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

Check out our school facebook pages at:

Chenjiagou Taijiquan GB

& Chen Taijiquan World

2011 Senior Students Training Trip to Chenjiagou

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:

Featuring Chen Xiaowang:

New Frame First Routine (4DVDset) £15

Push Hands £12

Guandao Pt1&Pt2 £18

Spear £12

Featuring Zhu Tiancai:

Sanshou - 42 Fajin £12

Push Hands £12

Featuring Chen Xiaowang & Chen Zhenglei

Push Hands - older footage from late 80s £12

Old Frame First Routine (Laojia

Yilu) DVD with Grandmaster

Chen Xiaowang

4DVD set demonstrating and

explaining the foundation form

that we do in class.

Cost: £15