Chen Laojia Erlu (Cannon Fist)
陳氏太極拳老架二路 (炮捶)
The second Chen form, called paochui or cannon fist. Fast, explosive and with almost no slow passages — it is taken up only after the first routine is solid.
Quick Facts
About this Form
Anyone who knows tai chi only as slow exercise in a park will see its other face here. Cannon fist is short — about 43 movements and four minutes — and almost the whole of it runs at speed, with elbow and shoulder strikes, stamps, jumps and turns in the air. The proportion is reversed against the first routine: there slow leading dominates and the releases are punctuation, here the release is the rule and slowing down the exception. The form is never taught first. It assumes the practitioner already has the spiralling coil and the postural structure from laojia yilu; without those, speed turns into flailing. Chen schools therefore usually require several years of prior practice. The purpose is plain: the form trains the ability to issue force repeatedly and in motion, not only from stillness. Cannon fist is also the answer to the objection that tai chi is merely a health exercise — the style's combat content is visible in it directly, with nothing to be imagined.