Xingyi and Bagua: means to an end. Sifu Patterson reviews

[neijia_boxer]

I just finished reading Sifu Mike Pattersons xingyi book and going to read his Bagua one this weekend.


There was def some gems of knowledge and insight in his books that I will share a bit later when I am home from the office. It is def a must for your IMA library.

2 parts I really like that he discussed were training from Yin to Yang and he advises not to train in precision movement after hard style training.

what he means by this is you can start soft and work toward hard- this is great for us office types already exhausted from mental work. starting more meditative/qigong, into forms, then the hard stuff like fighting and heavy bag.

In regards to study of precision movement, he suggest doing it while relaxed and not tense, he advises to do something like weight training and or bag and percussion work (hitting bag or mitts) after your precision form and structure work before you get muscles tense from the harder work.

He also shares a lot of his training progression for fighters like various drills, reflex training, and structure training he used when he trainined his full contact fighters.



http://www.amazon.com/Xingyi-Means-To-A ... 0985855703

http://www.amazon.com/Bagua-Means-End-M ... bc?ie=UTF8

[GrahamB]

Hmm.. Weights, bag work? This all sounds like really hard work.... I thought I could just lean about moving my dan tien and then how to bounce people away using this IMA stuff. I don't want to get my hands dirty or get sweaty...

[wiesiek]

no chi-blast at last ?

[Wanderingdragon]

I know it's what you guys thought, but the chi blasts and dragonballs and all that stuff only comes AFTER you've put I the work.

[allen2saint]

So, would we be putting to rest the "woo bashing" any time in the near future? It's juvenile.

[Finny]

Dude you're shielding.

[allen2saint]

i guess I'd need an explanation of what that means exactly.

[wayne hansen]

Not much reliance on bags and weights in hsu,s school
Lots of sparring and push-ups ect.

[neijia_boxer]

Some notes from the book. Maybe we can discuss this rather than the woo-woo which Sifu patterson def rips up in his book. He does discuss throughout his book, his lack interest in gathering historical accuracy, and disinterest in qigong mysticism. he is all about more into the practical usage of the martial art.

Books starts with some history and stories of his teacher and training in Taiwan. goes into the 5 elements and 12 animal forms using the classic poetry and his take on the forms. He warns against being a forms person and the importance of paired training to understand the art. compares it to being a surgeon who has the best training and education but never does surgery.

He talks about the importance of paired drilling needs to be alive and not "dead", with focused intention, power and speed.
He shares "body bang" drills or hit conditioning drills.
I really liked his skill based drills- skill sets on concepts, targeting, structure and force. sticking drills, stepping drills, angle drills.

I liked how he talked about slow speed sparring as a start into more realistic sparring. he def warns about sparring in your own school can get too comfortable and that sparring is not real fighting and real competition fighting is not the same as a street altercation. So he keeps it real like that. He book does address reality based fighting.

He shares 9 palace station training ideas. 9 essence and 7 star information and much much more like Qigong and meditation importance.

A major portion of the book is on fighter training using his system called RSPCT based on training fighters.
This covers reflexive training, structural training, perception training, and temperament training.

The bagua book is just as good and very deep into the qigong aspects. more later.

[allen2saint]

Sounds like there's a lot of meat in there. I was also taught that slow, cooperative drills built skills, which was more important than putting students in competitive forms of training in the initial phases.

[neijia_boxer]

Bagua: means to an End.

Book was really good and it read like a good warning to those who train to quickly and skip some of the basics and foundations. I took some of the warnings personally having had some experience in both Traditional and “Wushu bagua”. I can see some of my mistakes he discusses with “up and down” and leaning, and quick turnings not having solid foundation in mud stepping and trying to perform in a fast and hurried manner. It has made me re-analyze and get back to the drawing board in regards to working “slow and exact” in rooted stepping and reexamine what my traditional teachers have taught.

I like how he says:
“Work towards good form, good fighting, and good teaching ability.”

He covers a lot of Qigong including:
Qigong 5 element:
Ermei shan shen shu (mountain spirit method) and a lot more.

He also covers:
8 palms.
8 mother palms.
Circle patterns and goes into forms an apps of the Jiang Roug Qiao Bagua and applications.

Sifu mike demonstrates some of the Tian Gans, Partner training, RSPCT system for fighters using Bagua.
He covers Rou shou- listen, change, move, yin-yang within rou shou.
He makes Suggestions on a Rou shou progression from light to heavy type sparring.

All-in-all another great book to have in your internal arts library.

[wiesiek]

thx for review , Neijia
looks solid,
have to order the copy

[lars]

ordered!
Thanks for the review!

[SCMT]

I shall have to look into Xingyi book, thanks for the review. Sounds like some of the stuff I have seen from Novell Bell when he is talking Xingyiquan training and fighting

[Lu da]

It was an ok book. No huge revelations. It may be useful to someone new to xingyi but it has very little to offer someone who already has some xingyi knowledge. I don't know the author so I cannot speak on his ability I am basing my opinion purely on the content of the book.

Save your money, there are books that have the same information and more.