E07: Scott M. Rodell On the Practice of Yang Family Taiji Quan and Jian Fa

Scott M. Rodell has studied martial arts since the age of nine. He has dedicated the last four 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, Europe and Australia. He began teaching internationally 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 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 nine books on Historical Martial Arts, Chinese Swordsmanship - the Yang Family Taiji Jian Tradition, Taiji Notebook for Martial Artist,  A Practical Guide to Test Cutting for Historical Swordsmanship, Traditional Manchu Archery of the Qing Imperial Guard, Shi Jian Pu - Manual of Ten Sword Skills - A Handbook of Chinese Swordsmanship, Dandaofa Xuan - Chinese Long Saber Techniques Anthology, Fundamentals of the Wudang Sword Method - Selected Translations with Commentary from a Manual of Chinese Swordsmanship, The Taijiquan Classics: A Martial Artist's Translation, and Ming Chinese Military Swordsmanship. 

Having been called the “Father of the Renaissance of Chinese Swordsmanship,” teacher Rodell is best know internationally for his efforts reviving Chinese Historical Sword Work. He is particularly has been reborn due to his work. Considered the leading authority on Chinese Swordsmanship, Rodell travels frequently to Europe (Estonia, Netherlands, Poland, United Kingdom), across the US and to Australia and Canada to lead seminars in this art. Currently, he teaches over 20 seminars a years. He has also recently founded an online Academy of Chinese Swordsmanship. 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 has appeared twice on the popular series, “Man at Arms Reforged,” in the episodes Green Destiny (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) S3, E8 and 400 Year-Old Dandao Sword S3, E15.

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.

Purchase Scott M. Rodell's cutting Jian and Dao: https://sevenstarstrading.com/site/

Music from https://filmmusic.io "Eastern Thought" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/