Sunday, June 28, 2009
Canada day internal martial arts
Just wanted to say to my friends and any Guelphites who see this that there will be Tai chi in the park on Canada day this year. It will happen at Royal City Park on Wednesday July 1 at 9:00 in the morning. People will do a tai chi long form together in the park and then go have icecream afterwards. I will also lead anyone who wants to do xingyi or bagua afterwards :D
Saturday, June 27, 2009
on learning xingyi bagua palm
Recently under I have begun to learn the rare style of xingyi bagua under my master Yang Hai of Montreal Canada. I would like to make a disclaimer right here and say that I have only learned some basics and I don't have any deep knowledge of the style. In this post I just wanted to talk about differences I percies between the style of xingyi bagua and Cheng style bagua (which I am much more familiar with, having learned many of the empty hand forms of the system in several lineages and also deerhorn knives and a bit of sword).
First we should start with a bit of history: Xingyi bagua palm is the creation of one of the true greats of the internal martial arts world. His name was Zhang Zhaodong and he was a direct student of both Liu Qilan (xingyi) and Cheng Tinghua (bagua). Zhang first made his name as a master of xingyiquan who worked for the Chinese government catching criminals with his unique martial arts skills. Later Zhang met and became friends with Cheng Tinghua who ultimately took him as a student for his teacher, the founder of Baguazhang, Dong Haiquan. Many people believe that Zhang learned from Dong, but in fact he learned most of his bagua from Cheng and learned from Dong only in name.
Later in life Zhang created a synthesis of Cheng style bagua and hebei style xingyi which ultimately became xingyi baguazhang.
The style uses the strong points of xingyi, namely its straight forward techniques and powerful force along with the good aspects of bagua, which are fast footwork and use of elusive angles.
So far I have only learned three basic palm changes of xingyi bagua along with the main circle walking practice.
The thing that really suprised me at first is how totally casual the walking is in comparison with Cheng style. Xingyi bagua seems to break all the rules as I understand them in Cheng style (then again, its not Cheng style so it is understandable that it would have different principles). The main thing that suprised me is that the feet are kept fairly wide apart during the walking practice. In Cheng style and bagua as a general rule the feet are supposed to brush each other as one takes each step. One of the reasons for this is that Cheng style uses a big turn in the hips and walking with a narrow posture allows that to happen more easilly. There are other reasons too, but this post is about xingyi bagua not Cheng style :D.
The hips turning issue brings me to my next point: Xingyi bagua doesn't turn the hips as much as Cheng style. This probably comes from xingyi being a more linear style and not needing a big turn at all times.
But I think the most important part of the difference between Xingyi bagua and Cheng style is the body position. In Cheng style the arms are held very tight together and create a very severe angle that that draws a straight line out from the hips. the chest is not turned out at all and actually the chest rounds extremely for power delivery. In xingyi bagua it is almost the exact opposite. The arm that is stretched out goes out at a really big angle to the inside of the circle and the inside arm is very open and expansive. This is a huge difference to Cheng style and it really opens up the body a lot.
I think this all comes from the fact that Zhang Zhaodong was a very tall and broad chested man, so it made sense for him to have a very extended posture that worked with his natural physique to give him not only a great deal of power, but also a long reach.
I am no small person myself (not tall, but fairly wide) and so I can see the natural advantage of such a posture.
In summary, Zhang style bagua is a very unique style given its heritage, but also makes sense in terms of body mechanics and practical usage. I have already had some success using the basic on guard posture of xingyi bagua in free sparring, so I think learning this style will be a real eye opener.
Again I would like to say that you should not take anything in this post as absolute truth about the style since I am only just a baby in it (I've only been doing it about a month). I just wanted to comment on this unique style which isn't practiced very widely in the west. :D
First we should start with a bit of history: Xingyi bagua palm is the creation of one of the true greats of the internal martial arts world. His name was Zhang Zhaodong and he was a direct student of both Liu Qilan (xingyi) and Cheng Tinghua (bagua). Zhang first made his name as a master of xingyiquan who worked for the Chinese government catching criminals with his unique martial arts skills. Later Zhang met and became friends with Cheng Tinghua who ultimately took him as a student for his teacher, the founder of Baguazhang, Dong Haiquan. Many people believe that Zhang learned from Dong, but in fact he learned most of his bagua from Cheng and learned from Dong only in name.
Later in life Zhang created a synthesis of Cheng style bagua and hebei style xingyi which ultimately became xingyi baguazhang.
The style uses the strong points of xingyi, namely its straight forward techniques and powerful force along with the good aspects of bagua, which are fast footwork and use of elusive angles.
So far I have only learned three basic palm changes of xingyi bagua along with the main circle walking practice.
The thing that really suprised me at first is how totally casual the walking is in comparison with Cheng style. Xingyi bagua seems to break all the rules as I understand them in Cheng style (then again, its not Cheng style so it is understandable that it would have different principles). The main thing that suprised me is that the feet are kept fairly wide apart during the walking practice. In Cheng style and bagua as a general rule the feet are supposed to brush each other as one takes each step. One of the reasons for this is that Cheng style uses a big turn in the hips and walking with a narrow posture allows that to happen more easilly. There are other reasons too, but this post is about xingyi bagua not Cheng style :D.
The hips turning issue brings me to my next point: Xingyi bagua doesn't turn the hips as much as Cheng style. This probably comes from xingyi being a more linear style and not needing a big turn at all times.
But I think the most important part of the difference between Xingyi bagua and Cheng style is the body position. In Cheng style the arms are held very tight together and create a very severe angle that that draws a straight line out from the hips. the chest is not turned out at all and actually the chest rounds extremely for power delivery. In xingyi bagua it is almost the exact opposite. The arm that is stretched out goes out at a really big angle to the inside of the circle and the inside arm is very open and expansive. This is a huge difference to Cheng style and it really opens up the body a lot.
I think this all comes from the fact that Zhang Zhaodong was a very tall and broad chested man, so it made sense for him to have a very extended posture that worked with his natural physique to give him not only a great deal of power, but also a long reach.
I am no small person myself (not tall, but fairly wide) and so I can see the natural advantage of such a posture.
In summary, Zhang style bagua is a very unique style given its heritage, but also makes sense in terms of body mechanics and practical usage. I have already had some success using the basic on guard posture of xingyi bagua in free sparring, so I think learning this style will be a real eye opener.
Again I would like to say that you should not take anything in this post as absolute truth about the style since I am only just a baby in it (I've only been doing it about a month). I just wanted to comment on this unique style which isn't practiced very widely in the west. :D
welcome to the yue fei internal martial arts blog.
Hello and welcome!
My name is James Coons and I have been involved in the internal martial arts for six years and martial arts in general for about eight.
I'm just starting to teach Baguazhang and Xingyiquan in Guelph Ontario Canada.
I teach every Saturday at Royal City Park on Gordon st in downtown Guelph.
In this blog I intend to write about my personal experiences in learning and teaching internal martial arts as well as to talk about theory and other things related to internal practice.
I hope that you will enjoy this blog and find it useful :D
My name is James Coons and I have been involved in the internal martial arts for six years and martial arts in general for about eight.
I'm just starting to teach Baguazhang and Xingyiquan in Guelph Ontario Canada.
I teach every Saturday at Royal City Park on Gordon st in downtown Guelph.
In this blog I intend to write about my personal experiences in learning and teaching internal martial arts as well as to talk about theory and other things related to internal practice.
I hope that you will enjoy this blog and find it useful :D
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