@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".
