interview with Strider Clark--August 2018

[Tom]

This video onversation/interview with Strider Clark recounts his training as the first foreign student with Wang Peisheng's martial family in Beijing in the 1990s--a more serious level of training than many are accustomed to.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXayT_1gM64

[Bao]

Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed the interview.

[Trick]

Wish I could see that vid. Some time ago I saw a vid of him on the Chinese tubes and he definitely seem to have his things well together

[Kelley Graham]

great! really great. "Wrong, do it again. Wrong, do it again. Wrong, do it again." thx.

[nicklinjm]

Nice interview, thanks for sharing. Would have loved to see more usage examples from him, his Tongbei looks good! Hope Tongbei gains a greater following in the US...

[C.J.W.]

His Tongbei application demo, the one that was shot in a hotel room, is still among one my favorite CMA YouTube clips of all time.

Tongbei is a wonderful art that produces fighters quickly, as the movements can pretty much be applied in combat the same way they are drilled in practice.

[Trick]

Yes that’s the vid(hotel room)I remembered i found it on youku. Even that the guy demonstrated on in that vid is smaller and “standing still” one can see that there are skill demonstrated..One of my Taijiquan teachers I was fortunate to study with also teach Tongbeiquan(wuxing), I found these exercises blend very well together, in my opinion one might grasp the practice of taijiquan quicker if add some Tongbeiquan basics. There is a strong “from ground rising up” feeling to notice very early on in its practice.

[Bao]

[quote="Trick”] in my opinion one might grasp the practice of taijiquan quicker if add some Tongbeiquan basics. There is a strong “from ground rising up” feeling to notice very early on in its practice.[/quote]

Tongbei certainly teach to use strength from the back and from the spine right from the beginning. However, many exercises found in tongbei is also found in many other Chinese arts as Tai Chi, Bagua, Xingyi and Baji. They are not always understood in the same way as in Tongbei though, so some basic Tongbei practice might be helpful as well.

[Trick]

As the story goes about for example the founder of Xingyiquan(Hebei) Li Luoneng who was already trained in Tongbeiquan before coming to Shanxi to learn Dai family boxing...Tongbeiquan may be the root to many of the norther Chinese martial arts maybe more so to the internal ones ..

[Tom]

His Tongbei application demo, the one that was shot in a hotel room, is still among one my favorite CMA YouTube clips of all time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=145AZIBAhZ0



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwaK6zDrWEk

[GrahamB]

Hmmm... demo against opponent offering zero resistance and holding his arm out in space without moving so he can do 3 strikes in return?

Not saying it's a bad demo, but one of your favourite CMA clips of all time???

[Trick]

All time favorite maybe could be argued. But i guess if he did a demo against an resisting opponent everyone would probably say, that’s no CMA. And things as, that’s boxing, that’s wrestling, that’s tae kwon do, that’s BJJ

[Wuyizidi]

Hmmm... demo against opponent offering zero resistance and holding his arm out in space without moving so he can do 3 strikes in return?

Not saying it's a bad demo, but one of your favourite CMA clips of all time???

This video was taken around in the mid to late 2000's. It was on one of the group trips to Beijing. The smaller guy being demoed on is Roger. He's from Brazil originally, and had studied BJJ for many years in Los Angeles. After meeting with Zhang Yun laoshi, through his introductions, he decided to go to China to study Wu Style Taiji and Yin Style Bagua full time with Zhao Zeren laoshi. At the time this was taken, he just got there, and I think this was at Strider's hotel. He came to meet them so they can go out to dinner later. So this explains the tiny space and the dark lighting.

At this point Roger is new to the group, had no idea what Shi Style Tongbei is, and asked for a very casual, quick intro. It was a spur of the moment thing. Hence the low production value.

The design of Tongbei skills is like most advanced CMA's skills, it starts with a set up, in this case the "Luring Hand", if you block, that springs up the trap - setting up a series of clever follow-up skills. Since Roger is the one asking the question (normally a student can't ask a teacher to show him anything, but since he is a younger brother he can), by Shuo Shou etiquette he was supposed to do what comes naturally but doesn't change, and let the instructor show what comes next.

When Strider first went to China in the 90's he didn't know about this etiquette, and when a gongfu uncle was trying to teach him Ba Wang Xie Jia (an over the shoulder throw where the attacker arm is full extended with palm facing sky), he tried to relax and drop elbow to follow the uncle's motion, the uncle became alarmed right away, made sure he really locked up Strider (almost dislocating his shoulder and elbow) and threw him down very hard. He was really upset and other teachers had to explain to him Strider (18, 19 at the time) didn't know the unwritten rules. Even today that uncle still half-jokingly remind our teacher "you got to watch for that Strider, he tries to beat his uncle."

This is a common thing in traditional circles - there are lots of rules regulating when you can fight with people outside the group. So one the classic ways to make a name for yourself then is to defeat an uncle. Since no one can formally or casually challenge an uncle, they often do it sneaky - like pretending to asking their uncle a question "can you just tell me if I'm doing this right" - you just do the movement yourself. Sometimes you deliberately do it wrong. Then pride get to the best of them, and they show on you what the skill should be like, and you "accidentally" (it is second nature now, I didn't mean it) beat them.

So yeah, it may look strange, but that's how it goes in traditional teaching. Within our group we're actually very careful about this. As Strider's uncle Zhao Zeren like to say "today teachers need to do a lot more da shou (uncooperative fighting), not just shuo shou (demo like this one here). In Shuo Shou the student is supposed to cooperate, so over time in all situations, they cooperate with teacher out of habit. In Taiji this is bad, as this is how many 'masters' demonstrate empty force throws to their student in the beginning, and over time, because it seems to work all the time, they really think they can do it. It starts with teacher deceiving the student, and ends with student deceiving the teacher."

[edededed]

Hi Wuyiziyi,

How do you write "wei zhao" in Chinese? And could you give details about what the rules are? (I am too old to go to China and get thrown down hard now, I want to avoid it! )

[nicklinjm]

Wei zhao = 喂招. The unwritten rules (and sneaky challenges) Wuyizidi is talking about are very common, had a similar experience with my sifu. Like Strider, I didn't know the rules either in the first year I was studying with him, and he still likes to tell the story of how I actually tried to counter and hit back when he was demonstrating on me. Of course he knew how to deal with it (painfully I might add), but it did surprise him!