This week in class we were working on Peng Jin (Ward off energy), the fundamental Yang energy (Jin) of Tai Chi Chuan.

From the classics:

"What is the
meaning of
Peng energy?

It is like water
supporting a
moving boat."

http://www.scheele.org/lee/cla ssics.html#songsof8

This video shows an exercise we use to train Peng Jin. It's more of a training exercise than a martial technique. I like the imagery of water used in the classic.

As Bruce Lee said, "Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend."

F4aT5vXHo30

Morning XingYi workout. Please forgive my disheveled appearance - I've just woken up!

Love this song by Alex and Carter of alt.westcountry pioneers, Balustrade - http://balustrade.blogspot.com /

tudmv4wOtRI

Working on a counter to a Shuai Jiao technique. Shot this yeas ago and just found it on an old hard drive... The technique 3 times, then a few counters made up on the spot.

oVvWzI1ZAao

Yang style Tai Chi applications, mainly throws and takedowns done from a push hands format. Diagonal flying, Fan through back, Single Whip and a few others.

BpeiMVspUyw

Sorry about low quality vid. This is a demonstration of the way I do Diagonal Flying.

gXjEU9KCk34

Working on Xing Yi's Beng. If you put headphones on and turn up the volume you can just about hear what I'm saying.

J starts doing a few Beng's on me, but they don't really have any effect (despite his huge size advantage!) So we return to doing it from zero distance to work on the structure, then I hit him a few times from a short distance with a bit of intent.

Xing Yi's Beng Chuan is the wood element and is also known as "crushing fist". In the Hebei style we do you should be looking to land a heavy blow that both hurts and displaces the opponent significantly. Notice the displacing effect of the last couple I do that are done with more intent.

Yes, you could use a striking pad for this, but pads and bodies react differently, especially when you want to work on a penetrating effect with your strike. Also it gives the person on the receiving end a chance to work on keeping their San Ti Shi alignments, which helps absorb the force. It also toughens you up a bit and gets you used to being hit.

X8EUx0c8dro

Practicing some Xing Yi links in the park.

1C6Jsso1hFs

This is a little experiment in sparring. The narration explains what's going on, but basically, black is attempting to only use Xing Yi 5 Element techniques. Red is using anything he likes.

So, this isn't proper XingYi by a long shot - no animal methods are used, for example. Also it's not proper Choy Lee Fut either, since no kicking techniques are used by either player - we wanted to work just on our hand techniques.

After round 1 we watched the footage back and decided that Red needed to use a lot more Choy Lee Fut techniques than he was currently doing, so you'll see that Round 2 is quite different in look and feel.

Note: Black is also a Choy Lee Fut guy, and ends up going back to using Choy Lee Fut techniques at the end of both rounds 1 and 2.

It was an interesting experiment and done with equal respect to both arts.

Train hard and stay safe!

y8FcqmLiY0g

An off the cuff run through of the Northern Shaolin Sword form

8U5aglHt7Us

My little lad wanted my attention, and knew how to get it. So much for my Horse Stance training!

Make sure you have sound turned on for the full comic effect.

More details of what I'm doing here: http://wusource.org/content/gr ahambs-ma-bu-challenge-can-you -handle-it

cZ81gNsBiyY

XingYi monkey in the snow.

QxwIxFvsrYM

This is basic practice for Hsing-I 5 Elements Spear. The spear I'm using is handmade from oak by my Hsing-I brother. It's 9 foot, has a 'blade' section at the end and is very, very heavy, so it doesn't bend at all.

Hsing-I methods do not really suit bendy spears (or any bendy weapons for that matter), since they are required to pierce any armour your opponent is wearing as well as your opponent, so the spear needs to be heavy.

A lot of the strikes are upward - this would be against cavalry in a battlefield situation.

-AKYYWyGlZk