I am visiting the Sacramento, CA area this week and Taste of Death was kind enough to invite me to come play. I was given ample opportunity to explore what they were working on in partner testing and in solo development. The gua/dang/LDT focus was interesting to return to after 2 years of putting work in on Kenny Gong's rib opening focused xingyi. I had a lot of fun and was allowed some time to compare and contrast methods and strategies from each side. It's interesting to see an almost completely form free expression mixed with Liuhebafa in some instances. There was a more advanced partner exercise that looked almost exactly like the LHBF opening movement from my perspective. The mechanics involved were very intuitive and it was immediately applicable to the solo lessons as well as partner work.
I wish I had more time to spend here in Northern California. Perhaps the next trip I will have more time. We talked a lot about Zhong Xin Dao AKA I Liq Chuan being of a very similar approach with some focus on forms. Overall, I hope to come visit this group again after some more time put in with my teacher Lloyd Day. Sadly, I did not get to spend as much time playing with others here as I would have liked. My own efforts to document our style pales in comparison to the material for Yiquan.
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