Our martial arts system comes to us from an unbroken lineage of Chinese Martial Arts luminaries over hundreds of years.
Thirteen Dynamics is one of the original names of ‘Tai chi chuan’ before it became popular for its health building potential. We avoid calling our system ‘tai chi’ because our art and training is very different to what most people think of as ‘tai chi’.
The art was developed and refined over centuries, combining the practical combat skills of legendary military generals and fighters with profound Taoist philosophies and their related health nourishing exercises.
In recent generations the art has been transmitted by the efforts of champion full contact fighters, who refined their understanding of the combative and health promoting factors within the art through hard years of vigorous training, research, reflection and teaching.
Chinese martial arts traditionally combine ‘Wen’ and ‘Wu’ aspects. This is training designed on the one hand to bring combat and self defence skills and on the other hand practices to develop character, health and wellbeing.
Our school’s chief instructor is Neil Rosiak, who was trained from his early teenage years by Dan Docherty, 1980 south East Asian martial arts champion. Dan himself was taught by the legendary master Cheng Tin Hung, who was famous throughout south east Asia as a fighter and trainer of champions.
Neil won the British t’ai chi championships at age 18 and won the first European championships in both heavyweight categories. He was also selected to fight for the first heavyweight professional championships in UK MMA. Dozens of his students have won various martial arts championships at national and international level over the years.
The school therefore has a lineage of lifelong, committed practitioners going back hundreds of years, dedicated to preserving and transmitting these precious and sophisticated martial arts training methods.
Training in this martial art will give you a lifelong practice that you can use to build the health and capacity of your body and mind. It will develop confidence and your ability to defend yourself and resolve conflict. Training in the art is highly enjoyable and the club environment builds social interaction.
The art is best suited for those interested in a deeper approach to training, who enjoy training body and mind together and who are prepared to practice in their own time. The ideal practitioner is said to be like a ‘renaissance man/woman’, someone interested in developing the full and broad spectrum of skills and abilities available from training in a complete martial art.
