Old Frame, First Form, Chen Taijiquan

Chen Style Taijiquan, Old Frame First Form, Lao Jia Yi Lu
By Michael P. Garofalo.  

This webpage includes a detailed bibliography of books, media, and articles.  Extensive selection of Internet links. 
List of movement names in English, Chinese characters, Chinese Pinyin, French, German, and Spanish; and citations for sources of the movement names. 
Detailed list of DVDs and videos available online.
Extensive notes on the author's learning the Old Frame, First Routine, Lao Jia Yi Lu; and on learning Chen Style Taijiquan. 
Record of performance times of this form by many masters. 
Breakdown by sections of the form, with separate lists for each section.  General information, history, facts, information, pointers, and quotations.  

Learning Chen Taijiquan #2

We don’t "really learn” Tai Chi by listening to, imitating, and following a live Tai chi instructor, or reading Tai Chi books, or watching Tai Chi instructional DVDs.  The “learning” comes from practicing Tai Chi, playing Tai Chi, moving by Tai chi, and feeling Tai Chi.  We move from being awkward and uncomfortable to moving gracefully, fluidly, easily, confidently, and beautifully.  Live and virtual Tai Chi instructors provide us with information and ideas about what Tai Chi has been for others and could be for us, its rich history, and provide us with a model of how a "form" might look and be realized as expressed by their body-mind.  Our instructor's "mind" set or intention is important - depending, for example, on whether they emphasize martial applications or they are a New Age energy arts dancer.  Likewise, our own progress in "learning" will depend upon our own "mind set" of intentions, dedication, toughness, the courage to go beyond our limitations and failures, and our willpower.  Learning Tai Chi is always a complex matrix of interactions, lived experiences, daily training, and accumulated muscle memories.  Less thinking and more practice, training, and doing will result in the greatest learning.  Repeated movements are the foundation for Tai Chi learning.  

"Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person's physical, emotional, and mental states."
-  Carol Welch 

"Knowing is not enough, we must apply.  Willing is not enough, we must do." 
-  Bruce Lee  

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new.  But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful.  There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power."
-  Alan Cohen

Chen Style Old Frame First Form, Lao Jia Yi Lu

List of Movements

Learning the Chen Style of Tai Chi Chuan: A Journal by Mike Garofalo

Notes on Learning the Chen Style of Taijiquan (#1)

Because of the three surgeries on my upper left leg because of a tumor, and the amputation of part of my right middle toe because of a diabetic ulcer, during the period of June 2011 until February 2012, I was unable to make much progress on learning and practicing the Old Frame, First Form.  My health has improved and I am now dealing with the aftermath of problems in my left leg.  Fortunately, I am now walking four miles on four days of each week, practicing Tai Chi and Qigong daily, lifting weights, and teaching yoga and taijiquan again.  

I am quite comfortable now with practicing the short 18 movement Chen Taijiquan form developed by Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei which I learned a few years ago.  

Last week I updated a number of my webpages on the Chen Style of Taijiquan by adding new links, book citations, and made some changes in the formatting of those webpages.  

My primary "virtual" Chen Style of Taijiquan teacher is Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei.  I carefully study his five English language books, his DVD lectures, and his instructional DVDs.  I use two specific books and two specific instructional DVDs for learning the Old Frame First Form (Lao Jia Yi Lu).  I have never met Chen Zhenglei in person, but I hope to someday attend one of his workshops in the Northwest, USA.  I also read many other books by other authors and view other relevant instructional DVDs on the Chen style of Taijiquan. 

Lately, I have been carefully studying:

Chen's Tai Chi Old Frame One and Two.  By Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei.  Translated by Jack Yan.  White Bench Publications, Toronto, Canada, 2011.  396 pages.  ISBN: 978-0-9866756-2-1.  This book is entirely in English.  It is well illustrated with black and white photographs of Chen Zhenglei.  

Traditional Chen Village, Chen Style Tai Chi, Lao Jia Yi Lou, Part I.  Excellent instructional DVD by Shifu Jiang Jian-ye.  Part I is 114 minutes long.  Capitol District Tai Chi and Kung Fu Association (CDTKA), Albany, New York, 1998. 

Chen Style Tai Chi Old Frame Routine One.  Demonstration and instruction by Master Jesse Tsao.  2 instructional DVDs or VHS videotapes, 60 minutes each DVD.

I am now reviewing and practicing Sections I-V, Movements 1-15, of the Old Frame, First Form.  

 

Silk Reeling exercises and standing meditation are considered essential foundation practices of the Chen style of Taijiquan.  I will speak about silk reeling in a later notebook entry.  Many of Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei's books and DVDs include presentations on silk reeling exercises.  

 

I plan to keep a Notebook to record my progress in my studies of the Chen Style of Taijiquan.