Tai Chi Chuan, Ch'i Kung information and the History of the NWTCCA in Seattle, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Spokane WA, and So. California

"Expectations are Premeditated Resentments" HK

 

History of the NWTCCA

 


 

What is the Northwest T'ai Chi Ch'uan Association?

NWTCCA was formed in the early 1970�s in Seattle, WA as a not for profit organization by Senior students of Grandmaster Tchoung Ta-tchen. Originally the group was called the Chinese T'ai Chi Ch'uan Association and was based in Chinatown at what is now the site of an Asian Health Center. Later the Kwoon was moved to the University District as part of the Chinese Cultural Education Center. The official name of CTCCA was later changed to NWTCCA by Tchoung�s senior students. At that time CTCCA was considered the only place in Seattle to learn the real art of t�ai chi ch�uan.

While there were other teachers in the area, it was clear to those "In the know" Tchoung Ta-tchen was the only real T�ai chi Grandmaster or Master in the area, his "Eyes were high".

Seattle�s other well respected kung fu masters all addressed Tchoung as "Sifu", paying respect to his deep knowledge of the art. In the early 1970�s Tchoung was the embodiment of the real t�ai chi in the Pacific Northwest. In Canada advanced t�ai-chi students flocked to him to learn the higher levels of the art that other teachers either did not know or were reluctant to teach. There was some talk at this time that Chinese masters in Vancouver B.C. were unwilling to teach anything more than superficial t'ai chi form to the non-Chinese Canadians. Many of the serious t'ai chi marital art students of those masters moved to Tchoung's Chinese Tai Chi Chuan Association because of this reason. So the serious students flocked to Tchoung�s Kwoon in Chinatown Vancouver and Seattle. It was rumored that he upset other Chinese Kung-fu masters as they claimed he was showing too much to his non-Chinese students. His philosophy was to teach everything to all his students so that the level of t'ai chi ch'uan would grow higher. Though many serious Chinese students also studied with Tchoung because they found he was the only one really teaching the whole art. Though it seems like most of his students were Chinese.

Tchoung was concerned in the decline in skills of t'ai chi ch'uan masters over the years and feared that t'ai chi would be only a calisthenics exercise if the trend continued. So he pushed his students along. Later he took several intermediate level students to China and Taiwan and they won silver medals in open competition. In playful pushing hands, few Chinese masters could stand against them. Several Chinese masters also studied with Tchoung to update their skills in China as well as Vancouver and Seattle.

The NWTCCA is a branch of the Chinese Tai Chi Chuan Association (Canada) which is related to The Chinese T'ai Chi Ch'uan Association of Taiwan. Tchoung was a representative of the CTCCA of Taiwan, his student was an official of that organization in 1977. The Taiwan CTCCA organization sent him as their representative to teach the president of Gabon. CTCCA is the official t'ai-chi ch�uan organization in Taiwan with many different masters as members. Grandmaster Tchoung was a delegate from that organization. The CTCCA is now based in Vancouver BC.

The major NWTCCA groups in California are based at the University of California at Riverside, and Loma Linda University Drayson Center. SW Chapter is headed by Chief Instructor Harvey Kurland . Most local classes are listed on the Class Schedule page.

The SW Chapter of the NWTCCA is based in the Inland Empire of Southern California and centered on UC Riverside. Certified instructors include Scott Mullen �Level 6, Dan Vendetti � Level 3, Ruth Villalobos - Level 1, Grace Weathersby � Level 1, Mick Branch - Level 1, Myra Allen - Level 1, and others who are certified but who are not teaching at this time.

The major branch of NWTCCA in Seattle today is the Internal Wushu Arts� Xin Qi Shen Dojo headed by Sifu Andrew T. Dale. Dale also has several certified students teaching in the Pacific Northwest and other parts of the country. Another certified CTCCA/NWTCCA instructor Sifu David Harris also teaches in Seattle and specializes in his application style of Shoshin Karatejitsu, which combines t'ai-chi, aikijitsu and other arts. In Spokane, Washington the NWTCCA classes are taught through Institute of Extended Learning at the Community Colleges of Spokane by Jeff Herda Level 4 Instructor and Kevin Harms Level Three Instructor, Daniel Brasher and Bernie Elmendorff and their students, Harms and Herda are both senior students of Kurland.

Tchoung prefers to use the term Sifu or Sehfu (Cantonese and Hunan Mandarin transliteration) instead of Shrfu (Beijing Mandarin harder "R" transliteration). He named several students to call themselves sifu. Sifu is a term for a certificated instructor who is a professional teacher, a teacher of teachers and also "father-teacher". In the United States only Harvey Kurland, Master Andy Dale, Master David Harris, Dr. Carey Brooks and Dr. Don Scott were directly taught and certified by Grandmaster Tchoung Ta-tchen and the Chinese Tai Chi Chuan Association as competent to teach the System and to be called sifu. There are several related schools in Canada, Taiwan, South Africa, Germany, and Japan. Canada has the largest membership with over 3000 past and present members of CTCCA. Sifu Tim Glasheen and Sifu Laurens Lee teach at the main branch in Chinatown, see the "Instructors List", at the end of this page, for a complete listing of certificated, "Sifu", instructors for CTCCA.

After the recent retirement of Grandmaster Tchoung, Sifu Tim Glasheen and Sifu Laurens Lee have taken over his classes teaching in the main school in Vancouver, CTCCA and other senior students teach in other locations in Canada, Australia and Japan, see the Class Listing.

Master Andy Dale and Sifu Harvey Kurland are the only Chief Instructors currently teaching this complete system in the United States (NWTCCA). Dale and Kurland were given the complete authority to certify teachers by Tchoung.

The directly trained and authorized teachers by Grandmaster Tchoung Ta-tchen were listed in a recent issue of WUSHU KUNGFU (see list). All CTCCA instructors are pictured in Grandmaster Tchoung's book that was released in 1995. At the next tier down, there are teachers certified by Tchoung�s chief instructors that have certificates from Tchoung Ta-tchen or his Chief Instructors.

There is a specific curriculum taught by the NWTCCA and CTCCA based on the Old Form of Yang Family Style as taught by Grandmaster Tchoung Ta-tchen. Official Instructors have complete various levels of the curriculum and passed appropriate level tests. Chief instructors (Sifu's) have passed all tests, were taught and certified directly by Grandmaster Tchoung Ta-tchen.

When Sifu Kurland went to Taiwan in 1977 he met with some of the officials of the Chinese T'ai Chi Ch'uan Association of Taiwan. One official was Sifu Fei Pei Liu. Sifu Fei turned out to be Grandmaster Tchoung's student and Kurland's older t'ai-chi brother. CTCCA-T is separate from the ROC Koushu Organization which is the Shaolin ch'uan kung-fu (Koushu) organization. The Kushou Organization sponsors tournaments every year in Taiwan. He also met t�ai-chi masters in Taiwan who were students of Grandmaster Tchoung and were teaching in Taipei including Kan-sheng Hsiao-chou. Sifu Fei later moved to California and retired.

This list was originally published in the October/November 1996 issue of Wushu Kungfu Magazine. According to CTCCA President Laurens Lee the following people are the only ones directly trained and authorized by Grandmaster Tchoung Ta-tchen to teach his system (in alphabetical order). Some have official Teaching Certificates from Tchoung Ta-tchen and the CTCCA and others do not:

United States of America, Chief Instructors (NWTCCA):
Carey Brooks
Andrew Dale
Dave Harris
Harvey Kurland
Don Scott

Canada, Chief Instructors (CTCCA):
John Camp
Patrick Carter
Peter Dickson
Eric Eastman
Tim Glasheen
Michael Juzenas
Laurens Lee
Kim Ray
Francis Tsen