dedicated to the discussion of the chinese internal martial arts of xingyiquan, baguazhang, taijiquan, related arts, and anything else best discussed over a bottle of rum
The main purpose for the seminar was to introduce Bajiquan’s unique combat methods and authentic traditional Chinese martial arts’ characteristics in comparisons to other martial arts. We went over concepts such as “leg driven biomechanics” and “attacking with legs”… we taught “Baji Jia” and all of its applications, put them into 2-men drills. The feedback was incredibly positive, I’m pleased that everyone learned something from the seminar. I’m extremely proud to be able to represent Taiwan WuTan Bajiquan system, my Shifu Chen Chang-Lin’s teachings, and promote this knowledge in the western world.
For those of you interested in the Bajiquan/pigua zhang of the GM Liu Yunqiao line, in this interview, Sifu Vicent Mei superbly provides a number of excellent insights into the characteristics and nature of of GM Liu's bajiquan.
He explains why he considers this line of practice internal. Few observing this line realize the importance of relaxation in the upper body and the critical requirement of employing the "hollow fist" when releasing power and how it is carried throughout the movement. To add a further note not covered in the interview, there are a number of nei gong exercises, taught early in the practice, which adds to this "internal" expression of the movements. Xiao baji jia, employs this "Hollow" fist and palm, along with holding of the postures and associated breathwork that characterizes the shen fa of GM Liu's lineage.
A couple of lines from the interview transcript of Sifu Vicent Mei's illustrates this:
3:37 through expansion or these type of things but you kind of use your entire body too you have to so that's the level 23:43 of engine all right so you can attach to someone and then apply power and that's 23:50 part of why we hold hollow fists in bajiquan is that it this thing holds 23:57 change this means change so this can be a time and then youfajin in or not you 24:03 can change so the hollow fist as Grandmaster you always say Okay 24:09 obviously he has a deeper meaning also means you're you you don't want to be tense all the time so you want to become but he applied that to the ideology of bajiquan as well okay so yeah he took he took I would in my opinion he took bajiquan to the next level
yeah so now jumping into my area of expertise
3:03 something that you're able to really comfortably use your structure and even in like party train for example we 23:10 always in my opinion body treatment is an internal art so when you do something that's internal then you rely on your 23:17 structure less relying on your muscle so a characteristic of internal art is 23:24 that it's really close quarter combat so you stay really close to your opponent right when you stay really close you 23:31 don't have the mass times speed you know with the distance you know traveling so you get really close but then that's 23:37 through expansion or these type of things but you kind of use your entire body too you have to so that's the level
Vincent is an entrepreneur, runs a digital marketing agency in New York. He started learning Muay Thai during his high school years. He was first introduced to TCMA by his kung fu brother Paul Yang, and learned under Master Chen in 1996. Vincent is currently managing and teaching at Wu Tan NJ in lower Manhattan.