Scott M. Rodell executing Snake Creeps Down
Scott M. Rodell has studied martial arts since the age of nine. He has dedicated the last three and a half decades exclusively to study of Yang Family Taijiquan (T’ai Chi Ch’uan). Rodell spent many years traveling to find and study with the best teachers in this lineage to fulfill a person goal – renovating Yang Family Taijiquan. He sought out teachers known for certain specialties, pulling together elements of the system that have become separated and fragmented. Rodell has been privileged to receive instruction in Push Hands and Free Fighting from William C. C. Chen, Sword and Push Hands from T.T. Liang and the Yang Family Michuan Taijiquan, form, applications, push hands, fan, sword and spear, from Wang Yen-nien.
Rodell is the Director of the Great River Taoist Center. The Center was founded in 1984 and now is headquatered in Washington, DC and has branch and affiliated school across America, Northern and Eastern Europe and Australia.?He began teaching international in the Russia at the request of the Soviet Wushu Federation in 1991. In 1992, the Moscow branch officially opened as a branch of Great River. For fourteen years, Rodell taught across western Russia before turning over the Russian Branch of GRTC to his disciple student, Albert Efimov. While in Russia, Rodell has made TV programs about Taijiquan for Moscow’s learning channel and Sochi local Television and has been interviewed by various daily newspapers. Rodell is also the author of three books, “Chinese Swordsmanship – the Yang Family Taiji Jian Tradition,” “Taiji Notebook for Martial Artist” and “A Practical Guide to Test Cutting for Historical Swordsmanship.”
Rodell is best know internationally for his work reviving Chinese Historical Swordsmanship. Considered the leading authority on Chinese Swordsmanship, Rodell travels frequently to Europe, across the US and to Australia and Canada to lead seminars in this art. Currently, he teaches over 20 seminars a years. Over the years Rodell has taught a wide variety of classes to a diverse audience including Vietnamese refugee children, jail inmates, seniors at the Library of Congress, in addition to his regular weekly classes.
Rodell was one of the first ten Americans to enter the door of the Jin Shan Pai, a traditional school of Taoist Nei Gong. Rodell, initiated into the Jin Shan Pai by Wang Yen-nien, is a sixth generation teacher in this tradition.
Tournament Record – Partial List:
- USAWKF Northeast Regional Competition, June 24 & 25, 1995, NYC
- Men’s Advanced Light Weight Restricted Step Push Hands Champion
- Men’s Middle Weight Moving Step Push Hands, Third Place
- International Taiji Quan Championship, Republic of China, Second Place, Men’s featherweight Push Hands, 1990
