Great River Taoist Center

During the second weekend seminar, Serge Dreyer presented tuishou from the combined perspective of three internal arts.  His training exercises focused on proper fajing (releasing energy) technique, creating “inner space” in the body for more efficient deflecting, and proper yielding without stiffness or muscular blocks.  He also used baguazhang stepping exercises to demonstrate circularizing in the context of moving-step tuishou.  New students benefited from a taste of advanced techniques while older students got a fresh perspective familiar principles.

Students found Serge to be modest, extremely skilled, and entirely focused on pursuing the essence of taijiquan.  Even though he was an international tuishou champion, he did not dwell on his successes but instead told us about particularly difficult matches he had had and how tournament anxiety affected his skills.  He shared these experiences to underscore how important staying calm and letting go of oneself is in developing good tuishou.

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Great River welcomed back Serge Dreyer for another intensive 2-day seminar, this time on the principles of fixed and moving-step tuishou. As a 20+ year student of the Yangjia Michuan system and a practitioner of baguazhang and xingyiquan, teacher Dreyer brought a unique perspective to taijiquan’s two-person work.

The seminar began with an investigation of yielding techniques, including drills for cultivating what teacher Dreyer called “inner space,” used to create room within one’s own body for yielding and neutralizing.  He also described methods for changing the surface of one’s body during yielding, giving the duifang no firm place on which to push.

From there, Dreyer took up the classic theme of “investing in loss.” Using segments of the form, he showed how accepting the pushes of the duifang presents the opportunity to neutralize and counter automatically.  To instill this proper tuishou attitude, he used many drills that forced the students to yield with their whole bodies, giving them no opportunity to block with their hands.  Only in this way, he taught, will with the appropriate counter-technique arise spontaneously. 

Finally, the seminar focus turned toward stepping in tuishou. Here again, teacher Dreyer took directly from the form, examining the stepping contained in the “Wield the Pipa” movement.  He demonstrated how maneuvering with this step changed the “spine-to-spine” axis of the two players, removing the defender from the line of the duifang’s attack.  This gave students new insight into how stepping technique is codified in the form. 

“Its always a pleasure to see my old classmate Serge,” school Director Scott Rodell said. “His seminars are very useful because he teaches the same principles we are working on, but from a slightly different angle, this adds depth to what students have learned. Also sometimes, a student needs a fresh or different perspective to grasp a principle that was elusive until then. Serge’s visits provide this fresh view.”

Chinese historical swordsmanship is growing year by year. Since the publication of Chinese Swordsmanship - The Yang Family Taiji Jian Tradition by Center Director Scott M. Rodell, the number of workshops and places hosting training has steadily increased. This year, Rodell added Amsterdam to the list of places he has led seminars (Toronto has been added to next year’s schedule). “Everyone who knows me knows how much I enjoy swordsmanship, so it was a real joy for me to find such an enthusiastic crowd at my Amsterdam seminar,” said Rodell.

As more practitioners of classical taijiquan take up this training, there is a growing realization that historical swordsmanship is something quite different from either the “push hands” kind of taiji fencing some groups practice or swordplay with foam-padded weapons.? By using real-weight weapons, historical swordsmanship contains an element of fear and danger that is lacking from sports or exercises that employ weapons considerably lighter than their historical counterparts. As learning to let go of fear and how to remain calm under real pressure is a common goal of all martial training, this is an elemental difference between sports and martial arts. In short, there is a renewed understanding that the practice of swordsmanship, i.e. martial arts, is quite different from sports or role playing. Overall, the move toward historically based swordsmanship can be seen as part of a general movement back to taijiquan’s martial roots, following in the footsteps of Yang Luchan and his sons, who worked as militia trainers.

July 2007

Albert Efimov (Director, Moscow Branch of Great River Taoist Center) became the first Great River student to be certified as a teacher. His teacher & Center Director, Scott M. Rodell award him this honor at the International Swordplay Festival in Puhajarve, Estonia where he was leading the Taiji Spear training. Teacher Efimov began his training with Rodell during his first visit to the Soviet Union in ‘91. Over the next decade and a half, Teacher Efimov distinguished himself as a student, organizer, competitor and instructor. Albert Efimov is currently the Vice Chairman for the Taijiquan & Qigong Federation for Europe.

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May 2007

The current issue of the Journal of Asian Martial Arts features an article by Greg Wolfson (senior student student GRTC DC Branch). This piece is the most recent of many articles and short videos Wolfson has produced to help promote the traditional martial aspects of taijiquan and Chinese Swordsmanship. This issue of JAMA also features Center Director, Scott M. Rodell, on the cover, wielding an antique Chinese Kanma Dao (Horse Cutting Saber.)

GRTC Center Director, Scott M. Rodell, appears on the January-March 2007 cover of Taiji-Vizier, magazine of the Dutch National Taijiquan Association (STN). STN hosts seminars with Teacher Rodell twice a years in Holland. These Dutch seminars typically focus on Chinese Historical Swordsmanship, Test Cutting with Chinese Swords, and Yang Family Michuan Taijiquan forms.

 
April 2006

During his recent trip to China, Scott M. Rodell visited Fred Chen at his factory in Shanghai. Fred Chen is the general manager of the Huanuo sword factory, which produces Chinese and Japanese swords for both display and use by contemporary martial artists. After exchanging greetings while enjoying a cup of tea, everyone proceeded outside, where a pile of bamboo awaited the blade. Taking a newly made katana from a full rack in the factory, Chen set a piece of 2-inch diameter bamboo in a stand. Striking the bamboo with a two-handed blow that started from over his head, Chen failed to cleanly sever the stalk in two. Remarking, “Maybe this bamboo is too dry to cut,” Chen stepped aside.

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In celebration of its upcoming 20^th anniversary, Great River invited guest instructors Hu Lin and Serge Dreyer to each teach a weekend seminars.  Master Hu, in addition to being a senior student of Master Wang Yen-nien, practices several external martial arts, including shaolinquan.  Serge Dreyer is an international tuishou champion  and has over thirty years experience in three internal martial systems - taijiquan, baguazhang, andxingyiquan. 

In order to deepen the student’s understanding of Chinese swordsmanship, Master Hu devoted his weekend seminar to the two-handed miaodao form he learned from Han Jing-tan in Taiwan.  On the first day, Great River students learned the solo miaodao form and the mechanics of the two-handed style.  The following day, students worked in pairs exploring the form’s martial applications.  Finally, Master Hu demonstrated how the same sword movements had empty-hand applications.  By delving into an art comtemporary with the school’s taijijian, Great River students gained a greater understanding of the jian’s relative strengths and weaknesses.

Scott M. Rodell, was featured on the cover of the November 2005 Issue of the Dutch National Taijiquan Association magazine, Taiji-Vizier. Teacher Rodell travels widely around America, to Europe & most recently to Australia to teach the Yang Family Michuan Taijiquan system and especially, Chinese historical swordsmanship. When asked about his recent popularity, Rodell responded, “Its very rewarding to be a part of the rebirth of this nearly lost art. The universal enthusiasm of students from Amsterdam to Sydney to Amherst is rewarding in itself.”

Scott M. Rodell, director of Great River Taoist Center, presented two talks at Sword 2005: Ore to Sword in Hand. The first presentation focused on historical Chinese sword types. Rodell used 18th- and 19th-century examples of dao (sabers) and jian (straight swords) to explain the different types of bladed sidearms in use during the Ming (1368-1644 AD) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Rodell also explained and demonstrated how each type was designed for a specialized use or style of swordsmanship. “Until rather recently, few people understood that Chinese swords were of such high quality. This is particularly curious when one considers how famous Japanese swords have become and that these swords were made by a method developed in China,” Rodell said.

Rodell also gave a presentation of Chinese historical swordsmanship at Sword 2005. He first explained the classic training regime of Chinese swordsmanship, from solo basic cuts and form work through two-person drills and free swordplay. He then demonstrated various cuts and their applications with the help of Wah Lee, miaodao student of David Chan in NYC.

Of the symposium as a whole, Rodell was quite impressed. “Swords are the tools of my trade,” commented Rodell. “I’ve been an antique arms dealer for 12 years now, so I’ve handled around 3000 Chinese swords. But this symposium gave me a new appreciation for how much time goes into creating a blade, as well as the many stages in the process. I would recommend any serious student of historical swordsmanship attend a future Ashokan Sword Seminar.”