Does sweep exist in all CMA styles?

[Ian]

The timing for this sweep is important. If you sweep when your opponent just lands his front foot, you can make him feel like he just steps on a banana split (it's called foot landing sweep).

Moves like this can't be trained with forms; they can only be trained with a partner.

If anyone else needs me to state something obvious, let me know

[johnwang]

Not every style of CMA does sweeps with big, exaggerated motions like in SC. In northern mantis, for example, the sweeps are usually kept low and without lifting the sweeping leg up high.

In some of the southern styles I've been exposed to, the sweeping techniques -- called "iron broom legs" -- are also done low, sometimes even with feet touching the ground and gliding.

The move that you have just described also exists in both LF and PM. It's called 小敲 (Xiao Qiao) - little knock, a more conservative sweep. IN SC, it's called scoop kick instead. It's much easy to escape out of it because it's not very high (the higher you sweep, the harder for your opponent to escape).

Moves like this can't be trained with forms; they can only be trained with a partner.

Agree 100% there. There is no way that one can develop "timing" from solo form training.

[cdobe]

it always was a good feeling going on.

I'm glad that it's not just my imagination and you feel the same way too. The single leg standing is such a great feeling, it's just hard to describe it.

Do you have a video clip of the specific sweep you are speaking of?

http://johnswang.com/Matching_Kick.wmv

but not xingyiquan so far.

How about Taiji? Someone said that Taiji has it but I haven't seen it so far (may be it's hidden).

[johnwang]

What's the name of this move in Taiji? It's looks like in the beginning of the "lotus kick" that your right feet outside crescent kick and is about to hit your right hand.

[velalavela]

http://www.oxfordtaichi.com/lotus_sweep.0.html

Some nice use and demo of Wu Style Sweep from a Practical Tai Chi Club in Oxford.

[johnwang]

Does it exist in the Wu style Taiji form?

[edededed]

The IMA sweeps I have seen so far are definitely smaller in general; not big like PM shaotui or especially like longfist/Shaolin sweeps (although baguazhang does include them anyway, while not really using them much).

I guess the xingyiquan one I saw is a sweep - at least it is a very low kick (what else are low kicks used for? )

[velalavela]

PLus here is some good chen stuff from the same part of the the form.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMgBdHzH ... re=related

[johnwang]

what else are low kicks used for?

As far as I know, the low kicks in the little Baiji form is not sweep. If your upper body is not rotated to the opposite direction as your leg moves, it doesn't follow the sweep principle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMgBdHzH ... re=related

I think the principle of the outside crescent kick is not the same as sweep or front cut. The intend is different.

[cdobe]

Does it exist in the Wu style Taiji form?

Yes.
Some people are not aware of the application and don't emphazise the movement in their form. But it is a classical application and you can see that Wu Jianquan clearly demonstrates the body mechanic that you described.

CD

[cdobe]

What's the name of this move in Taiji? It's looks like in the beginning of the "lotus kick" that your right feet outside crescent kick and is about to hit your right hand.

It's in the transition to
摆莲腿

[johnwang]

I think you can say that the beginning of the 摆莲腿 can be a sweep. Never think this way before but the intend of the hand movement is a bit hard to explain. Also if you use it for sweep then your eyes should look at the contact point which should be below your right leg and not in front of you. By looking at the eyes focus, I may say that his intend is not sweep. If this is a hidden move, it definitely hide very well by changing the eyes focus.

[velalavela]

In these photos of Wu Chien-ch'uan performing Wu Stle there is some influence of posing and looking at the camera. Photography was pretty new at the time as well so the concept of snapping shots as a form was performed was not possible. These are very much static shots.

I would say the two examples shown in the vids I posted of Wu Style and Chen Style demonstrate a sweep ( albeit in various gradations and situations/distances, especially in the san shou footage.)

[cdobe]

I think you can say that the beginning of the 摆莲腿 can be a sweep. Never think this way before but the intend of the hand movement is a bit hard to explain. Also if you use it for sweep then your eyes should look at the contact point which should be below your right leg and not in front of you. By looking at the eyes focus, I may say that his intend is not sweep. If this is a hidden move, it definitely hide very well by changing the eyes focus.

It's not hidden at all. And once you have kicked out his leg, it's actually very beneficial to look in the direction of where your opponent is falling.

Example

[mrtoes]

We've done forward sweeps in hsing i. It's not really explicit in the form though.