Wu Tan NY/NJ was founded by late master Dr Charles Chang-Lin Chen in 1981. We are on a mission to preserve the lost art of Bajiquan and several other styles of Northern traditional Chinese Martial Arts.
We offer two in-person class currently, the in person class takes place every Sunday morning:
8:45am-10:30am in Chinatown, Manhattan. 9:30am-11am in Kissena Park, Queens, New York. Visit our websites:
Very cool! This looks just like 盘腿 Pān Tuī after countering a 大德合 Dā Dé Hé or 踢 Tī attempt in Bēijīng Shuāijiāo. The only differece I can see is your 跐步 Chī Bù hugs the ground and our Pān Tuī is higher up, kind of like a passé in Ballet. Thank you for sharing!
@@taio_man I’d say this is more like GuiTui (kneeling leg). I believe that prior to Qing dynasty, martial arts would be more integrated, meaning Shuai, Da, Qing, Na, and weapons should all be encompassing. The northern nomads were the expert and perhaps the origin of the Wrestling arts, but people do trades and exchange knowledge over a thousand years (disregard the dynasties). That’s why you can see a lot of ShuaiJiao techniques in many traditional CMA styles, especially those existed prior to Qing dynasty such as MiZhong, Baji, Pigua, even Taijiquan.
Hello, thank you so much for sharing this information! I recently watched your video about Master Liu Yunqiao, and one thing that stood up to me was that you said Yangqiquan was 80% wrestling. I am a Bēijīng Shuāijiāo practitioner, and I know a tiny bit of Central Guoshu Institute Bājiquān, so ears perked up when I heard that haha. I wanted to ask, this technique 穿掌砸捶 Chuān Zhāng Zá Chuei, it looks a lot like the downward punch that's right before 蹬腳反砸 Dēng Jiāo Fān Zá (I forgot the name, sorry!) in the Large Form routine. It also looks like a "swimming"/pummel-like transition into the 插 Chā or 抱单臂 Báo Dān Bì in Shuāijiāo. Would it be correct to view 穿掌砸捶 Chuān Zhāng Zá Chuei in that way, as a subtle 穿 Chuān during a grip fighting-like exchange? Perhaps I am overthinking this haha. Thank you so much for your time, and sorry in advance for any misspelling/misuse of any Mandarin characters.
This is so cool! So glad Kevin met you and learned how Bajiquan works. I loved your explanation and demonstrations. Hope Sensei Seth comes to pay a visit as well since he also dipped his feet in TCMAs
That move is also a great way to set up a shovel hook to the liver, anytime you can get some control on that lead arm you've got them for a moment. Footwork might need to be modified a touch.
Street fight is pretty meaningless. 95% of people who get in street fights can't fight for crap. Watch Street Beefs. It's painful. Bajiquan is the martial art of choice for both the imperial bodyguards and Chang Kai Shek's bodyguards in Taiwan. It's been proven over and over.
Whilst I didn't try out the exact full first two moves (one-handed provoker thrust and small wrist chop) today, I did try out the basic idea of an uncommitted thrust that, when parried, is immediately pulled back with a following wrist chop. That was pretty amusingly effective in sparring, and can only be made more effective by ensuring that my small chop falls along the opponent's weapon to control the opponent's blade, and makes me wonder why I didn't try it out more often before before I acquired my Miaodao feder/sparring sword. It's obviously applicable with my longsword too; a great follow-up for any initiating high thrust that gets parried, and a great anecdote to my main weakness of committing forward and then sorta just getting stuck there and subsequently hit. The wiping type motions I haven't managed to make work as depicted - I currently feel as though they assume the opponent tends to have lowered hands, but the meta at my club tends towards high hands in both attack and defense, so it's hard to 'wipe to their throat'; that being said, I accidentally pulled one off under circumstances I do not understand, so, more experimentation needed to see if I can pull off the wipe against high hands. As with most traditional forms, I suspect that they encode far more information than is commonly depicted - like, we have the rough motions, the intended purpose, but not the specifics of how it's used in every circumstance. I suspect that I should be obtaining an overbind and pressing down the opponent's blade as I cut to their throat if they guard with blade forward and high; simply a small cut-around like with the first action if they defend with blade up and high; and either a cut-around or the equivalent of a duplerin if the opponent parries but has their hands much lower than mine; depending on which side I am on relative to my opponent's body and blade. If the opponent refuses blade contact in any way, then wrong set of techniques to try to use on them. Suppression and raising the opponent's sword - haven't had a good chance to really experiment with that one yet. I have thoughts and it's related to some of the things I've tried in longsword fencing, but what stumps me in that form is - the third cut back down; is it supposed to be back along the same line (or is that cut agnostic in application)? Edit: I reviewed the applications video; I think I see some of the subtleties in the 'stealth one-handed thrust' that I couldn't see more than a year ago and think I have a chance of pulling it off. The suppression and rise again as depicted in the video still doesn't quite make sense to me though; too much of an opportunity for my opponent to double on me/rise and cut my torso/do anything when I leave control just to chamber the next strike. I haven't reviewed in detail the other video on first and second route mechanics; I might have pulled off something from there as well, but I wouldn't be sure. Edit: Tried to do the side parries leading into thrusts from first route; it did not work very well naively as my opponents were freely striking over the weak of my blade. I suspect I need better setup or an explicit attempt to stir/circle parry to guide the opponent's blade to the strong of mine. Also pulled off the second route 'follow the opponent's weapon up and cut his wrists' by sheer accident a long time ago; it exists in the zwerch counterplays of KDF too :D . But the rest has yet to really be tried in the spirit it was presented. 4th route, haven't managed to pull off yet; my footwork is the main thing I know needs work, but also a number of the techniques are close ranged enough that I'd need to either bait my clubmate into closing with me, or else figure out how to pull off far more explosive footwork whilst setting up those circumstances. The other CMA shenanigans I've been trying out today include the fancy cross-step forward and lowered whilst cutting at my opponent (as seen in one of the warlord Dadao videos and the thought to be 'strange' part of the practical Dadao manual by another warlord) - it turns out to be a useful move for renewing an attack on the same side whilst remaining guarded by my sword and coiling up that forward energy for use in retreating if the attack fails to work; I can see how with more practice I can make it work more reliably and with better form. Also messed around with the bury head/enter cave stances from the Dan Dao Fa Xuan manual against polearms - relatively light, casual sparring, but I have a better idea of how it might be made to work now. Mechanically, the main thing I'm 'unsure' of given my own HEMA experience thus far is the insistence in various parts on 'driving with the full strength of the body'. My Miaodao training sword is probably around 1600-1700 grams or so, with a point of balance closer to 10cm, given that it's heavier than my longsword at 1.5kg. Regardless, I don't feel a need to 'drive' the cut with full body strength - wrist strength is sufficient to initiate and provide the vast majority of the speed (and I'm not a strong person at all; my grip strength is on the lower end of adult males or so I'd imagine) and indeed it's desirable as the speed of the wrist is far faster than the rest of the body; what the body needs to do is follow so as to be quick to recover the potential in the wrist (the step forward does not drive the sword; it allows the sword to remain strong in the same position whilst regaining the potential to cut again as the arms are bent there) and to provide 'flavouring' to the cut (ex. wrist initiates, body weight follows through to make it a strong suppressive cut). That said, I don't exactly have pretty form when fencing, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's finer details to it that I just haven't figured out, proprioception-wise. Also, footwork is sort of the number one thing I've noticed that I'm lagging in when it comes to my fencing anyways, so perhaps in six months I'll return with a different perspective on that!
Appreciate for sharing your thoughts and experiences. MiaoDao is a “Chinese” weapon and a long one, with that being said, footwork becomes essential to maneuvering the long and heavy weapon with extra speed and reach. Regarding the 3rd Route, the double wipes. When you see the same move being repeated in a form, it’s saying “hey, this move can/should be used twice at a time.” So if the opponent do a high hand attack and your first left wipe didn’t work, you can immediately step to the right and disconnect the swords and apply the second wipe on the right.
The blocking explanation, now that I'm watching this video again after gaining actual experience fencing (HEMA), gives me a rather surprisingly rapier-like understanding now. Block - and in Miaodao with that very big guard, if the opponent slides up to the disk guard, it's their loss - they've fed you the weak of their blade and you're free to thrust them like with rapier. If they push to the weak, then the obvious cut around happens. I should be able to do this with the longsword too, but in a way it's more of a crapshoot because I can much more easily get the cross-guard angle wrong and just get accidentally handsniped anyways. Holding a miaodao with a good disk guard in my hands, I'm instantly given a sense of the desire to use the disk guard like a hand-buckler in the same way as with a Spanish rapier's cup hilt. Wild.
@@wutan_nj I am planning to use your Miaodao videos as my first guide on exploring my new sparring miaodao and feeling if there's anything noticeably different between Miaodao and KDF longsword fencing. Your kung fu presentations were always amongst those that gave me the best sense of realism + 'this can work, just that it'll be uglier against a resisting opponent closer to my skill level'. I feel like whilst the bulk of the fencing will by the same, some of the subtleties will attract me towards trying out noticeably different things. Already I've been noticing that the slight curve keeps the point online even as I adopt a tight guarded position (as in the 'sticking the miaodao close with a parry and pushing in with the body' in one of your videos), making such positions just that little bit more attractive than if I were to try the same with the longsword (that and I think the longsword's crossguard might start digging into me if I were to hold it quite as tightly...)
I don’t recommend you train on your own because Bajiquan is extremely lower body intensive, if not under proper guidance, your knees can get hurt. I recommend you find a local teacher or join good quality online program such as BajiShu.com, there, the progress and training is being carefully designed.
thanks for showing this. The first entry is similar to Aikido's iriminage, entry throw or takedown. I like the fact you demonstrated the counter when the first move is in transition.
Many thanks for the Excellent, footwork! In my age, however, only equal reaction is needed in terms of time and ability to move. Iĺl keeep walking. Paul,69.
I do this regularly couple months back by watching one of ur vid, but I stomp the floor hard neighbours below started complain to the apartment owner 😅
This is very awesome, thank you for sharing! When I used Large Form (I am a novice of Nanjing style Bajiquan), 掛塌 was always my favorite move. Back then, I had zero wrestling/grappling experience, so I did not quite understand some moves like 大缠, but I understood 掛塌 very well. Now I practice Beijing-style Shuaijiao and my favorite of techniques is 崴. 掛塌 is basically our version of 崴, while 反掛塌 and is our 切子. The technical applications may be a bit different, but I love the overwhelming similarities, and I hope to smoothly and effectively use my Shuaijiao and Bajiquan in my self-protection. Thank you so much for videos such as these. They have helped me further my understanding, while also just being super awesome!
This is awesome! I can’t wait to hear Kevin’s perception of Baji/Pigua. Also, Sifu, I’ve been promoting you on Scenic Fight and they seem interested in collaborating with you
@@GameleiraNoChao unlike BajiShu is basically the WuTan system in which there are Pigua Zhang, Taiji, and Bagua as supplemental styles. ChanquanShu is more focused on the Changquan system.
the sticking and wrapping techniques are hard to get good at but once someone does they become very effective and really really annoying to deal with. I speak from experience trying to deal with it.
Linking or harmony, it depends on how you read „he“. Orally it cannot be differentiated, but when you write it down one has two characters with the same pronunciation: one meaning linking, one meaning harmony.
@@wutan_nj Very good hahaha I love when this happens, because when I train, I separate The techniques that "match", like "after this Double arm defense I can attack The stomach(The Hu Pu way) or The chin(white ape way), and do The possibilities in sequence. I don't know If this makes Sense, but os easier for me to remember 🤣
