Chen Zhao Sen's Tai Chi Training School
The Chenjiagou Gongfu Taijiquan School
- An Introduction to the School
- About Chen Zhao Sen
- A Beginner's Journey
- Gap Year Beginners
- Tai Chi Nei Gong for Health
- Intermediate Training
- Advanced Training
- About Chen Jia Gou
- Getting to the School
- Contact the School
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An Introduction to the School.
The Chenjiagou Gongfu Taijiquan School is a small Chen Tai Chi school in the village of Chenjiagou, headed by Chen Zhao Sen.
The quality of teaching there is superb. There is really nothing more to add.
Training Mirrors inside the School
Everyone appears to be welcome there as well.
It doesn't matter whether you are a complete beginner, or in poor health or a total expert on Xinjia Er Lu.
Chen Zhao Sen and his assistant teachers patiently deal with everyone individually on the level you are at.
You can learn all of the Chen Tai Chi art here : Lao Jia Yi Lu, Er Lu, Xin Jia, Sword, Broadsword, Sabre, Staff, Tui Sou and Nei Gong for Health and Martial Application, all at the highest level there is.
The school itself has a warm friendly feeling to it. Age groups are mixed, and everyone eats together on a daily basis.
Most students sleep in the school premises which are of good quality and things are set up pretty well to support your intensive study at the school.
The prices are about 4000-5000Y per month for international students inclusive of as much food as you can eat and accommodation.
Nb. This price is a guide only - please enquire with school about prices for advanced studies such as tuishou.
About the Teacher - Chen Zhao Sen
Chen Zhao Sen is the current head of a Chen family lineage, a direct descendent of Chen Wang Ting and in a line that has maintained the Tai Chi at the highest level.
Chen Tai Chi Fahjing : Chen Zhao Sen
He was very diligent as a young student and was able to learn from his father and uncle who were both high level practitioners and teachers.
Most people in the West who have learnt Chen, will have some awareness of Chen Fake's line, which is now headed by Chen Xiao Wang within the family. There are other lines within the Chen family though and this is one of them.
Chen Zhao Sen's Tai Chi is very clean. Every movement spirals around the dantian and his emphasis on this and the breathing is present all the time. He is able to move completely relaxed and soft, and yet the power is enormous if you ever feel it. He is famous within China, especially for his Chen Halberd and is often called 'King of the Halberd'.
At the same time, he is a warm personality and seems to care very much for his students and from talking to them, this feeling is mutual. He has taught Tai Chi for most of his life (he's now in his mid-50's), and its clear that he is very happy with this role and take its very seriously. But he is good fun as well and can take a joke.
His family Lao Jia, is not exactly the same as that taught by Chen Xiao Wang or Wang Xi An, mostly I believe because their own Tai Chi has evolved in their generation, but personally I found no difficulty moving from Wang Xi An's version to Chen Zhao Sen's. The small differences now seem irrelevant in the face of the increase in basic quality of my movement and I'm very happy with the form.
Student Experiences
Students will have different experiences at the school depending on their level and goals.
A Beginner's Story - Basic Movements and Lao Jia Yi Lu Basic Form
Beginners learning with assistant teacher Chen Jing Ying
Chinese beginners often turn up here and take their first step into Tai Chi, in the school of a Chen Grand Master.
The way its works is very simple.
Chen Zhao Sen will usually introduce new moves himself each day, especially with a Western student, and then assistant teachers support and guide the beginner's practice throughout the day.
The school trains many Chinese students from a young age and when they graduate, usually after many years of study, the best ones are invited back as assistants.
Their own Tai Chi is also excellent and so this creates an ideal environment for beginners to learn one to one, with Chen Zhao Sen supervising.
I watched a complete beginner learn Chen from day one.
A tiny Chinese girl, she wasn't at all familiar with Tai Chi movement but she was patiently taught by two young assistants all day long. It was beautiful to watch.
The beginning looked pretty hard, as she started working on Chan Si Jing and the Chen movement of the waist, knees and arms, but I was almost envious of her receiving such a thorough introduction to Chen Tai Chi.
She moved onto forward and backward walks and then cloud hands and then started to learn Lao Jia.
Her progress in this environment was fantastic. It will still take a long time for her to develop 'fang sung' and movement with Qi but this was a great introduction.
From watching her journey, I'm sure that other beginners can follow this path as well, if they want. In reality, most people who come here are beginners, even if they've done Tai Chi for a few years, because the level is so high and you rarely find this elsewhere.
If you are a complete beginner though, I'd personally still recommend trying out some Chen Tai Chi first before coming out to the school, and there are opportunites in most Western Countries. Chen Xiao Wang, teaches very widely, but it may be enough to study with a teacher of your own nationality for a weekend or so.
GAP Year Beginners
There is also an opening here for younger students of Tai Chi and this could be really interesting for some people in the future. I was approached by someone in the UK wanting a GAP year before University, studying Tai Chi in China and now I've asked the school they are quite happy to consider this. There is also a sixteen year old studying with Chen Si Qiang for the year right now, although I consider this a little too young.
Beginners learning with assistant teacher Chen Jing Ying
Chen Jia Gou isn't an exciting environment to live in, apart from the Tai Chi that is, so you have to be prepared for this, but internet is available and so life can be reasonably comfortable. Bring a laptop.
It would probably best suit someone quite mature, with an interest in studying Chinese at University and it should be possible to arrange Chinese lessons while your at the school, probably with a Chinese teacher from the local normal schools with decent Putonghua.
I'd recommend studying for quite a reasonable period if you do this, perhaps two or three, three months sessions over the year, with a break for the Winter perhaps in Yunnan or Thailand. You could then join the long term students, who are of mixed ages, teenage+ with their training in a wide variety of weapon forms, as well as the main Tai Chi hand forms, which they do every day.
Really a very interesting GAP year, possibly best done with a friend though unless you are very independent.
This experience if it worked well could be totally life changing.
A Health Story - Tai Chi Nei Gong for Health Rejuvenation
It's possible like me the first time, not to do any Tai Chi at all at the school, although this is very much a martial tai chi environment, so I can't really recommend doing this unless you are interested in Chen Tai Chi as well.
Chen Zhao Sen correcting my posture
I'd spent years considering going to Chenjiagou and planned to arrive with a strong basic stance, but as it turned out when I finally got there I could barely walk without pain, an issue with my lower back, aggravated further by climbing Wudang Mountain.
My main interest was in exploring the health properties of the Chen Family Tai Chi Nei Gong, which Chen Wang Ting had learnt from the Taoists and upon arrival, when I realised this was being offered, I was keen to try it out.
And so I spent all the day long, every day, for just over three weeks practising just a few abdominal reverse breathing exercises - very hard work.
Most of the time I was alone, except for my companion teacher who practiced it alongside me hour after hour. Chen Zhao Sen would simply check on me every so often, and do some kind of energy work for a few minutes and then comment on the quality of my practice.
Over the three weeks my body shape changed and muscle started to appear around my abdomen and waist for first time in my life and this has continued to develop as I practice further. My energy levels improved through the year afterwards and I now hope to develop the practice further so that it can function naturally within the Tai Chi form itself.
I can't say too much about this now, as I'm still exploring it myself
Intermediate Tai Chi Training - Lao Jia Yi Lu with some Internal Movement
Chen Zhao Sen with myself and another foreign student
On my second visit, I mainly did Lao Jia Yi Lu and a smaller amount of Nei Gong in between.
I was really impressed with the quality of detail taught in every single movement and the emphasis placed on the movement of the dantian and the integration of the Nei Gong reverse breathing.
Applications were discussed whenever appropriate even though I'm not personally the most enthusiastic student of the martial side of Tai Chi.
Even a brief demonstration of function though, would clear up any issues over how to carry out a specific movement. This is a really important part of high level teaching and they do it very well at this school.
I was mostly taught on my own the first time through by Chen Zhao Sen and occasionaly his son. We took about twelve days, which for me seemed a natural time to learn in, given it was my fifth time with Lao Jia. I was helped by the presence of Liu Xiao Dong at the time, a disciple of Chen Zhao Sen who speaks English very well.
The following two weeks were spent on a kind of high level intensive course shared with some senior students of Chen Zhao Sen who'd just turned up and three of their own students.
I could have asked to continue learning individually, but it seemed unnecessary and I gained a lot from learning with the group.
The quality of teaching was very high, although as ever, I struggled to grasp the meaning of the oral teaching in Chinese.
I was however given a lot of personal attention in the group, and Chen Zhao Sen made every effort to make sure I understood what was being taught, even if we had to do it using bodies rather than words.
So some flexibility is required. Sometimes I was taught one to one, sometimes with a partner, other times with a group and then there were also many periods when I was left on my own simply to practice, or do Nei Gong and this is the journey once you are past beginner stage.
Advanced Training - Lao Jia / Xin Jia, Nei Gong and Applications
Again this is simply an example of a student's journey.
Chen Zhao Sen pushing hands with student
My fellow Western student at the school already had a good level of Tai Chi and he used his three months at the school to develop higher skills.
His Xin Jia form was worked on, both Yi Lu and Er Lu and a lot of his time was spent on Nei Gong at a martial level. He also worked a lot on applications which included pushing hands with Chen Zhi Wei, Chen Zhao Sen's son and the boys in the school.
He was a very 'motivated' student and really seemed to make progress with the development of his dantian and the inner control of Qi. Rather impressive to watch.
Chen Zhao Sen seems completely happy dealing one moment with people like me, mainly interested in meditational natural movement and health and the next dealing within someone like my friend, with an ambition to follow Chen Fake and his hyper powered form, with its Fah Jings and stamps every minute. In fact he made a joke about it one evening, imitating the two of us and it was very funny.
There appears to be no need to learn Chen Zhao Sen's family Lao Jia at the school if a student doesn't wish, and they are happy to simply work on the quality of performance of each movement.
They seem very aware of the range of movements performed by other teachers and so it shouldn't be an issue if someone has a strong attachment to Chen Xiao Wang's form and simply wants more contact time and personal attention than is available at his international seminars. I go to them as well when I can, but I couldn't have progressed like I've done in Chenjiagou, on a short workshop with him.
So a very interesting school to study at if you really want to develop your Chen Tai Chi to the highest level.
Location
Please see About Chen Jia Gou.
GettingThere
Please see Getting to Chen Jia Gou.