some nice apps

[shawnsegler]

I liked it.

[Chris McKinley]

I thought it was a little more energetic than some apps clips but it's still plagued by the same kind of lame unrealistic "attacks" as almost every IMA apps clip, and also by the wincingly frequent use of BS pushes as the so-called fight ender move. In reality, neither those attacks nor those defenses would be particularly threatening to the other person. Still, at least it's not yet another forms clip.

[shawnsegler]

Come on Chris...fess up. Sometimes late at night you get your sinophile LARP'er on, putting on the old silk jammies and do the CMC short form in front of mirror.

You know you do.



Best.

S

[Josealb]

You cant film a real attack or a real defense unless its a real fight, thats obvious. What this clip shows are skills...and it shows some damn good skills.

I personally dont have any trouble visualizing most of those skills in a real fight...but thats me.

[G. Matthew Webb]

It was nice listening to the sound of the Chinese language. As Chris McK pointed out, the apps were more energetic than most, but the vid suffered from the usual failings of most IMA video demos. Still, the poster of the vid didn't say why he "liked" it. Realism? Brisk movement? Oafish movements of the "attacker"? Foreign color?

G. Matthew Webb

[G. Matthew Webb]

It was nice listening to the sound of the Chinese language. As Chris McK pointed out, the apps were more energetic than most, but the vid suffered from the usual failings of most IMA video demos. Still, the poster of the vid didn't say why he "liked" it. Realism? Brisk movement? Oafish movements of the "attacker"? Foreign color?

G. Matthew Webb

[shawnsegler]

I liked how he moved with his body rather than his arms.

[G. Matthew Webb]

It was nice listening to the sound of the Chinese language. As Chris McK pointed out, the apps were more energetic than most, but the vid suffered from the usual failings of most IMA video demos. Still, the poster of the vid didn't say why he "liked" it. Realism? Brisk movement? Oafish movements of the "attacker"? Foreign color?

G. Matthew Webb

[shawnsegler]

You seem a little confused Mr Webb...did you mean to post the same thing twice?

[Ian]

You cant film a real attack or a real defense unless its a real fight, thats obvious.

you can't show full speed attacks, but I don't see what's so hard about showing the training for more realistic and useful applications.

same style (bagua), very different approach:

[Chris McKinley]

Good point, Ian. I don't think it's quite as digital as Jose seems to. Even within the not-perfectly-real parameters of demonstration video, there's a spectrum of possibilities there. You also have to couple that with the fact that an apps clip isn't supposed to demonstrate generic skills, jins, energies or attributes. It's supposed to show applications. To that extent, there's got to be a certain minimum threshold below which the demonstrated attacks and responses are no longer realistic enough to be worth recommending as applications.

IMO, the apps in the first clip are definitely flirting with that line if they haven't crossed over. Almost none of the "attacks" would occur that way in a real assault even by an untrained assailant. And certainly, none of the responses would remotely neutralize a real assault, most especially the irritatingly ubiquitous push for a finishing move. We don't have to re-open the ridiculous discussion of whether pushes have combat merit to acknowledge that in an assault where the assailant is truly dedicated to hurting or killing you, any kind of push is a hysterically underwhelming tactic.

Still, if not exactly an apps clip, it is a decent demonstration of manipulating the opponent with whole body movement and some good uses of circles and spirals. The second clip, by comparison, has a lot more realistic mojo to it. No, they're not trying to really hurt each other, but they do show actual applications and it's a lot more reasonable to see that some of those responses could function at higher levels of speed, power and intent.

[everything]

You cant film a real attack or a real defense unless its a real fight, thats obvious.

you can't show full speed attacks, but I don't see what's so hard about showing the training for more realistic and useful applications.

same style (bagua), very different approach:

really liked that one. skipped the first one based on the comments. all I could try to catch in the clip's explanations were he mentioned xingyiquan and baguazhang and maybe "can't hit" and "immediately"

[Ian]

0:44 usually when you grab someone, he's not going to comply. if he's compliant, you can just ask him to get in the car. not gonna happen.
1:03 not allowed to hit
1:15 [he's going to resist, so] you can't force it. turn your body and stick to the guy
1:53 we want to be like a snake or a dragon and coil around the guy
2:33 you've pressed down one of the guy's arms. usually people will try to directly enter [from the front]. this is wrong. use bagua movement, step to the side
2:44 always stick to him. hands don't leave the opponent, but neither are they grabbing him rigidly. if you grab him rigidly he'll know where your center is and resist
3:17 work with sidearms
3:36 sometimes people will touch your sidearm. the common reaction is to grab the attacker's hand. this is wrong. easy to get shot
3:51 two reactions should be - press down, turn your body
4:36 if you wait another second and he has a deeper hold, press down, turn your body won't work. too late
4:53 if this happens, your reaction should be - let go, enter

[Chris McKinley]

everything,

I recommend you watch the first clip also for two reasons. One, you ought to evaluate something for yourself rather than just taking the opinions of others as true. Two, it would be valuable to see examples of what I'm talking about when I say that the demonstrations in the first clip almost aren't even applications, but are, unfortunately IMO, very typical of what are commonly called applications in video clips. Most of it is really more like aggressive push hands than anything else.

While Jose is right in that the clip shows some legitimate skills, that's not what was advertised. IOW, it isn't labelled a "skills" clip, it's labelled an applications clip. There's a huge difference. I'd like to see what the guy would do with some actual applications. If he's got that kind of skill, I'd guess he'd have some interesting stuff to look at.

[C.J.Wang]

I prefer his Liuhe Mantis apps.