Pick the style, THEN the teacher!

Pick the Style first.............

There are so many great articles out there that talk about how to find a good teacher, it would be redundant to just rehash what has already been said so many times.  But what is rarely said is that the student should choose his style first, then the search for a teacher becomes much easier.  Now this will go directly against what a Sensei in a McDojo will tell you, all while pushing a lifetime contract at you and using every high pressure sales trick to get you to sign.  But for people who want a real martial art and quality instruction, the path I will describe has a high success rate.

First a student should understand that there is nothing new under the Sun.  With relatively few exceptions, every style in the Chinese Martial Arts shares similar techniques and skill sets.  This is best understood when you remember that everyone is built the same-2 arms, 2 legs and a head with a body in the middle.  That really limits what can be done while fighting.  And any good style will have explored and developed all of those tools to the farthest extent possible.  So never believe a teacher who tells you about their "Secret" technique or training.  That is a song that only suckers fall for.  And since now we understand that most styles share many techniques, we have to understand what makes a style unique among others.  I would argue it's the personality and application of the style that makes it special.  My personal arts of Xingyi and Bagua use many of the same movements, but they apply them in much different ways.  For example, the Hou Tien movement "Tan" is very similar in body movement to Beng Chuan in Xingyi.  Or the Wing hand in Hung Gar and the Praying Mantis hand, they are only different because of minute finger placement.  There are many other examples as well, if you take the time to look.  So now we understand that the practitioners mind and how they apply the movement makes the style, so what does that mean for a new student?  It points to a truth that every style of martial arts has a "Personality", for example Hung Gar builds and uses tremendous power, where Praying Mantis relies on speed and angles, Xingyi uses vertical circles in its movements while Bagua prefers horizontal circles..

Why is the personality of a style important you ask?  Because each person has their own personality as well, and many times if the mindset of a person and their training style aren't matched, the student won't naturally understand and learn how to react instantly with the skills developed.  Or they might not be able to perform the movements well enough to protect themselves.  If an older man tries to overpower a younger man with a Hung Gar approach, he has a higher risk of failing than if he had used a method of defense from an Internal art.  So is it worth his time and effort to train in Hung Gar?  Not really!  If we are looking for the best method of self defense, part of our research should be devoted to which styles we can physically perform.  I know this sounds a little confusing to some people, but I think if you take the time to read and research, you will see the truth in my words.

So lets use me as an example of a student looking for a new school.  I would have to look at myself and see what my personality is and how I like to handle problems and situations.  I would look at my past training that went well and I understood correctly.  My mindset is more aggressive than many people.  I like to drive straight into problems and solve them with limited time and effort spent.  I don't worry too much about manners and politeness when I am in a difficult situation.  I was an All American in Greco Roman wrestling which means top 20 in the US.  My experience in Xingyi has been wonderful since it fit my mentality.  So taking all of this into consideration, I would look for a direct, aggressive style that favors or allows for close contact fighting.  I wouldn't do well if I chose to practice Tai Chi as a martial art or Northern Shaolin which has many leg techniques.  So just now I narrowed my search to what I am more likely to do well in.

Now the easy part of the search begins, I can simply start to search the internet and find teachers of the styles that I am open to and try to match how I learn to their teaching style.  Many teachers love to teach hands on, but not every student learns that way.  Some students learn in a more abstract manner and like to have examples and comparisons given.  Also I have to make sure that I will fit in with the school population, since that is a MASSIVE factor in my future success.  No one every became a master alone, without the help of senior students or a close relationship to the teacher, the chances of learning well will decline greatly.

I hope that this article hasn't been too confusing or ethereal for most.  In summary, pick a style that you can easily understand WHY it does things the way it does, and look to see if you can mesh in well with the school family.  But the most important part is to not take forever, every week you spend THINKING about training, you have just lost a week of ACTUALLY training!  So get to it!

If you want peace, prepare for war

If you want peace, prepare for war- Si vis pacem, para bellum

This may seem a bit dramatic since we are only talking about martial arts, not international relations, but the core principle relates directly to our practice and the direction of our training.   If we are visibly weak, others will prey on us.  If we show that we are serious opponents and not easy marks, predators will keep away and look for an easier path.  I feel that peace in life can be easily achieved by the sheer physical presence of a true martial artist.  People are less likely to start problems or harass a fighter because the signs are usually very clear of their skill and abilities.  Some of these are seen in external signals like the confident walk,  strength in the eyes, calmness in most situations, a willpower of steel when dealing with various situations.  These are often mental attributes showing, but we can accelerate and make them stronger through proper physical preparation for combat.  Many people practice martial arts and don't show these signs, and I feel that increased physical training will bring them out, due to the fact that increasing health and wellness allows our true selves to show externally.  And for this article we are starting from the general agreement that martial arts are purely about fighting, and the excellent mental and spiritual benefits are a side effect, albeit a very valuable one.

I will address my personal thoughts and ideas about combat training here, how to structure a solid program for practice and how to measure the gains and refine the skills and abilities developed here.
The most important things a fighter needs are stamina, speed and power.  Only when you have all 3 can you properly refine your technique.  Many people would disagree with this, but not world champion fighters like Miguel Arrozal, my former roommate and boxing coach.  Being fast, strong and have the ability to outlast your opponent give you so many more options when it comes to fighting, rather that hoping that you might have a bit of information or knowledge that the other guy doesn't and praying that it works this time.  And those 3 areas of development also allow a higher level of refinement and perfection for any technique in any martial art.

So the first and most important aspect is stamina.  My coaches in wrestling trained us with the motto "You might lose to a more skilled wrestler, but you will NEVER lose because you run out of gas"  Physical stamina can be built in many ways, but the most effective are running and walking.  Personally I have trouble running, I shattered my left leg and broke my back several years ago, so running is often painful.  I do continue to run, but not as much as I did before, and I compensate by walking at least 10 miles a day.  This might seem crazy, but I walk to work and back, to practice and teaching as well.  I own a vehicle, but walking is so much more productive and healthy, plus I don't have to worry about the rising cost of gas anymore!  Running for 30 mins a day is a solid goal for a martial artist, in addition to their training, but I mean running, not jogging or fast walking.  Running will improve your heart, clear your mind and has a host of other benefits as well.  I recommend running before practice, to pre-exhaust the legs and help deplete the nervous energy we all have so our  practice can have greater focus.  Your gains in running can be shown in covering the same distance in a shorter amount of time or in being able to cover a longer distance at the same pace.  Both are valuable and should be experimented with by the fighter.
Speed is a combination of physical quickness and efficient movements.  If you use simple, straight movements in your applications, they will naturally be quicker than large, fancy attacks.  In my school we emphasize the 8 directional stepping to teach quick foot movement and dodging to the feet.  The body becomes quicker with muscle development, not training for size or power but through many repetitions of simple movements.  The more simple an action is, the faster it becomes.  The hands can be trained to become faster through shadow boxing or light weight training during martial arts practice.  This is a one great way to build speed- attach light weights to your wrists and ankles, many sporting goods stores have wrap around weights just for this purpose.    Speed can also be increased through developing sharper focus and relaxation, often the side effects of meditation or mental development.  All of these methods can be implemented into any martial arts program simply and easily and they yield excellent benefits when trained for any period of time.  We can see our speed increase through training when our applications become so simple and automatic that we don't have to think to apply them.  That is the most important speed attribute.  Often when a student commits to imporving his speed, he startles himself with how much faster he is moving and that is a great thing!  You know your body better than anyone and if you develop such an amount of speed that even you are surprised, you are on the right track!

Power is one of the easiest attributes to understand, but many people misunderstand how power is developed in martial arts and how to apply it in fighting.  A powerful fighter often looks nothing like Mr. Olympia and lacks the giant muscles of many actors in Hollywood.  Instead they are solidly developed and their body moves as one unit.  Traditional weight training is an excellent addition to training, but should not be the primary focus as many weightlifting movements are focused on single muscle groups and that works contrary to the goals of a martial artist.  Kettlebells are an amazing addition to training as they are multi-muscle in nature and also help to strengthen the joints and stabilizing muscle groups around them.  But most good martial arts schools have a wide array of bodyweight only movements that develop functional strength.  Some of these are using iso-tension in forms, twisting the body and stretching it to force tendon and muscle rebuilding in the body, and heavy weapon training.  And many schools add exercises like squats, push-ups, and pull-ups to assist in power training.  All of these are fantastic additions and add a lot of power to movements.  Our power development is measured through striking and kicking objects and applications.  As our power develops, we use less motion and achieve a greater result in our applications,  We have to use more caution when free sparring and what was a light strike before now knocks your partner down or hits much deeper than before.

Now many of the more experienced martial artists that read this might be thinking "No shit Sherlock, you aren't saying anything new".  That is true, but I am emphasizing things that you might not be doing now and things that could help your training if you only put a little more focus on.  And many new students of our arts might not know this and can benefit greatly from introducing some of these methods into their practice.  Remember,  there have been many skilled teachers and traditional fighters who have been beaten severely solely because the challenger was stronger, faster and could out-last the more experienced pracitioner.  This proves that as long as we want to be serious martial artists, we should always push ourselves to develop these aspects of our bodies to enhance the knowledge and skills we already have.  I have also been vague on purpose with these exercises since I am not a doctor and don't want to push a student to do something they are not capable of doing without injuring themselves.  I encourage everyone to research these ideas for themselves and develop their own personal programs for combat preparation.

If a solid program is developed and implemented for developing the things mentioned here, I think that we all can reap the personal benefits that come from combat preparedness.  I know there is a deeper sense of calm and I am able to be more confident and have greater self esteem in aggresive situations, which is often the deciding factor in how it turns out. I hope everyone can take something from this and use it to benefit their lives.

TCMA is dead...............

TCMA is dead, long live the new generation!

We need to address a serious concern in the Chinese Martial Arts that many people are avoiding like the plague, because they are scared of the answer.  What has happened to the skill level of our generation?  Why did the masters from before have greater abilities and skills than we have now?  Many people train just as hard as those who came before, and they research and seek to understand everything about their art using modern science and physiological understanding.  The amount of information and knowledge about the human body and how to best train it has never been greater in history.  But even the hardest training of our time can't match the quality and skill of the masters from before, right?  This leaves only 2 possible answers...........Either the teachers that came before could not transmit their knowledge and they had a poor teaching ability, or the greatest masters were only human like us and didn't have the skills they were reputed to have.  Those are the ONLY 2 explainations available as to why the older generation is supposedly better.
Now for an deeper look at the answers and lets use Occam's Razor to make a selection as to which answer is more likely.

Option A- That the masters before were poor teachers.  This is the least likely explaination of the two, mostly because many times the greatest masters had many famous and skilled students.  Take Dong Hai Chuan for example.  He became very famous for his skills and his students also shared in that fame.  One of them even protected the Empress Dowager when she escaped Beijing.  So we can assume that they had great fighting skills, enough to be promoted into that position.  But what has happened today?  Why can't most bagua fighters move like Dong Hai Chuan was reportedly able to?  I have had the good luck to meet several excellent Bagua masters, and their years of effort have yeilded nothing compared to what Dong was supposedly able to achieve immediately after appearing.  He never gave an account of his training, or how long he trained for, but we should assume that he happened on a great way to train physical strength and movement and used those new abilities to power his martial arts training from before.  And he passed this training knowledge on to his students and they in turn passed it to their students and so on, even until today.

-Or-

Option B-  The Masters from before were the same as us, with 2 arms and 2 legs and fought just as hard to protect their families as any person in modern times would.  They trained very hard and reaped the rewards of that training and gained fame and fortune for their hard work.  We have to assume that people are all the same, even across time, so thinking that, we have to assume that there were MANY lazy martial artists then as well as now, and used tricks and intimidation to gain students.  And when they were forced to fight a great master like Dong Hai Chuan, they were thoughly beaten and the match was recorded as a legendary victory for the winner.  The stories and legends grew over time due to the human tendency to embelish stories if it makes them or their school look better. Another human foible is ancestor worship, and that can account for a lot of the reputation that the old masters have.  When people tell amazing stories about their teachers and grandmasters, they feel more special and important because they are attached to those great practitioners.  It allows them a shred of credibility as martial artists even when they haven't put in the time to earn the respect for themselves.  This was not only the students fault, many teachers used this tendency to increase their school size and maintain a solid hold on their students.  In essence it was a control mechanism mostly forced on students by insecure teachers and their lackey disciples.

Lets face it............the old generation is dead and gone except for a few notable and skilled masters.  Now we as their martial descendants must chart a new course for our arts in the modern world, we have to create a place for our arts that will continue after we are gone.  The masters before us left precious little of their knowledge written down, so much of it is passed down orally, and that method is notoriously unreliable.  If one idea, or one phrase is remembered incorrectly, then the whole meaning of a poem or song can be changed.  So we must save all the knowledge that has survived, but at the same time we must use modern science and logic to gain a deeper understanding of the skills that the founders of our arts discovered through trail and error.  They were correct in what can be gained through correct practice, but in many cases they were totally wrong when it came to WHERE the development came from.  We can't prove that many of their theories are correct, but we can show the physical progress, measure it and understand how to continue improving.  And most importantly, our biggest challenge as the new face of our arts, is to realize that we CAN match the skill level of our teachers!  We have the same physical abilities they had and we have the same drive to practice and learn that they did.  We use our arts to fight and protect our families the same as them as well.  If you believe that your art is complete and has been handed down in its entirety to you, then you HAVE to accept that you can attain that level of skill.  In fact a truly great teacher will hope and strive to make sure that their students surpass them in skill level.  If the students never match the teacher, then the art dies a little with each passing generation.  But if the teachers push their students to excell and the students pass the teacher, then the art will flourish and thrive for all time.  But even though we can match our ancestor's skill level, we still need to show appropriate respect and reverance for the sacrifice and care that was taken to ensure the art survived.

My whole point of this article is.........Have faith in yourself and your abilities, train hard, and you can become a master to rival any in your lineage.  So get to it!

The first steps down the Xingyi path

The First Steps on the Xingyi Path.

I have talked a lot about how Xingyi should be trained and now I think I should explain how I teach the first levels of Xingyi.  I feel that this method sets the student on a solid path to understanding the Internal Arts and being able to fully express all the different methods and techniques available in Xingyi.  This level is not centered around what is considered the traditional Xingyi first level of the Elements and Linking form, but instead we work on developing a "Kung Fu Body" and teaching the student the most basic techniques.  Also trained are basic applications and the idea of efficient movement is stressed.  This throughly prepares the student to begin practicing the 5 Elements and Linking Set and gives them enough knowledge to speak with any practioner and have a basic understanding in a conversation.
FIrst we start all our workouts with a stretching and warm-up routine called Si Ba.  It is 4 sets of movements that release tension and prepare the student for moving.  This is one of the MOST important parts of training, as I feel that many of the common aches and pains that people have could be dealt with by a good stretch when first getting up in the morning.  The Si Ba set stretches the whole body and also helps to understand opening and closing of the body.  It is a moving stretching set, the movements could be compared to Qi Gong,  After the muscles are warm and loose, then we stretch and open all the major joints, like the elbows, knees, ankles, etc.
After the body is loose and warm, we start out physical training from the ground up.  First comes the 7 stances most commonly used in forms and training, and we emphasize these for leg strength not combat.  In our school we understand there is a big difference between the two, but each has its place in a well rounded training program.  The 7 stances are Horse, Bow, Cat, Kneeling, Raised, Low Bow and Dragon Step, the same posture as the Dragon animal form.  These are arranged into line forms with hands involved to create a deeper stretch and build solid power.  When these have been trained and the legs are pre-exhausted, then we practice Tan Tui.  Tan Tui means springing legs and is a great way to build leg strength.   When Tan Tui    is finished, we practice our kicks.  Our style of XIngyi only focuses on 5 kicks based on practicality.  We don't say that other styles are wrong if they have more, but we only use the most basic and lower kicks.  These kicks are Front, Side, Shovel Kick (Toe turned out), Back Kick, and what is called a Mantis kick which is similar to the leg position in the Seven Star Stance from Mantis.
This process exhausts the legs, and places the focus of training first on the legs, since they are often neglected by novice students.  The second part of our sessions train the upper body starting with interceptions.  Many schools train hard, Karate style blocks which I'm sure are effective, but when the intent is to intercept and deflect the incoming attack, less energy is used and it allows for a seamless transition to attacking.  We use 5 basic Interceptions in our school.  A straight or piercing movement, Inside and Outside, Low and High of each.  This seems overly simple but they are all the new student needs to start learning applications and begin using a logical approach to self defense.  We don't believe that every attack has its own unique counter, rather that there are basic counters, and they can be applied to almost all attacks.  This reduces the amount that must be memorized and lets the student have a great variety of uses for each thing they learn.
Now the fun part!  We start our striking training here, and this is also where the student first begins to strike bags after they have learned the no contact training for each punch.  We use the Full Punch, Standing Punch, Palm, Spear Hand, Backfist and Uppercut.  These are not all the strikes we have but they are enough to provide a solid base.  This is also where we begin to learn applications against each of these punches.  We start to combine the stepping, blocks, kicking and punching together to tie everything together in a nice package for the student.  This also shows them that there is a method to the teaching, in case any get lost or discouraged, that everything is taught for a reason and it all is used as one.  I think its a good lesson, to be working on various things, then suddenly realize its all part of the same whole.  It makes the students look for connections between movements in the future.
 The last part of the physical exercise we do is forms.  I place a low priority on them at this stage, feeling that they are merely distractions and more fun that real value.  Later on they will have greater value, but for right now most students just like the fancy movements and don't know what the true purpose is for forms training.  We teach two forms here, one is Wu Bu, or 5 Stances, which combines stance work with strikes.  Next is La Ma Cho, a form from a Northern Shaolin friend of mine that works deep stances and moving between them.   I have contemplated adding more forms to this level, but it would only happen if they served a clear and simple purpose to this stage of training.
Now that the body is totally spent and relaxed from training, we begin our internal work.  We have a simple moving Qi Gong set and our Post stance training.  These are the foundation of good internal work and introduce the student to feelings of Qi and structural connectivity that they probably have never felt before.
This level lasts for about 6 months or longer until the student shows enough progress and understanding to move on.  If enough time isn't spent here, then no real strength has been built, and it would have just been an exercise in memorization.
I hope that this has shed some light on how I like to train and maybe there are other schools who do the same thing or similar.  I don't think that other ways are wrong, but in my experience this creates a strong student who is physically and mentally ready for the rigorous training to come in the second level.

Is the Devil in the Details?

Any martial artist that visits online forums or discussion groups about martial arts, especially the internal arts, has run into the Internet Master.  This person knows every detail about how the art should be practiced, and is very quick to point out how other people aren't real or traditional.  They say that if any of the details are missing, that its not pure.  Which may be the case, I'm not here to judge, but instead I would like to pose questions that might make people think.  Are the details important?  And how important are they?
For example, I was participating on a discussion on hip movement, and there were lots of great replies and comments on hip usage during striking, which is an important point to focus on and develop.  But I started to think when I re-read the posts, that maybe we are getting too involved with minute details and use the tiniest point to judge others, when instead we should understand that each person comes from a perspective that they have chosen a solid martial art and trained it hard, so we should try to understand why they focus on those points.  Often times its too easy to dismiss people based on differences that have no real bearing on fighting, and that is what the martial arts are purely about........fighting.  The health benefits are merely a happy coincedence or byproduct of this training, and should never be the focus of learning.  There are plenty of health only arts like yoga or pilates if that is what a student wishes to learn.
Another good example is when the discussion turns internal in nature, that is when the insults start to fly and judgements come quick and heavy.  Students will use ethereal ideas like Dan Tian rotation, something that can't be explained over the internet, only felt in practice, and they claim that they can see the lack of internal movement in forms.  How much more insane can it get?  The people that speak the most about internal ideas are usually the people who spend the least amount of time fighting, sparring or applying their art.  And their explaination is that they are too busy perfecting their chi power or some excuse like that.  Modern masters like Sifu Novell Bell or Sifu Tim Cartmell are often insulted online from behind the protection of a computer monitor because they stress the usage of the arts, rather than the ideas and history.  But none of these Internet Masters actually have the courage to challenge these fighters in real life, why is that?
  I know several martial artists that I like to call lineage snobs, they think that the sole measure of a fighter is who their grandmaster was, and they can provide many differnt reasons for why that is, but they can't answer a simple question...........Who was Randy Couture's Sigung?  Who taught the Navy Seal's secret breathing techniques to enhance their life energy?  These people are some of the best fighters in the world, but you will never hear them stressing tiny details, they focus on the concepts and blunt techniques because they understand that in a fight, perfection is impossible.    Discipline and hard work is worth more to them than all the little details in the world.
We need to get away from the idea that unless every ideal is followed, then its not a pure art, that is a very exclusionist way of thinking, and does nothing but drive wedges between an already fragmented community.  And really ask yourself, why do the proven fighters not speak this way?  Why do the people that constantly pressure test their arts NEVER whine and complain about internal power or the lack of internal mechanics?  Its because they are too busy applying their arts in combat to worry about the opponents lineage, or if they know all the forms in a given system.  The fact is that an average boxer or MMA fighter can easily beat most black belts in a fight, and that is because the focus of the martial artist is wrong.  They are worried about earning the next belt or learning the next style, not fighting perfection of one thing at a time.    The boxer or MMA fighter will spend their time practicing drills and hitting punching bags, not talking about how Chi flow through the body creates the ultimate fighter.  The professional fighter worries more about conditioning and stamina rather than if the Kua is sunken properly during movement.
Now I am not saying that these aren't important points, but I don't like how they are used to cut other martial artists down.  They are intended to help us train better, not be used as judging points.  And again I would like to stress the idea that the real fighters in the CMA community don't speak like this, they simply laugh and focus on their next match.  We need to spend more time discussing how to use our arts in full contact matches, not how to perfect no-touch forms that can't be applied exactly they way they are demonstrated, which accounts for most of the forms and drills in CMA.  They are exxagerated for practice, so what sense does it make to worry about details, when we all know the application done at full speed won't look like the drill done in training?  When you are dodging a knife, do you really have time to think about your Dan Tian? Or will fast footwork and quick hands be more valuable then?  I challenge the lineage snobs and the Internet Masters to go to tournaments like MUSU, held in New York and prove me wrong.  Don't just whine and complain online, if you feel like I am so wrong, then go and prove it, and I will apologize and retract this article.
I also would like to apologize up front for any times that I have shown this behavior, it's rude and low class, and not in line with the Wude that I was taught.   I am sure I have done that at some point to win an argument, and I sincerely regret if I have offended or insulted anyone due to my lack of understanding of what's really important.

The Decline of the Internal Arts

Sun Lu Tang was a giant in the martial arts world, respected by the government, fellow martial artists, and people in general.  He contributed many great ideas and practices to the Internal martial arts, like the Sun style Tai Chi and Sun Bagua.  He was one of the first teachers able to write and explain high level ideas and practices, leaving his mark forever in the Chinese martial art community.  Sadly though, Sun Lu Tang was almost the death of the Internal martial arts of Xingyi, Tai Chi, and Bagua.

 Got your attention??

 Not through any fault of his own, but by the gross misunderstanding of the generations to follow and the human need to advance as fast as possible, his words were taken out of context, and novice students adopted his practices for their own without the foundational training needed to excell in Kung Fu.  They felt that if Laoshi Sun had written about it, then they had to immediately do it.  And the generations of poorly trained students became poorly trained teachers, passing on the fragmented knowledge they had recieved to their students and so on.  His daughter also taught many students, but by her own admission, she didn't know how to fight with her fathers arts, she knew the purely internal side focused on building health and longevity.  Now please don't take any of this as a condemnation of Sun Lu Tang, his legacy, or his daughter, I hold them in the highest regard.  But the point still stands that many of his martial descendants haven't followed in his footsteops.  They have taken the advanced practices of a great master, and thought that they could imitate him with the same success he had.  They don't realize that when Master Sun wrote his books, he wrote what he was focused on, which was the highest level of training, not the nuts and bolts of a fighting art.

This misunderstanding has lead to a rapid decline of the fighting abilities of the Internal arts over the past 70 years, and taken a once fearsome group of fighting styles, and stolen their fangs and claws.  This is not to say that there aren't still good teachers out there, but we are in the vast minority, and our ideas and practices are largely ignored, since they aren't the common methods practiced by the Kung Fu dilettantes, who claim superior knowledge because of who their grandmaster was, rather than their abilities to fight with their art.  They hide behind lineage and close their minds to ideas that have long been practiced by great masters of Kung Fu and are proven to create powerful and strong fighters.  The reason why they do this is because the best methods aren't easy, they require dedication and hard work.

What is to be done?  Is there anything that can change this downhill slide?  I believe there is a sure path back to a martial reputation that would make our ancestors proud and back to the skills recently lost.  But the hard question is how to do this?  First, we must understand the arts we practice and what their history is, then we can discover what they were truely meant to be.

Let's use the art of Xingyiquan for an example.  Xingyi has a long and proud history, and was the art of choice for bodyguards and convoy escorts, since it could turn a guard into a great fighter relatively quickly compared to some other arts.  The techniques were simple but were very versatile and contained a deep understanding of natural movement, increasing the striking power of fighters who spent time learning and practicing.  Xingyi fighters were very feared during the height of its popularity.  Master Guo Yu Shen is known to have killed a man with one strike during a match.  He was sentenced to prison, but through the unbreakable willpower developed through training, he improvised and continued to grow as a fighter, even while in shackles.  Wong Jack Man, the fighter who reportedly beat Bruce Lee in a challenge match, was an adept in Xingyi as well.  Wang Shu Jin, the late, great Internal master was a well known champion, and he used a lot of Xingyi in his practices.  So clearly Xingyi was a fighting art for most of its history.
But the situation today is very different in most martial arts schools in America and China.  Xingyi is taught as a small, incomplete art and many masters only have a remedial level of understanding of the practices, and have never pressure tested their art, to see if they are training correctly.  They see the 5 elements as singular techniques, and feel that standing practices are where a Xingyi fighter becomes great.  They don't apply their art to punching bags, much less an un-cooperative opponent in practice.  They don't see the value in strength and power development, thinking that they can punch through walls with pure "Qi" power.  This is absurb when put to paper, but if you take a look around, that is exactly what most Internal schools do these days.  They view Xingyi as an easy black belt to obtain which is a terrible insult to the practitioners who dedicate their time to perfecting this art.

So how should Xingyi be trained?  The answer is simple, the same as it was trained before by the great masters.  They started with footwork and body strengthening exercises.  The footwork was very important because that is where all martial ability starts and where all power comes from.  The ability to move and change direction is what separates an average fighter from a great one.  And the body must grow strong to be able to deliver the full power available in Xingyi.  A strong body is also a healthy body and can help students overcome health issues  and lead better lives.  Then after the student has learned to become agile and strong, then the elements, animals and other forms are taught.  They teach the student raw power, and require years of training to perfect.  But they are just movements and ideas, they teach how to deliver power along the 5 basic angles of attack and are not limited to any one strike.  A good Xingyi fighter can take any one of the elements, and replace the hand with an elbow or even a shoulder, and still deliver a solid strike.  As soon as the student has learned the correct form with the various techniques, and has no more difficulty remembering the correct details, they should be placed in front of a punching bag and practice how to land those strikes against more than just air.  The stage after that is applications and light sparring with the techniques, then on to full contact and an opponent who resists.  Only after a high level of fighting skill is developed should the student worry about internal development and practices since these are used to refine and perfect fighting skills, not supplant them.

This is only a cursory view of training, and only represents my opinions and practices as an imperfect student and teacher, but I know they are well grounded in logic and application, and that this method of training creates a traditional fighter with skills to compete against any other style.  I hope that others share my views, and want to work together to restore the pride and power to our chosen arts.

Xingyiquan, History and Theory

   

 Xingyiquan is one of the three main pillars of the internal styles of Chinese kung fu, the other two being Tai Chi Chuan and Ba Gua Chang .   Internal kung fu relies more on sinew and tendon strength than muscular power and also develops chi or invisible energy.  In Western culture chi is difficult to explain, but it is the basis for Chinese medicinal theory.  Life is not only looked at from a physical point of view, but the energy that creates movement is also studied.  
    What sets Xingyi apart from the other internal styles and from many forms of martial arts in general is its extremely aggressive mentality and its simple, but very effective movements.  One good analogy is the phrase “My will be done”.  Another would be “The best defense is an unexpected and unstoppable offense”.  When faced with an unavoidable confrontation, a Xingyi fighter will appear relaxed and non-threatening until they are with-in striking distance, and then will explode into the adversary without warning and not stop attacking until there is no more threat.  They have the ability to disarm and subdue their opponents without harming them, but generally will use maximum force, feeling that the safest course of action is to disable an attacker as quickly as possible.  Xingyi is also one of the only martial arts that will strike first when they must fight, instead of waiting for an opponents attack.  The mentality and theories behind this thinking will be discussed in later chapters. 
    Practitioners live the motto ’Never retreat’ and this is evident in their lives as well as in the training hall.  They prefer to face problems head on and find the most direct and simple solutions the best.  Unfortunately this attitude has lead to many Xingyi boxers being labeled as arrogant and macho.  This is not helped by the fact that many of the greatest masters were proud of their fighting skills and would employ them regularly to prove their superiority.       
    This martial art is not only good for fighting, but is excellent for maintaining health and for helping people live long and energetic lives.  Being an internal style, Xingyi focuses on healing and strengthening the students body, before combat applications are trained.  Many masters feel that it is good for anyone to learn Xingyi, regardless of age or physical condition, the vigorous activity being good for the health of younger people, and the stable, deliberate movements helping older persons to exercise and regain flexibility lost over time.   
    Xingyiquan means “Mind Shape Fist” or  “Form Intention Fist”.  While these titles are cryptic, the basic premise is that when the body is trained long enough and all of its actions are done with perfect intent,  the body will naturally perform the best movement in order to fit any idea the mind has.  Simply put, during a fight, the mind will envision the desired outcome and the body will perform whatever is necessary to achieve that goal.  That is one of the reasons why Xingyi is simple in its movements, allowing the actions to be trained over and over until they are reflex instead of conscious thought. 
    Xingyi students in the Stone Tiger Xingyi school will start their practice with basic footwork, strengthening exercises and the 5 elements.  After they have achieved a good level of skill, they will then progress into the 5 elements combined set, then the 12 animals, internal development, more footwork and the 5 elements for the staff and a basic staff form.  This level is studied for at least a year to up to two years depending on how much work is invested by the student.  The third level is broadsword, spear, fighting techniques, more qi gong, chin na (joint locks), and simple throws.  This level is also where the student is introduced to two man sets and is taught how to fight using Xingyi, being that the first two levels are to build a strong foundation before combat is considered.  After this, there comes the combined elements and animals forms and several more advanced forms as well.  The Xingyi system taught at this school is comprised of the traditional Hebei Xingyiquan with additional training that imparts more complicated stepping than is normally found in Xingyi, as well as many Xingyi forms not usually seen.  Previous masters also traveled very extensively and learned many of the main styles of Xingyi and also numerous lesser known methods as well, and added their unique parts to the Stone Tiger system.  When students begin to teach, they are encouraged to travel and see different styles of Xingyi, and this is what led the author to the Wudang Mountains in China.  The theory behind this exposure to new ideas is that the more knowledge and experience that a teacher possesses, the more they can contribute to the growth of their family style.    
    The purpose of this book is not to raise one style above another, but to show the uncomplicated beauty of Xingyiquan to practitioners of all styles.  This book only represents the authors opinion, and is not meant to supplant any other teachers knowledge or teachings. Also I hope it will serve to give those who are interested a basis of knowledge, that they can start practicing and feel for themselves the power and confidence that come from practicing this ancient form of self defense.


                    HISTORY

    The origins of Xingyi are vague, but many historians and teachers agree that it evolved from the Shaolin art named Xin Yi Chuan (Heart Intention Fist), which was developed around 500 AD.  Many martial artists believe that all kung fu came from the Shaolin Temple, but that is not supported by history.  Martial arts in China have existed for approximately 5,000 years, but were not organized and were mostly based on pure combat, instead of fighting and research which gave birth to the very advanced forms of fighting which we know today.  
    The Shaolin Temple originally was a temple devoted exclusively to meditation and spiritual development.  An Indian monk named Boddidharma arrived and found the monks were physically weak and often fell ill.  Boddidharma was schooled in Yoga, an Indian art form of body development, and devised several methods for the monks to regain their health.  The new exercises worked so well, that the Shaolin monks kept learning new ways to build their bodies, and eventually these calisthenics evolved into a basic form of martial arts.  Over the years the monks, who did nothing but religious practices and martial arts, came to be some of the best fighters in China, which is ironic, since Buddhism is a strictly pacifist religion.  Many generals and masters came to the Shaolin Temple to learn how to increase their abilities and the monks wisely recorded and learned the styles that they came across.  From what we know, Xin Yi was a very small, simple martial art that was relatively unknown outside of the temple.  
    The next person that was instrumental in the development of Xingyi was General Yue Fei, sometime near 1100 AD. I must add that this is popular history, not totally supported by fact, but by oral tradition.  We don't know in fact that Yue Fei changed Xingyi, but the older masters believed it, so we address it here.  Yue Fei rose from poverty to become one of the most famous military leaders in all of Chinese history.  When he was a young boy, his home and most of his family were wiped out by a flood that swept through his region.  His mother took charge of raising him, and taught him all she knew in the ways of reading and writing, since they were too poor for him to go to a proper school.  Through diligent studying Yue was able to surpass all of the other children in his village.  He met a martial arts teacher who taught him all forms of military skills, including archery, horsemanship, empty hand, sword and spear fighting.  When he was old enough, Yue Fei joined the army and quickly advanced, due to his hard work and combat prowess.  Within a few years he attained the rank of general, which allowed him to travel and further his martial arts training.  Often times when men joined the army, they were given a weapon, then thrown into battle without any proper training.  This resulted in massive casualty rates in the army and caused the Chinese Empire great trouble when it came to recruitment and defense of the nation.  Yue Fei was the first to create training programs and institute intense training for his troops.  He sought to build an organized method, where all soldiers were trained equally and could function as one coherent unit.  He began to sample many different styles of kung fu and started to travel in order to advance his knowledge. Apparently he made the trip to the Shaolin Temple and learned Xin Yi.  He found it to be superbly fit for battlefield tactics and quickly adapted it to suit the spear tactics of his officers, then renamed it Xingyiquan.
    There were no internal components to Xingyi at first, being created as a method to quickly train soldiers.  Several clues to this can be seen in the 5 elements.  They are straight forward, and have no spinning or wide open moves that expose the center.  This lends credibility to a military background because all fighting was done with troops lined up shoulder to shoulder and the main threat was from the front.  
    Yue Fei had huge success with this new training and was given so much honor for his skill that the emperor became jealous of him and had him imprisoned then poisoned.   That was the end of any growth in Xingyi for some time, and it is not until much later that the art expands.  
   The next great figure was Ji Lung Feng, who is a verifiable influence in Xingyi, he lived around 1640 AD  and reportedly found a book written by Yue Fei, detailing his art of Xingyi.  Ji Lung Feng was skilled in the art of Lui He Chuan (Six Harmony Fist), and was able to combine the two.  He then began to moved through China searching for ways to improve his new art.  He passed through the Wudang Mountains and stopped at the famous martial temple.  The Wudang monastery was renowned for its internal training and straight sword skills.  Ji Lung Feng absorbed what internal training he could and fused his art with this new knowledge to form the base of Xingyi as we know it today.  For many practitioners, Ji Lung Feng is thought of as the creator of modern Xingyi, but others still honor Yue Fei as the founder for his believed part.
    Xingyiquan in its infant form, passed from generation to generation, and there were many notable masters who greatly influenced its evolution.  Guo Yun Shen is one of the most colorful and famous masters in the history of internal martial arts.  He was hot-tempered and exceedingly skilled and for a major part of his study would only practice the 5 elemental fists.  He was unbeaten, and felt that learning new material would only take away from his practice of the elements.  Guo’s most famous technique was Beng Chuan, or the Crushing Fist, and in a challenge match actually killed his opponent with it.  He was sentenced to prison for this, which is a light sentence considering that execution was the standard punishment.  During his imprisonment, he was shackled due to his fighting skill, but still continued to practice his Beng Chuan, modifying it so that he was not hampered by his chains.  He attained such a high skill, that when he got out of jail, other martial artists said that his new “half-step crushing fist could beat all under heaven”.  He then proceeded to demonstrate his skill in more challenge matches, but during these fights he would put his left hand on the opponents body before he struck, to absorb some of the force.  He had so much success with his new punch, that he developed an arrogant attitude, so much so that his teacher, Li Neng Ran, stepped in to mediate.  Li told Guo that even though he had great ability, he still was not as good as his classmate Che Yi Zhai.  When Guo heard this, he went to Che Yi Zhai’s home and challenged him to a fight.  During the ensuing battle, Gou was soundly defeated, and returned to his teacher, ready to learn the rest of the Xingyi system.  Once he had completed his training, he went to fight the founder of Ba Gua, Tung Hai Chuan.  He stayed with a student of Tung’s, and was unable to beat him so he gave up the idea of challenging Tung himself.  For years the myth existed that Guo and Tung fought for days, but recent research has shown that to be false.  Guo taught his art to many students, including another great master, Sun Lu Tang.  
    Sun Lu Tang was a great man who was a skilled scholar and an amazing martial artist.  He was the first to take the esoteric, often hidden meanings of the Taoist internal methods and translate them so that every student could understand and apply them.  He also started one of the first martial arts courses for women.  Traditionally, women were not taught martial arts in the large schools, and had to learn from family or masters who they were close to.  Sun was a master of all three internal styles and learned from some of the greatest masters of his time, then combining their teachings into one system which was named in his honor.  He wrote several books and was renowned for his mysterious skills such as qing gong, or lightness skill, which allowed him to leap large distances and to lighten his body to move quickly and silently as he wished.
    This history is not all inclusive and is only meant to be a light treatment of the Xingyi lineage.  The purpose is to give new students background information on some of the most famous figures in Xingyi history.  One last piece of important information is that every Xingyi teacher who wrote down advice for his descendents stated that there is no secret or forbidden teachings, all knowledge comes to those who train hard.  Steady, constant practice is the only way to unlock the potential of Xingyiquan.