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Su Dongchen’s vid against mult. opponents

Here’s a video of a Yizong uncle of mine named Su Dongchen. He was a student under Hong Yixiang, along with my teacher, Luo Dexiu. Although I know that many of you have already seen this video, I thought I should put it up for show on this blog just in case others might not have seen it.

It shows Su Dongchen demonstrating fighting tactics against 3 opponents. You’ll notice the baguazhang coming out in this video as he defends, attacks, lines up and breaks down his “attackers.” It is an unscripted demo, but these are his students, so no one is getting killed or maimed.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v1sK5zBRbec

As far as I’ve seen, it’s probably the best video I’ve seen on the Internet of fighting against multiple attackers. Check it out!

This entry was posted on February 21, 2008 at 11:05 pm and is filed under Baguazhang. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

8 Responses to “Su Dongchen’s vid against mult. opponents”

  1. njadi says:
    February 25, 2008 at 1:27 pm

    I think I got one of him doing tiger…

    http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eCYPJTPBB9Q&feature=related

  2. george says:
    February 26, 2008 at 10:49 am

    Yeah, that’s him. There’s quite a few videos out there of him. I’ve got about 5 or 6 different DVDs of him myself. They are all in Japanese though, so I can’t understand anything of what they say on it. Doesn’t matter too much though, about 95% of what I’ve seen him do on vid, I’ve done myself before in class, so nothing too new. Its just always awesome to see some of the best do what they do!

  3. JessOBrien says:
    February 26, 2008 at 2:01 pm

    Yeah, Su Dong Chen is the real deal. I managed to visit his class in LA one time, but since I got lost in the traffic I only showed up half way thru and had to sit and watch. I was amazed to see that his techniques looked so much like what Luo Laoshi teaches! The smooth, easy movements that have crushing impact were quite familiar. He is also a super nice guy in person and regaled us with many adventure stories over lunch. Wish I could have gone to more of his classes…

    -Jess O

  4. george says:
    March 9, 2008 at 11:28 pm

    Any of those stories that you’d like to share? ;-)

  5. JessOBrien says:
    March 13, 2008 at 6:37 pm

    Haha! It was like 2001 so I can barely remember much about it. It was mostly about his students and who was up to what, so it was fairly low key… But he did tell something about a knife attack on a bus where he used a leather jacket to tangle the guys arms up and KO him. He emphasized how important it is to use whatever is in your environment, don’t limit your thinking to what is “supposed” to happen. And also that the element of surprise is very useful. And what they say is true, his arms are covered with scars from some very scary looking cuts…

    But in person he is an amazingly nice guy with a cheerful smile and open arms. I love how he teaches by example. Similar to Luo Laoshi he gives each student as much as they can handle, right up to the edge… I think that really helps people get it and understand the feeling much better! HAHAH!!

    I think I have some notes from his class, I’ll go try to find them and see if there was anything cool in there.

    Take care,

    Jess O

  6. Bai He says:
    March 25, 2008 at 2:15 am

    I love that vid.
    Interesting when he slaps his opponent’s in the back just over the kidneys…

    He’s so smooth and efficient. Don’t know if I’m that relaxed when I’m shaving much less working on MA stuff.

    Nice blogs and info BTW.
    Great site.

  7. george says:
    March 25, 2008 at 9:07 am

    Thanks Jess. I’ve had his Japanese videos forever, and one of my seniors was a student of his before studying with Luo Laoshi, so I’ve heard tons of stories. Stories follow that man wherever he goes it seems. Check out his Japanese videos too, my favorite is the Nei Jia Quan one.

    Welcome Pete and thanks for the kind words. I don’t have much time to write on the blog these days and my student Josh Leeger recently started on his masters degree, so he doesn’t have as much time to post as well. If there’s ever anything you’d like me to comment on though, I’m open.

    I like the video because it shows clear classical baguazhang in application against multiple opponents. That might not be extraordinary in itself. The extraordinary part of this is that its plainly obvious that Su is highly experienced and highly trained. His level of ingrained gongfu is obvious and visible. Its a lot more common these days to see how the vast majority of teacher’s body methods devolve when put under pressure. Many resort to kickboxing, many just suck, many have had 40 years of wushu pushed at them and don’t have a clue anymore as to why they are doing things. Teachers like Su Dongchen and Luo Dexiu Laoshi are, unfortunately, these days the exception and not the rule.

    Circle on my friends!

  8. jleeger says:
    April 13, 2008 at 1:37 pm

    I’m working on a bagua conditioning book…should be done by the end of the summer…

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