Bagua/Xing Yi/Taiji bullshido! . . .with clips!

**Omar** · Posted On: 12/21/2005 7:22am

Really....very nice clips.

**liokault** · Posted On: 12/21/2005 7:31am

Originally Posted by Omar

Really....very nice clips.

Thank you. You didn't guess which one is me yet.

As for the clips Omar posted, well i only know about tai chi, but were they that bad? I doubt that she has any practical experience of how to use them, but the theory was more or less sound, and that's 50% of the battle with tai chi these days.

**Omar** · Posted On: 12/21/2005 8:01am

My opinion is that the worst was the Xing Yi. The best was the bagua.

As I said earlier, the techniques were "ok".

I doubt that she has any practical use experience of there use but thetheory was more or less sound

If all you have is theory, you have no business teaching apps. I have huge tolerance for "dance instructors". I have very little for those teaching usage. While this may have not been screamingly bad in a Rad Ki kind of way, I still say that it was pretty much garbage.

This thread is making me think I really need to write an article or something. I notice an awful lot of the time lately what I want to say about a lot of crappy stuff I see out there is that it has no gongfu. . . and then I realize that no one even knows WTF I mean by that.

This woman is teaching some semi-accurate choreography with no gongfu. No gongfu = no use = garbage. You can have gongfu and no technique or technique and no gongfu. They both suck but the first is better.

When I use the term in this way I don't mean "Chinese martial arts". I mean the more general idea of "time spent". But that falls short of the mark too. When people translate "gongfu" as time spent, what they are trying to convey is something more subtle. As my teacher said of my bagua circle walking, just going in circles doesn't necessarily build gongfu or else the tires on a taxicab would have the best gongfu in the world.

Gongfu is something like the quality of a motion that has been repeated so many times and with such purpose each time that there is an emergent quality that is neither skill nor power but requires both of those in order to manifest. It is the kind of skill that gets into your bones. It's like the subconcious modulations of a motion that has become compeltely natural and instinctive. When someone has gongfu a simple technique becomes irresistable. A good pi quan is DAMN hard to stop even when you know it's coming.

The idea has no specific connection to martial arts. It's a general concept that is often used in reference to any phsyical skill at all. Guitar, Calligraphy, Soccer, Basketball, powerlifting. It's like something to do with the so called nervous pathways that get laid down for the skill.

For the taiji clips, where is the peng, lu, ji, an? They should be there in every motion. Not just peng but ALL of them. Where is the relaxed instinctiveness?

You've got a little in those clips of yours. . . .or rather, whover was doing those great sweeps and that beautiful throw. I couldn't see much from the demo's of the extracts from the form but they were usefull to highlight how the techniques were being used in the competitions.

...ah..I am not feeling like I am expressing myself clearly on this one but what the hell. I hope you get my general idea.

**Cullion** · Posted On: 12/21/2005 8:42am

Originally Posted by liokault

Better applications.......guess which one is me!

Applications

Also here

From our new web site.

New site

Sweet. Nice to see Dave got some San Shou clips on there.

**SuperGuido** · Posted On: 12/21/2005 9:10am

Originally Posted by liokault

Thank you. You didn't guess which one is me yet.

Since you're a 300 year old 16' Chinese Ninja, we can assume that you're the hairy guy doing the slow form, since all the other pics include another person for size comparison. That must've been a really big room you were practicing in!

Actually, I'm hoping that you're the guy who owned the hell out of the other guy on the Lotus Sweep video.

**Planktime** · Posted On: 12/21/2005 9:26am

Originally Posted by Omar

I need to really clarify.

The techniques for the most part are not bad.

The technique...in other words, the actual application of them it terrible. When I look at IMA stuff what I look for is "gongfu". Embedded skill. Power in motion. Full body integration. The specifics of the techniques are secondary. It's like the difference between Joe Shmoe's Muay Thai round kick after 6 months at Bodies in Motion and the round kick of Ernesto Hoost. Both are technically the same technique . . .but with a difference. IMA, as I think you probably ought to know, are more about the quality of the motion, the sensitivity, the relaxed power and other non-technique specific things than they are about techniques. Viewed through this lens....these clips are all garbage.

This clip:
http://www.reelingsilk.co.uk/video04.htm

To my eyes, looks like an excellent way to break your arm.

Wow Omar you are correct her tech is not bad but her timing ect is pretty awful even for it only being demonstrative. Her Xing Yi is worse then mine was and i didnt think that was possible. I will say that her Ba Gua was pretty good she just needs to realize th3 d3adly nose poke is not really for combat.

Thanks for the Clip

PT