Hai Yang interview q's

[mixjourneyman]

Frank: from my experience, usually some of the xingyi guys cross train bagua a bit, but the bagua and taiji guys tend to stay to themselves.
I may be wrong though, since I'm only in MTL a couple months out of every year.

[xingyijuan]

Frank,

Yeah there are a couple of guys who do, or have done, cross training within the three styles. Mr. Yang is strict about letting someone train in a second style. As any good teacher, he bases his decision on weather you have strong enough foundation in at least one of the three. There are a few xingyi guys who do bagua. There are a few taiji guys who crossed over xingyi. And there are those who do xingyi and think they are doing taiji (sorry, inside joke)

[mixjourneyman]

Frank,

. And there are those who do xingyi and think they are doing taiji (sorry, inside joke)

His name wouldn't start with a Ray and end with a mond, would it?


*I'm so going to get thrown on the ground tomorrow after he see's this

[xingyijuan]

[Dmitri]

Speaking of taiji attacking, if your ever in Montreal, you totally gotta come down to the school and push hands with him.
I can't lay a finger on him (not surprisingly), or even on his good students.
They have some really nice ph skills there.

Would he actually do that, with a "stranger"? That would be very cool...

I might be able to make my way up there in a couple of weeks... if that's a possibility, I'll double my efforts to make time and visit Montreal. And maybe meet up with some of the (many) other EFers from there, like Teo, Samtao, Plante, etc.

Taijiquan doesn't need to become you, nor do you need to become it. You do need to practice, but if you understand the skill you should be able to turn it on or off. Taijiquan is not a panacea or a religion or a lifestyle. It's a martial art.

So if you asked, say, Helio Gracie about BJJ, you don't think he's say something similar? Or A.T. Illustrisimo about kali, or CXW about taiji, or Sun Zhijun about bagua, etc., etc., etc. -- you don't think they'd say something like that about their respective arts?

Don't listen to that ex-kyokushin hippy in Atlanta

Oh it's on. Cobra Kai weak! If do taiji right, no can defend!!

[xingyijuan]

Make sure to keep us posted if and when you come to MTL, Dmitri. You would be most welcomed to visit our school!

[Dmitri]

Thank you very much! I'll let you know as soon as things clarify.

[kreese]

Dmitri, in some ways we are saying the same thing but the distinction I want to make is that martial art is martial art, and it is just something one does. If our definition of martial art grows to encompass a lifestyle, we are not really speaking about a martial art anymore but a personal Dao. We do learn about the big Dao via the little Dao's we practice in life, but the little Dao is not the big Dao. Just my opinion, of course. And I just like the way "ex-kyokushin hippy" sounds. What an odd image, no?

BTW, Cobra Kai has its own system of taijiquan. Didn't you know?

[Dmitri]

Dmitri, in some ways we are saying the same thing but the distinction I want to make is that martial art is martial art, and it is just something one does. If our definition of martial art grows to encompass a lifestyle, we are not really speaking about a martial art anymore but a personal Dao. We do learn about the big Dao via the little Dao's we practice in life, but the little Dao is not the big Dao.

OK I see what you're saying... Makes sense.