have learnt and go away and train it into their body. Over the course of the two evenings he explained how to loosen the body (fangsong); adjusted the postures of any students who wanted to be corrected comparing light, medium and deep corrections with soup, spaghetti and pizza; and trained through the first two sections of the form. Chenjiagou Taijiquan GB Newsletter July 2010 www.chentaijigb.co.uk
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Chen Xiaowang’s Annual Seminar
For the second year running this year’s
seminar with Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang
was held in the plush setting of the
Daresbury Hotel. Held over 2 evenings, the
topic of study was the Old Frame First Form.
This is the traditional foundation routine of
Chen Taijiquan.
This was a great opportunity for everybody to
learn from the current head of Chen Family
Taijiquan. We cannot overstate how important
it is to take advantage of these moments. He
spends most of the year travelling and teaching
and his programme is getting ever busier.
Last year he taught his first open seminar in
China for Chinese students for nearly twenty
years. We were fortunate to be invited to
this event which was attended mainly by
instructors from throughout China.
Grandmaster Chen has committed to
teaching three week long seminars in China
next year. This year he has also added
Bulgaria and Portugal to his route.
It was really nice to see some of the new
faces training with Grandmaster Chen for
the first time. Also great to see the school
developing as Instructors Mary McGregor
and Lee Davis-Conchie supported the event
with their own students.
Chen Xiaowang always says that seminars
provide the opportunity to learn and that
the student must then take what they have
learnt and go away and train it into their
body. Over the course of the two evenings
he explained how to loosen the body
(fangsong); adjusted the postures of any
students who wanted to be corrected
comparing light, medium and deep
corrections with soup, spaghetti and pizza;
and trained through the first two sections of
the form.
Chenjiagou Taijiquan GB
Newsletter
July 2010
www.chentaijigb.co.uk
Chen Ziqiang –“One Minute Chen”
Chen Ziqiang, Chief coach of the Chenjiagou
Taijiquan School in China, visited the school
in June (18th-22nd) to conduct a series of
workshops on foundation training, cannon
fist form and push hands & applications. All
the workshops provided fascinating insights
for participants to take into their own
practice.
During the foundation workshop he taught a
short “Jibengong (Basic Training) Form. As well
as the usual silk reeling principles, the
sequence provided a method of systematically
training one’s balance. The Cannon Fist or
Paocui sessions took place over the weekend in
the attractive setting of the Birchwood Tennis
and Leisure Complex. The cannon fist form is
an extremely powerful and explosive routine
and this was an extremely demanding
workshop. Chen Ziqiang gained a new
nickname during his recent visit to the USA –
“one minute Chen” – as that is all the rest he
allows during the seminar! This workshop
finished with an “examination” when each
student demonstrated the form individually and
were corrected by Chen Ziqiang.
The final two days concentrated on push hands
& applications. Chen Ziqiang has coached
many champions in China and has a clear
method for introducing these aspects of
Taijiquan. Building upon basic hand and
footwork methods he introduced some of Chen
Taijiquan’s qinna (joint-locking) and shuai jiao
(wrestling) methods. He emphasised the
importance of “not plucking the fruit until it is
ripe”. In other words making sure that the
footwork and body shape and quality was in
place before spending a lot of time on what
people sometimes see as the more exciting
martial applications. His closing remark was
that it is all in the form and to concentrate on
driving the principles into your body.
Chen Ziqiang - “Don’t pluck the fruit until it is
ripe!”
Sword Form Weekend at The Grange
How quickly time flies - this year’s residential
weekend at The Grange country house in
Shropshire was the seventh time we have been
to this beautiful venue. The nature of the
British weather means that it is always a
lottery, but this year it was perfect so all
sessions were held in the attractive gardens.
Over the weekend we worked through the
sword form with a few people surprising
themselves by finishing the form – now keep
practicing and don’t forget it!
The Grange May 2010 group
Travel with your Taichi or Qigong
For the last decade we have been collecting photos of
students doing their Taiji as they travel around the
world on holiday, work etc. Over the years this has
grown so we have pictures from the most diverse
places – from the Arctic Circle to the Empire State
building, from Japan to Peru and everywhere in
between! We’ve always said to people that you don’t
know where the pictures would end up. Well on 13th
June a selection of them appeared in an article in the
St. Louis Examiner in an article entitled Travel with
your Taichi or Qigong. The gist of the article was that
people should take their training with them on their
travels and they used our school as an example of
this. You can see the article at the following link:
www.examiner.com
Chen Xiaoxing – Principal of the Chenjiagou Taijiquan School will be Visiting Our School in September!
Chen Xiaoxing is responsible for teaching many of the best of the next generation of Chen family practitioners in China. Those members of our school who have joined us on the annual visit to Chenjiagou will be familiar with his approachable nature and great attention to detail. Chen Xiaoxing retains the air of a village master only travelling abroad to teach in the USA and South America in the last few years. He will be visiting us in September to do a week of seminars between 18-23rd. This will be his first visit to Europe.
The programme will include: Laojia Yilu, Foundation Training, Sword Form & Push Hands. This is a fantastic opportunity to deepen your practice, so put these dates in your diary!
Push Hands Class Push hands is the bridge between Chen
Taijiquan form practice and combat training. Working co-operatively students learn to apply the different energies of Taijiquan and to test their own structure and energy. We have a regular push hands class which is open to anyone who has completed the Laojia Yilu form. Class is held on Monday evenings 8-9.15pm in our back garden! – Ask for directions in class. £6/session
In October 2011 we will be organising a trip to the Chen Village to train in the birthplace of Taijiquan. Training with Chen Xiaoxing , principal of the school, this is a chance to immerse yourself in Taijiquan in the most authentic environment there is. Despite the growth of popularity of Chen Taijiquan, Chenjiagou still retains the feeling of a small and friendly rural Chinese village. It was here that Chen Wangting, a general at the end of the Ming dynasty retired and created Taijiquan some 350 years ago. Successive generations have carried on his legacy and there is evidence everywhere of the importance of Taijiquan to the village.
Understanding the history and culture of Taijiquan brings to life the system that we are practising. Take this chance to experience Taijiquan at its source.
Scene from the Chen Family Temple
The Essence of Taijiquan
Legendary record producer Tony Visconti is pictured with our book, which he recently described as “the best book on Tai Chi” he had ever read! As well as producing albums for artists such as David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Morrisey, Lou Reed etc, he has practiced Tai Chi for over 20 years, now doing Chen style in New York with Ren Guanyi,a student of Chen Xiaowang.
Available in class: £14.99
Recent Articles: Davidine was featured in the latest Tai Chi Chuan & Oriental Arts magazine under their Meet the Instructor feature. Anyone who wants a copy of the article just let us know in class. David has a series of articles on training in Chenjiagou being published in Tai Chi Revista Brasil magazine. These are in Brazilian Portuguese, so unless you know the language we won’t bother getting copies.
Qinna (joint-locking) training with Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang during his recent visit
Learning Resources - DVDs
There are also a small number of the following DVDs: