All to say an average club level western boxer would leave you flat on the canvas and in no condition to continue. You most definitely do not do a Chinese martial art, you do a Chinese culture flavored dance.
Every time i do energy training, my Dog also goes nuts like 0:58 :') 11:39 That's a nice metaphor! In that Spirit - i get energy out of the earth, if you push into your standing leg, it will bounce back. So instead of just lifting your feet for a throw, you push into the ground, the leg/ground will push back into your body and you just extend that force into a punch. I think your 17:05 is a very good punch because you do it straight and instand. But if you really want "the strongest punch", that was mine. :)
When Wang Xiangzhai talks about 'internal strength' he makes it clear that he's discussing how the body coordinates as an overall system, rather than any sort of exotic force. How well someone's body coordinates will vary from person to person and be at different stages throughout your training life. You'll also change the tasks that you are using zhan zhuang for, so there's no straightforward answer to this. Some people near enough have 'it' straight away, other people take a long time. Only you can find these answers and decide through experiment and monitoring your progress how you're improving and what tasks you need to focus on. But forty minutes was the ideal time recommended in the past.
By the way that happens because you're starting to make connections to things that are normally autonomously governed by the brain, like body temperature. It's like we're accessing the controls and triggering them in some way, even if we still can't control the exact effect. It's why in the past people usually start with focusing on breathing because it's the easiest example of accessing something consciously that is generally autonomous. Really great that you experienced this.
Thank you for opening my eyes on how to inquire about these exercises. I’ve only learnt the classical forms of the internal martial arts. You’ve given some good approaches for me to implement into my training. Hopefully I can reach a stage where I can also let go of these forms.
Thanks for the good words. I haven't by any means given up forms myself - I enjoy doing them and they add a lot to my overall fitness and just general enjoyment of life and training. I always say wushu is one art - The things that link it are formless, but expressed in all forms of wushu - as I see it.
More great perspectives in this piece for me to digest. You look like feeding crane especially in the explanation of Fujian and Hakka Kuen. Another excellent presentation. Cheers.
1.Methods are problematic and lead you away conceptually from practical application. 2. Exploring and playing with the 4 Contexts. 3. How quintessence movement principles are expressed physically through stacking or construction of a configuration. 4. Structural Expansion and Contraction. Combination and returning to Intent. These are the four points I have highlighted which I really appreciated. Excellent presentation.
@@thr3treebase886 You are most welcome. This is my first introduction to Yi Chuan and I’m fascinated and intrigued to the point it is very hard to retort to a lot of the material. The material is superbly articulated and is very deep and profound to my own level of understanding. Since the mandates and craziness down under I have been stake standing most days and just basic circle walking the last few years more diligently than ever to compensate. I really enjoyed your explanation of martial standing vs health that helped the standing over last few weeks. Inspired me immensely to keep up my standing practices. Kia ora from NZ.
Great content this channel. I’m an old Kiwi living down under and Bagua. Thanks. Naseem also had the concept in my view of how to spark. Cheng Hsin has also some interesting boxing drills that I looked at just recently.
@@thr3treebase886 Cheers man! Good to hear from you! Yeah, more or less, travelling a lot past few years, so no consistent training partners, but I do what I can.
@@inthespirit It's tough to balance everything. But isn't it interesting, growing old-er! All the time that's gone past and looking back on other lives we led. It blows my mind sometimes.
@@thr3treebase886 for sure, time is flying! I haven't posted on our old forum probably since '09 or so, but do visit occasionally and see my old posts, it's kind of like a teenage "dear diary" moment, a snapshot in time, usually pretty cringe worthy 🤦♂️😁
@@thr3treebase886 Sifu Alan Johnson in his book "A Master's Journey" says that daily training of Standing meditation for an hour allowed him to see Auras and read other people's mind.
It's been said that,after you opened Microcosmic and Macrocosmic Orbit you will be able to generate qi(fajing) from anywhere in your body(Pushing,Sticking,etc).Is that true?
Your new videos are beautiful to watch and useful. They're nice to participate in, remind me not to lose sight of the basics, and comfort me that I'm not the only one standing around trying to fight better. Seriously: keep it up. It's good to be able to recommend a Yiquan practitioner who can teach it well and knows what fighting means. This is often not the case and is very sad.
Hi, I think it is clear but just to check. In exercise 2 you move to side and back to centre not other side. Is 70% and 30% fine for the weight shift ? 🙏
Dear Sir, this was exactly what I needed to hear, when I needed to hear it! I’ve thought very similar thoughts to what you have said here over the years. What you are saying is exactly what Chinese martial arts and Neijia in particular need as a model to move forward.
@joanstone6740 what kind of self defense? Striking? Id agree with you there so long as you only count arms. Throws? Weapons? Take down defense? Zhan Zhuang is a powerful form of health cultivation so my question is when you say boxing is better as a health art are you only talking about the art of boxing or are you talking about the cardio and weight training that often accompanying but have no historical connection to boxing? Jogging was made popular in the late sixties early seventies in Australia by non boxers and weightlifting and bodybuild have their background in rehabilitation exercises, powerlifting and things like kettle bell and club are more associated with wrestling. Regardless it's a feeble argument you are making. If you look it, say from a data and stats standpoint with of 8 million people training boxing in just the states alone and the fact that there is competition by pure demographics there would be more high leveled boxers than Yi Quan practitioners. What we can see in other is that as arts become popularized they either degrade due to slack training or the general quality develops and more styles are created. Phili, peek a boo, Mexican and so on. So yi quan being rare at this point had a relatively small pool to pull from. From another angle I know of,and myself train both western and eastern striking methods and Zhan Zhuang improves both. Stop thinking small with the "this is better than that" and start thinking functionally "what are the pros and cons, and what can I take in to make be stronger and wiser".
Practise through experience is embodied in the word praxis which I discovered recently. I think it is Greek in origin. I love it . Basically learning from doing not theorising. In the words of the great god of training footwear “ Just do it “
'Engraved on the heart' is such a beautiful notion and deeply touching especially to hear it coming directly from Wang Xiangzhai. Thank you, as always!!!
I think that the desire for hierarchical leadership from a master is widespread. In addition to Yiquan, I train Thai boxing and you can clearly see the differences in sparring depending on which trainer is leading the training. Students imitate the teacher's behavior. It's just my experience that very few Yiquan teachers even want to fight, but they advertise their Yiquan as a martial art, even though for them it's more about meditation and physical training. Which in my opinion is not reprehensible, but it does a disservice to Yiquan as a martial art because it creates misconceptions about a fight.
China has forbidden fighting for many years, that's the problem. most of kung fu schools became choreography/calistheny schools, people got well conditioned, good in artistic performance, without any real fighting. some Hong Kong schools, far from mainland infuence still had combat as a regular thing, and cross training, what is really important, because the only way to fight well against different styles is having opportunities to exchange experiences with fighters from other styles. when I see some kung fu guys fighting i think, oh boy, they are so naive... I was trained in southern hung kuen, but my sifu has been always training other stuff like boxing, kick boxing, aikido, bjj, etc... and I myself had great friendship with good martial artists from different schools and exchanged a lot. when I see some Yiquan fighting videos, looks a lot with a poor boxing, poor tuishou/sanshou- it lacks good stepping/moving, it lacks dodging, and in many cases, don't even have what it should - hunyuan strenght (peng jin), in other words, it sucks, seems they are fighting but they are not, they are just launching punches in the air and pushing each other, not even real punches in the torso area, kicking? they don't even have real training for raising the leg with power, it's embarassing, so, many think that keeping high hands in the air is a good defense because they never were kicked in the chest/stomach, with a powerfull side kick, so their ideas of controlling distance is based only in hands... a beginner in karate, or sanda, would easily knock down a naive guy like this.
Very grateful for you taking the time to share the ancient practice of Zhan Zhuang with us. Ancestors practiced it. Progenitors also. Most natural thing in the world. Thank you.
Great presentation as always. Best resource on Zhan Zhuang out there. Let me say that the problem is not so much the "ongoing pathological negativity around standing", but rather the eerie silence of your audience. Just saying.
From Xingyiquan classics, however believe relevant to your thought process. The first three harmonies could be interpreted as harmonising the 'the three fists.' In my own decades of experience I have seen how this can be accomplished. However, continued insight is often held up at the harmonising of Xin (heart) and Yi (Mind) it is at this point that the road or path is full of the potential for opening. THE SIX HARMONIES The Three internal harmonies: The mind (Yi) harmonises with the Heart (Xin) The Xinyi (Heart/Mind) harmonises with the Qi. The Qi harmonises with the power The three external harmonies are: The hands harmonise with the feet The elbows harmonize with the knees The shoulders harmonise with the hips. Keep Whispering 'this' the Lightness of Love Raymond
Hi Raymond, this is an idea that we know Wang Xiangzhai actually thought about, as he explicitly 'reimagined' the idea of harmonies to mean a holistic harmonisation of form and intent through hunyuan li. The idea is controversial, if people hold on to Xingyiquan in its formal sense, because Wang's thinking was that the old understanding of harmonies developed Xingyi up to a certain point, then at that point, it began repressing any further innovation. That is, if something didn't fit the model, it couldn't be included. In practical terms, this interpretation of 'harmonies' couldn't continue in its usual form in Yiquan because it restricted potential to a tiny fraction of what is possible through combining hunyuan li with practical training. That's Wang's idea in any case, but obviously people who are deep into Xingyiquan won't always harmonise with that interpretation! Although, it's not like those principles go away, it's just that there are other possibilities, variations, exceptions and so on that can be very useful - essential even in some cases.
I began teaching Chinese Health and Martial Arts in 1981. Since then I have trained with, taught and shared with hundreds of people on the same path. My own philosophical underpinnings on my journey like yourself have their source in the writings of Wang Xiangzhai. So thank you for your open, honest and refreshing contribution. Raymond
Very educational and edifying. From the way you talk, I gather Yiquan is a sort of ascetic lifestyle in which so much is supposed to be understood but is never explained upfront and straightforward. This is standard practice in Chinese martial arts. That is why Wang Xiangzhai was grumpy. He probably never told his students to "drop the tailbone". Why should he ? But you are a treasure in the way you reveal and in the way you withhold. We appreciate.
Sir, i just wanted to say that i am deeply thankful for this series of your teachings. We are really blessed that you share your wisdom and knowledge openly with us, you are a very wise and thoughtful person, please continue sharing your deep understanding of Yiquan, we are very grateful!
I have done three sessions of this posture. It is a new version to me. The one I do closest to it has the hands just inside shoulder width with the fingers angled inward slightly, a smaller ball basically. This felt so wide at first. It is so comfortable now. When I add the boulder intention slowly, my whole back and legs expand and relax especially my armpits melting into my waist and hips, Also my face, throat and chest are softening and dropping or sliding down into my belly and into my legs. It is delicious. Rather than the boulder leaning on me I am resting on the boulder. I love it thanks 🙏
Very helpful and informative. Mental Induction as a training tool is what makes Yiquan unique and fun. We are told that there are hundreds and hundreds of such mental tricks Yiquan's playbook. Thanks for sharing.
You may stand till the cows come home and nothing much will happen. Most people watching are already familiar with that sort of thing. But we have been practicing it for some time now and we are still groping in the dark. Can you help us ? Just saying.
Funny, you were talking about balance and yet you chose an uneven spot to stand. You are right to say that you are not trying to teach Yiquan. And nobody in your audience is trying to learn it. You can only share some logically sound and pedagogically valuable principles and insights. All this comes out of a benevolent and generous state of mind. And for me that is enough. Cheers.
Standing on uneven ground might not be ideal to begin with, but in the end it is about adapting to the situation and for this particular excercise as he seems to put it, about relaxing and maintaining a good posture, so I don't think what kinda ground he stands on is a major factor in what he is trying to get across
