Jiazi Quan

Since Chris started our advanced class, we've been doing a lot of drills from jiazi quan. I can't find anything on it on youtube or anything, and Chris said he's never been able to find anything about it anywhere. Where'd it come from?

Jiazuquan was the compulsory competition form of the 60's. Each decade has a different standardized competition form that wushu athletes must learn in order to compete. Jiazuquan is a bit choppier than the recent compulsory forms (90's and 00's) but is a bit harder due to less fancy, flowery motions devoted to sheer strength.

Here's the 90's form:

and the 00's:

I haven't been able to find anything on it either. Guess there aren't many videos of 60's wushu competition.

I don't believe that Jiazi actually goes back as far as the 60's. I believe began being used as a compulsory form in the late 70's or early 80's, but I have read stuff that leads me to believe it's traditional roots go much farther back as there is reference to the convergence of Hua and Cha fist being compiled as Jiaziquan or (comprehensive fist). I have never seen a video of the form (except clips of John performing it), but I have seen the official manuals of the form. There is also a pared down children's version of the form that I would guess could be found on youtube as I have seen videos of it in the past. The intro and many sections are the same, but it is much shorter and easier. There is no form that seems difficult endurance-wise after learning jiaziquan. It is an awesome and grueling form with a much more traditional flavor that puts the modern competiton stuff to shame IMO.

Agreed. Modern wushu forms tend to focus more on prettier motions that might look cooler than stuff found in Jiazu, but isn't nearly as hard to execute and endure. Jiazuquan is constant up-and-down motion with barely any rest in between sections. Modern compulsory forms have all these spots in between the sections that give one ample time to recover. Everything seems easy after Jiazu, even all of the advanced forms.