Taijiquan, often spelled "T'ai Chi Ch'uan," is one of the most commonly practiced martial arts in the world.  It is known for its distinctive movement style, which has provided health benefits to its practitioners for many generations.  Being categorized as an internal martial art, its characteristics include relaxed grounded strength, opening and closing the body, a sense of connection throughout the body, and natural spiraling movements.

Chen village taijiquan is often considered a parent style to several of the popular styles of today, such as Yang and Wu.  Chen style of today possesses a wide variety of forms and practices.  The empty hand forms are usually classified as lao jia (old frame), xin jia (new frame), and xiao jia (small frame), and each of those styles possess a first set (yi lu) and second set (er lu). Weapons training complements the empty hand practice by amplifying certain requirements.  For instance, you must extend your mind and intention through the length of the weapon often to a sharply focused point, the use of relaxed, efficient strength must be maintained while handling a heavy object, and footwork must be nimble to enable a a greater variation in fight range.  Weapons include broadsword (dao, literally "knife), double-edge sword, spear, pole,  Kwan dao, double double-edge swords, and double broadsword.  There are many two-person practices, with the empty hand methods being called push hands (tui shou).  At the lower stages, tui shou focuses on maintaining physical structural requirements, while the later stages of development become increasingly martial.

The Rochester Chen Style Taijiquan Association is a group of martial art practitioners working collaboratively to practice, teach and promote internal martial arts in the Rochester, NY area. While our primary work is Chen Style Taijiquan, we also liberally borrow practices from a range of martial arts and health practices.  Please contact us if you have an interest in seminars, classes, or sharing information.

We are associated with The International Chen Style Taijiquan Association founded by Ren Guang-yi and The Chen Xiao Wang World Taijiquan Association.

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