ChangWuJi

There are many arts that rely on muscular strength and there are those who through skill, can transcend the mechanical.

Look at this thing from different angle - every1 who speaks about "internal" staff all the time mentions health and long life. If you look at masters in so called "external" arts area, you can see that many of them lived long lives, just like masters from "internal" area. Some died young, from both sides, but in general picture is the same, so what's the matter? And one more thing - let think that for example bagua contains something that makes this style really better then any pther style. What does it mean? That means that peoples who use bagua should beat other styles, so there are two ways for future development - every1 starts doing bagua (since its the best, HUH) or someone invents or simply steal something that makes bagua better and create\upgrade his own style so it could resist bagua. So on, so forth... What we see now? Hundreds of styles in China, and every one can resist another one, that means that in some sense all these styles are equal since styles (and masters who developed and passed it through years) survived through hundreds of years of real fighting, not modern bulls@t championships.

Alot of these devices can be made with pennies worth of expenses, and in your back yard. They also can help other martial artists besides Bagua people. For me at least it was a very interesting read: http://www.chinafrominside.com/ma/bagua/bapanzhangbook.html

http://www.wuwei.org/taji/yanghist.html

http://www.taichifarm.org/Teachings_of_Jou_Tsung_Hwa.htm

http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Philosophy/Taichi/history.html The 'Southern' School of Tai Chi http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Philosophy/Taichi/southern.html [ This Message was edited by: ChangWuJi on 2002-07-04 02:52 ]

http://www.geoffthompson.com/articles/article_reality_training.htm

Check this artcle out . http://www.cyberus.ca/~stonelion/external/beishaolin3.htm

http://www.yiquan.com.pl/history.html http://www.angelfire.com/ak/dachengquan/ [ This Message was edited by: ChangWuJi on 2002-06-03 03:27 ] [ This Message was edited by: ChangWuJi on 2002-06-03 03:33 ]

Chen Village Taijiquan http://www.chenvillage.com

I think I posted on this before. The problem with most people's conception of Tai Ji Quan is they see mostly watered down versions packaged and sold by people who have very little kung fu. It is probably the most often butchered form in martial arts. Most people who take the art also are not truly being taught martial aspects, and do not even participate in push hands (a tai ji form of sparring and sensitivity building), or any Chi Na training(locks etc used with many Chinese systems). They are lured by reports of health benifits, which even more sadly they do not realize because of poor instructors. If you ever see Yang style practiced by a true martial artist.....the form does not simply look slow..it is a power similar to watching a mud slide, they are deeply rooted, and show great power from the legs up through the dan tian. This slow tempo is for neigong (internal) conditioning only....application is not slow, but as quick as one senses the opponents imbalance. The sword is the same......do not mistake speed in training for speed in application. Chen style (original Tai Chi) is eally powerful and quicker to learn for combat than the other Tai Chi styles (with the right teacher), but it is more suitable to younger and healthy people. Chen style especially is explosive and alternates between slow and fast movements. As for the jian, there are still a few die hard traditionalists practicing both the later well know public Yang Style Jian & lesser known, Yang Family Michuan Jian as purely a martial art. Consider how many people think they will eventually attain the kind of martial power the ancients demonstrated. They somehow convince themselves they will reach such an exalted state just by doing their forms, a little Zhan Zhaung, and maybe some mishmash of Chi Gungs for all of an hour or two per day. You gotta be kiddin' me! They need to pay more attention to some of the other, less "cool stories". You know, the ones that talk about the training that Yang Lu Chan put his boys through being so tough that one was ready to commit suicide to escape it, or even some of Wu Tu-Nan's tales of Yang Shou Yu making Tu-Nan practice under a tall table for hours on end, to the point of not being able to stand afterwards. Or they might even pay attention to some of details regarding basic training in the Zhabao style that Tim Cartmell knows; if the basic exercises for that style are so tough that most people cannot do them, what does that imply about the training in other styles of real Tai Chi Chuan? That, IMHO, is how the Masters in those "cool stories" came have the skill and ability that made them famous: along with a healthy dose of raw talent, enduring through training so grueling it would kill most people.

KUOSHU WINNING SECRETS By Mike Patterson (First printed in Inside Kung Fu Magazine - August 1997) http://www.hsing-i.com/hsing-i_journal/kuoshu_training.html

THE YIN AND YANG OF BA GUA ZHANG The Legends of Thin Yin and Spectacles Cheng BY FRANK ALLEN & CLARENCE LU "Legends are apt, however, to be as right in substance as they are wrong in detail." - R. H. Tawney PART I - TUNG HAI CHUAN + YIN FU

Clip of fight: http://webhost.avint.net/munjudo/kimura_gracie1.mpg Here are articles of the entire fight: http://www.judoinfo.com/kimura.htm http://www.gracieacademy.com/generations/1951kimura.shtml [ This Message was edited by: ChangWuJi on 2002-04-20 20:58 ]