Who I am

My name is Henry Wong. I was a disciple of the late Gene Chen, who was an avid practitioner of several martial arts and a master of t'ai chi ch'uan (taiji quan). I'm devoted to preserving and transmitting his rare and valuable system of training Chen Family T'ai chi (Taiji).

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The focus of training

My focus is to preserve the important aspects of practicing the t'ai chi set I learned from my teacher, the late Gene Chen. The three main points I concentrate on are:

  1. Always creating and maintaining the interaction of yin and yang within the body, to move three dimensionally and create spiral energy.
  2. Always maintaining the smooth connectedness between each move, to produce the continuous flow of chi to generate the momentum of energy. The entire set is but of one breath.
  3. Always generating energy via the legs, controlling it with the waist, and expressing it through the hands.

  • T'ai chi

  • Spiraling

  • Momentum

  • Three Dimensionality

Utilizing one's concentrated intention to transform one's body to become the t'ai chi (ying yang) symbol and deliberately connect one's nine major joints: neck, upper back, lower back, shoulder, elbow ,wrist, hip, knee and ankle. These connections allow one to move the joints as a single linked unit. The t'ai chi set is designed to generate interactions between yin and yang that produce the eight energies: ward off, pull back, crowd, press, uproot, split, elbow strike and shoulder strike.

To accomplish the functional aspect of the martial art we must apply the above principles while carefully practicing each move of the set and effectively expressing the eight energies combined with the five footworks:

  1. moving forward
  2. moving backward
  3. look to the left
  4. glance to the right
  5. center stabilization
At the same time this creates complete chi circulation throughout the entire body to promote good health by cultivating energy, chi, and spirit.

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My class

We focus on "warm-up" exercises, because these are the traditional training methods that build "gong", skill, into the body. We practice one set, the Yi Lu, because discovering its depth is the only way to develop a t'ai chi body. We train in a small group so I have a chance to help each individual learn and grow according to their needs.

I teach in San Francisco, California. We meet Sunday mornings at 10am in Golden Gate Park, in a clearing near the footpath leading east from the Conservatory of Flowers.

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