the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

Hello everyone. Just curious if any of the Xingyi people here train only the five elements and no animals at all? I spend most of my time on the fists, though I do know a couple of the animals and plan to learn the rest. I've heard some folks say that they view the elements as a complete system in itself...what do you guys think?

Thanks,
b

ps. to the admins...the new/old site looks great!

Well, I've learned them both, so I practice them both and I really find all aspects of the art fascinating. But yeah, the elements are really all that one truly needs if you are looking for basic health development and fighting abilities. Of course you need to have an insrtuctor who can teach you all the various applications and training methods so you're not just practicing empty forms or theoretical movements, but the elements can be viewed as quite complete in themselves.

(But hey, if you can learn it all, do so. The animals are great for gaining new insight into the elements as well as taking what one learns in the elements into new directions ).

Thanks for the input. I get in a maximum of 1.5 hrs total a day, including some of the other things i practice(zhan zhuang, taiji, qigong, etc.) so I guess I am really just questioning my own needs. I'm not a professional martial artist or fighter, so I have to spend the practice time I have wisely and try not to get too obsessed with all the things out there that I could learn. However, I plan to learn the rest of the animals...of the few different martial arts i've trained in or been introduced to, Xingyi is by far my favorite.

b.

I train mostly the elements, but I also like to pick a couple animals or forms in each training session to focus on.

Elements would be all you need to defend yourself, build your health and increase your strength & have a very benificial practice.

So many ways to practice them- traditional 'Lu', step turn, alternate 5E on the Lu, diferent hand fomations etc. so (I) can never master 5E. Alway's have something to work on.

Animals are a continuation training- change energy and direction and shape of the 5E principals. More lively and "fun' type of practice.

I practice mostly 5E sometimes practice about 10 animal shapes as well depends on time and what I feel like.

The art is not complete if you have not learned 12 animal's though, the old story of old master Guo Yun Shen (sp) talks about that.

But for folks like me- 5E could be a practice all on its own.

you could just practice the 5E but why would you? there will always more to learn in your practice whether it is the 5E or the animals. but why limit yourself?
the animals have so much to teach, different energies, using different muscle groups so many fighting apps. etc too much fun.
if time is your enemy then try doing only 1 or 2 elements a day along with an animal or two not all the elements every day.
just my thoughts,
lando

Thanks taoistfist...that's the way I usually train, focusing on one or two fists or drills each day and some standing, etc. I find if I vary the practice each session, I can dig a little deeper into each thing.

b.

WSJ focused on the 5-elements when he taught... we keep a couple of animals going for auxiliary exercises (e.g. dragon for if someone's being annoying and requires some "play along with me" leg training ) However, 5-elements is our main practice.

RobT wrote:WSJ focused on the 5-elements when he taught... we keep a couple of animals going for auxiliary exercises (e.g. dragon for if someone's being annoying and requires some "play along with me" leg training ) However, 5-elements is our main practice.

I train 5 elements (mostly pi and beng), and the 3 animals my teacher picked for me (dragon and snake for flexibility and leg strength, horse for fighting). A daily workout is typically 10 minutes of each element, 10 minutes one animal, 10 minutes connected form. Takes just over an hour and builds up a lot of sweat with low enough stances.

However, since I got married two months ago, I mostly train in other aspects of endurance since my wife is allergic to martial arts

When I train by myself, I focus one the 5 elements. In class, we mainly focus on the 5E, but we do some animals for specific training purposes (like dragon for legs and endurance, lines and lines of "Swallow takes water" for flexibility, can't tell you how much I love those! ). We train mostly animals for applications.

In my still learning point of view, nothing is absolute in this art and there's stuff that will stick with you more easily than other things, but everything is important and comes in handy when it comes to you once needed. Somehow I feel it's all related, because the elements continue to be present in the animal forms. So you can't separate or stop the learning process while you can still asimilate more, there's more element stuff in the animal forms that's really nice material.

"Only" the elements?

I figure with all of the 5 fists (pi, beng, tsuan, pao & heng) plus Tiger and Dragon, I've got enough of the internal stuff to play with for a lifetime. My cup runneth over. LOL

Maybe one of these days I'll get to learn the old 3 fists and more Da Cheng Chuan, but for now with my life as hectic as it is that's all I've got room for, and I'm happy with it.