Hello Shīfù I need some unbiased advice. In 2025 I'll be coming to China long term to study Chinese Martial Arts. As part of the curriculum I can pick a few various skills to learn. I'll be studying a Qi Gong, Sanda and, Chen style Taiji but I also need to pick a traditional external art and the two I'm most interested in are Bajiquan and Xingyiquan. They both look like they have similar concepts but perhaps with different methodologies. I'm leaning towards Xingyiquan but my ego keeps thinking Bajiquan looks more visually powerful and attractive. Any advice on making this choice? Thanks for any help you can give.
Great question, and thanks for being so honest. If you visit our school, An Shifu will make a recommendation - and of course it'll change over time as you do. Traditionally, the training methods of Bajiquan can - if the practitioner trains irresponsibly - cause undesirable traits, such as violence, to overdevelop... and so FWIW I'd say spend more time on your Xingyi until it calms your spirit.
How is this related to Rou Quan and Xing Yi? I think its better to first learn Xing Yi for me. To make the transitions easier from Yang tai chi. Ba Ji Quan seems too difficult for now, but i do wanna go faster than my current Yang Tai Chi practice.
There are definitely some similarities between Bajiquan and Xingyiquan and/or Rou Quan, such as Shaolin roots... but that's quite a broad question - hard to answer! As for what to learn, it's hard to say without knowing you, but there are people in their 60's and 70's who start Bajiquan here in Dezhou, China; just with much higher stances, gentler stretching, push-ups against the wall instead of on the concrete, and so on...
@@AnWushuKungFuAwesome! Thanks for the reply. I guess the best way to proceed it pick a random sequence, break it down into the seperate movements, learn it and THEN go on to the next. And maybe visit Asia sometime in my life. 👍🏻
It's very hard - probably impossible! - to really pick up the foundations of gongfu via watching videos; the shapes of the movements are (generally) quite simple, and it's the internals that give any form of gongfu its essence... but(!), in terms of building the body, practicing the movements will certainly be helpful, until you can find a teacher :)
@@AnWushuKungFuI agree! I have been very lucky to have met amazing teacher in 2020. He taught me Qi Gong, philosophy and Yang style Tai Chi. Including focusing on the Tai Chi classics! He retired now, but we still hang out and watch Kung Fu movies together. Yes, our relationship is much like Karate Kid. 🥰We also have a third, a common friend, who has his own Tai Chi school. Together we rehearsed Xi Yang Mei. If you wanna check it out, I soon will make our video public on my channel!
Thank you. Yes, you can see the instructor list on our website here: www.anwushuchina.com/partner-schools/ Arvid Veltkamp, the gentleman in glasses in the video, is an instructor now (and also in BJJ)
Thanks for your comment. In martial circles, typically "Soft Qi Gong" describes practices you'd find in something like Taijiquan, focusing on developing "soft" attributes/skills like relaxation, a peaceful emotional state, hand sensitivity, and so on; e.g., cloud hands. Whereas, "Hard Qi Gong" describes practices found in something like Bajiquan, focusing on developing "hard" attributes/skills, like extreme physical strength, and pain tolerance. In the current day, whilst the phrase "qigong" actually describes an activity that develops a particular skill or attribute, most people use it to as a uniform term for "Soft Qigong", and don't have a separate term for "Hard Qigong", or indeed, know that the latter exists at all.
I'm glad I found your channel, Sifu An, and I'm hoping I can eventually make it to China and retrain from the ground up full-time under you. Had to give up my Baji study for the time being, and it's killing me inside, but hopefully that will change when funding and current world affairs allow more to happen
Once travel opens up again, you're very welcome, Anthony! Every little bit of training is worthwhile, like holding horse stance while the kettle boils. Keep it up!
@@AnWushuKungFu do you also know chi-na-fa? From what I see your channel is great! these are the real chinese martial arts. unintentionally confusion master, but has xu xiadong ever challenged you? he challenges various kung fu schools in China, I wonder why he doesn't challenge the shaolin monks of DengFeng temple???
I recommend Wu style, it’s the original style and many things were never taught to outsiders, so if you want a complete system and authentic teaching, that would be the place to look.
