bridging and pi quan

[mixjourneyman]

Yesterday while sparring with my friend I worked a lot on using Beng as a bridge to launch multiple strikes down his centreline.
This is something I do a lot, but today I got to wondering about how to use pi quan to bridge.
I can see a couple possibilities:
1: use the drilling part to make contact with the arm and then either go straight through, or push up the drilling palm into the face, or overturn and push the other hand into the face.
2: Use the chopping palm to push down on one arm while either turning into a drilling fist to the face with the same hand, or using an upward motion with pi to hit the face, or overturning with the opposite hand and doing pi to the face or chest.

Any other ideas?

[nianfong]

the drilling part can open into any of the 5 elements. think about it. it's really good at opening the front door, or side doors if you just change your footwork angle. you can use either side of the fist to open the door too.

once you've opened the door, you can do tons of other moves.

[XiaoXiong]

I've always liked a nice powerful jung pi as a bridge wedging in with hidden power in the forearm, elbow, and front shin.
J

[fisherman]

Mix,
I use it two different ways when I am bridging.

1. I use my lead hand (as if I had just finished the drill) to engage/grab/parry my opponents lead hand and I Pi quan with my rear hand. I will either do this with a half step and no change of feet, or I will do it with a full step and use a 45 degree angle to flank while I am attacking.

2. I use my lead hand and smack the opponent's hand up and out of the way as I crash in with the other hand. I prefer to do this one with a full step.

There are also a ton of ways to use Pi after you have already bridged as well.
(I think Pi is the shiznit!!!)

[johnwang]

The drilling part can build a bridge with your opponent's leading arm. It can also change into an "over hook" and wrap your opponent's arm. The Pi Chuan can build a bridge with your opponent's back arm. It can also change into an "arm pulling scooping kick".

[Inner_man]

Isnt this really where XY Chicken and Monkey come into their own. A barrage of Pi for both these animals..

[XiaoXiong]

Monkey, Bear, Eagle, Chicken, Dragon, all emphasize Pi heavily. I have to agree that Monkey and Chicken, in our style, are really where Pi starts to flesh out into something very adaptable and almost applicable from anywhere. I especially like Monkey for understanding pi. Honestly though I only came to understand Monkey very well through Bagua. I think if you can use monkey well than you have the most important parts of pi. Really Dragon Bear and eagle are very minor variations from the basic pi. In our system Monkey and Chicken are like little systems of their own. Hong Yi Xiang even had a student surnamed "Monkey Chen" who won lots of fights and never learned anything but 5 elements and monkey. Our monkey form is one of our most treasured forms in our xingyi lineage. Luo Laoshr has done a couple of seminars for us on monkey, and it's literally like you could probably study monkey full time for at least a couple of years and do something new from it every day, and it's all pi quan.
J

[Inner_man]

Agreed XiaoXiong.

Our XY is similar. There is a very strong emphasis on Chicken from our style and Monkey has enormous depth also.

[ashe]

I wouldn't use any specific move to bridge, but I guess that's a conversati that would derail your topic.

[johnwang]

The back fist, hook punch, and upper cut are all good to be used for bridging.

[GrahamB]

XiaoXiong,

Good observation about monkey and chicken being little systems with lots of depth. I think, in truth, all the XY animals are "little systems of their own" - I think it just depends how much particular teachers in different lineages specialised in, learned and/or wanted to pass on.

For example, look at this guy's vids - it hints at the incredible depth and variety to be found in all the animals:

Snake
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=r_R-mqv-R2g&e

Swallow
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=usjvB0XXG ... re=related

He has loads of vids of the 10 animals. In each one he practices a single method up and down the training area, stops then does the next. Now, if you linked these single movements belonging to each animal together you'd get something like your more detailed snake and monkey links. (In fact - taking out the characteristic Moslem XinYi interludes (e.g. the pause with the leg raised) its very similar it is to our Hebei XingYi animal links despite six to eight generations of separation.)

For many years it was only "XingYi" styles of the XinYi/XingYi family tree that were openly taught to the public. In many "XingYi" styles these animal links are limited to just one example movement, thus reducing the complexity of a rich and detailed system into something that could be more manageably taught to the general public (along with the 5 fists). It's no co-incidence that openly teaching stuff to the public (in a commercial way for the first time) coincided with simplification. As class sizes go up massively you can't keep the same level of details - I'm sure anybody here who has tried to teach people martial arts will appreciate that point.

How many animal "shapes" do you need to get a handle on an animal? That point is debatable - obviously many famous teachers have thought that one was sufficient - others have felt that more than one was helpful. Either way, it's always worth remembering that all animal shapes are just "fingers pointing to the moon" - the moon you should be looking for is the way the animal itself fights/hunts.

You find odd little things like "in our style we have 5 variations of horse" popping up here from now and again - I believe this is where it all comes from. Ultimately, of course, there is only one version of horse - and it lives in a field and eats hay

[Inner_man]

Nice find - I downloaded em all. Nice to see so many variants for a change.

[chrislomas]

he drilling part can open into any of the 5 elements. think about it. it's really good at opening the front door, or side doors if you just change your footwork angle. you can use either side of the fist to open the door too.

once you've opened the door, you can do tons of other moves.

QFT

This is the method I use as well. Absoulutely perfect for starting with forward intent but as both hands are in action they open into the different elements perfectly.

[mixjourneyman]

Yes, I agree with Xiao Xiong about monkey being good for bitch slapping the shit out of people with pi quan
It would be interesting to try to bridge and take the side door with monkey.