November 1, 2007 by george.

Here’s a match of the Yi style minority wrestlers in China that was originally posted some time ago by John Wang, a student of Chang Dongsheng. Personally, I see the most in common between our style of wrestling in Bagua and this Yi style as shown on the following youtube clip.

You can clearly see them attempting a number of “bagua” throws as we would classify them. In the first minute or so alone, you can see a number of single leg or double leg takedown attempts from our dragon form, at least two varieties of snake throw and a tiger throw attempt at the end. It goes on from there, but for those of us that study this its pretty obvious what’s happening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phSACf09e60

Check out the video. Its a good training tool for us.

Posted in Baguazhang | 1 Comment »

September 14, 2007 by george.

Baguazhang in its essence is a method of understanding and training one’s physical and mental self and how one interacts with that which is outside oneself.

One of the areas towards which I have great respect for the art is in its wholeness. Baguazhang is perhaps the most far-reaching of the physical/mental arts that I know of. This capacity for breadth in its study is one of its greatest strengths, though some might also view it as a drawback.

Baguazhang is a simple art, in the end. It just seeks to understand everything, as it is, and to provide one with the tools to influence. Sure, it has a process. If it did not, there would be no way to reach its goals or to help others along towards those goals. It is not merely a philosophical construct, it is a roadmap, it is directions, it is both, by necessity, the finger pointing the way, and the moon.

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September 14, 2007 by george.

Just thought I should get around to mentioning that I had a great time at the seminars with my teacher. As always, he continues to be very generous with his insights and skills. It somehow still amazes me that I’m always learning something new, even after more than a decade of studying with him. He continues to refine his teaching method, and continues to present the material in different ways.

Not that I ever remotely think “I’ve got it all,” but what continues to amaze me about these arts and Baguazhang in particular, is their depth. Sometimes one can rest on their laurels and think “I’ve learned that before,” but then reality and humility come running up behind you to kick you in the butt and whack you upside the head! Luo Laoshi is a remarkable teacher in that he continues to research. He takes what I might once have thought was mundane, turns it around and shows it in a different light, and then those lights tend to go off in my head for me. The learning process for these arts is something unique.

I should just, once again, take the time to say thanks to Luo Laoshi. Not only are these arts amazing, but its always strikingly apparent that without Luo Laoshi’s training, research, thought, willingness to look everywhere for understanding, fight experience and continuing joy with which he approaches these arts, they would be a very different animal. Its so rare that something like this still exists, I hope that we all can treasure it as much as he does.

Posted in Xingyiquan, Baguazhang, Training, General Info | 1 Comment »

June 21, 2007 by george.

Here’s a link to a site in Chinese with a few clips of an old school brother of mine that I found recently. He’s apparently started his own school now…

http://www.teatime.com.tw/~kungfu/

Here’s a page with links to some videos of Baguazhang: http://www.teatime.com.tw/~kungfu/cc9.html

Here’s a page with links to some videos of Xingyiquan: http://www.teatime.com.tw/~kungfu/cc8.html 

Sorry I didn’t have time to go through and make a link to each video, but there’s like 10 of them. Just hover your mouse over the underlined characters near the top of the pages and those are the direct links of the videos, right click to save and you’re on your way to being able to view them.

Posted in Xingyiquan, Baguazhang | No Comments »

June 19, 2007 by george.

Jesse and Shawn mentioned to me that these videos were out there, as posted on Emptyflower. I thought I should make a link to them here to give other people a chance to check them out. They are basically versions of line one from the houtian palms.

http://v.blog.sina.com.cn/b/2645552-1277253101.html

http://v.blog.sina.com.cn/b/1996577-1277253101.html

Hope you find them interesting.

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