Chen Tai Chi Competition Form

Chen Tai Chi Chuan: Competition Routine

The competition routine of Chen style Tai Chi Chuan was created based on the first and second routines of the traditional Chen style. It has the characters of the flexibility and the twining silk force of the first routine and the feature of emitting the springing force of the second routine. We can say that the competition routine of Chen style Tai Chi Chuan comes from the traditional ones both in its style of movements and in its structure because it preserves the essential movements and the sequence of the traditional Chen style.

The sequences of the movements are designed and arranged according to the difficulty, and the majority of the movements are designed on both left and right postures in order to develop the balance while achieving an overall workout.

Throughout the routine, the movements in the first segment are silk reeling and supple while the second segment consists of the agile footwork and the continuous application of the force and the third segment emphasizes the difficult moves such as the “Bai Lian Die Cha” (the lotus kicking and the dropping into the splits), and the fourth section consists of movements that require the application of the force and jumps with the changes between obviousness and slightness, hardness and softness, quickness and slowness.

The traditional Chen style Tai Chi Chuan can be mainly categorized into two routines. The first routine consists of the simple movements and emphasizes the flexibility over hardness. The second routine is more complicated with a lot of difficult movements. The competition routine of Chen style Tai Ji Quan was created from the basic structure of the traditional one and after a thorough filtration, it developed its own characteristic: The movements are spiraling, circling, stamping and jumping; the force in the movements is well balanced between softness and hardness, fast and slow, relaxed and springing; the momentum in the movements requires the sudden changes that can be “quiet as the mountain” or “forceful as the lightning”; the process of performing needs to rotate “Dan Tian” internally like reeling the silk; the speed of performing combines fast and slow. Even when you stop the movements, you need to let your mind continue moving. When training, start from the softness, and gradually to the hardness till you reach the point where the two can be balanced.

This edition is supervised Professorial team of Beijing University of Physical Education where famous experts such as Meng Huifeng, Wudong are actively working for the development of Standard version of Tai Chi Chuan, thus the collaboration with the inheritor of the Style Chen Zhenlei, makes this material highly valuable, in addition this e-book includes also:

- Basic exercises of this style (Zhuang gong)

- Detailed comments and information for Key Technical Movements

- A complete Chart of the routine

- The complete guide of Tai Chi Competition routines

More than 310 color and B&W photos.

"I like Chen style, especially in the elastic force developed in this style and the 56 Forms of the competition routine is a good synthesis to practice important movements from both traditional frames. Now with your e-book, I started to learn form after form..."
--- Jess M. Malaysia - June 2004

"Three years ago I started Chen 56 Taichi with a teacher, unfortunately because of my job I had to move, then I did not finish to learn this form, thanks for this this e-book as I have completed it now and even corrected some mistakes appeared since that time."
--- Pascal D. Switzerland – July 2004