Baji on ESPN

[Bob]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m486-6wDmTs

[kreese]

It is always a treat to see your teacher's movements. The older clip you posted at Chen wired gives me chills. The BAM! BAM! BAM! rhythm really shows how cannon-like the expression of power is.

[dragontigerpalm]

Cool clip. He is always powerful. Thanks for posting.

[C.J.Wang]

I've always loved his haircut

[SPJ]

Cool.

rated 5 stars.

[qiphlow]

wow. that was very nice.

[JAB]

Great to see Yang Laoshi blowing up!! Was that at Scrima's tourney?
Jake

[SPJ]

Cool.

rated 5 stars.

I was discussing with some friends today about the vid.

I am not biased or play favorite on Wu Tan Ba Ji.

In general, there are 2 main schools of Ba Ji,

1. Meng Cun, they are softer.

2. Luo Zhong/tong, they are harder. represented by Li shu wen-> Liu yun qiao -> Adam Hsu/Tong Yang etc.

You may notice that in this vid, that release of the power is near and toward the end of posture suddenly, the power goes from dan tian toward 4 limbs. most people just noticed the feet are stomping and make loud noises, but watch the hands, elbow, knees etc too.

GM Liu once said that Ba Ji stresses Kao Jin. I used to interprete that Kao is only referring to shoulder, back, chest etc the wide area. only after some time later, I realized that what he meant was that, there may be Kao on elbow, knee, fist and palm etc.

Kao simply means we get close first and may be body contact first then suddenly release the power.

So I told my friends that look at this vid. TY has shown the explosiveness or bao fa li and also lots of kao jin in all of his moves/posture.

---

what a long way to say I like the vid and I am not biased.

[C.J.Wang]

The word "kao" in Chinese language not only means shoulder strike. It also carries the idea of leaning onto and relying on someone or something -- basically getting real up close and personal

[Bob]

Thank you all for the kind comments. Jake, yeah I think they filmed it in Orlando, Nick Scrima's tournament but the I seem to remember it being attached to Las Vegas.

Thanks for the analysis SPJ.

I will tell you one sad story---we haven't had a baji/pigua class for at least 5 years. We never could get more than 5 or 6 interested and most of us in the disciple classes are over 40. It is very tough to make a living in traditional Chinese martial arts and indeed compromises are often made. For example, praying mantis is really what seems to "catch" students in their teens and early 20s and that is what we emphasize much to my dismay [love PM but there is some real gold in the slow, methodical, often boring basic baji training]

Alignment, structure, xiao baji, and the da qiang are the "big secrets" at the start of baji training.

Although I am not responsible for the outflow of the video clips, I will post them as they are made available. I am in "semi-retirement" and advocated coming out, so to speak, well over 10 years ago. Straight up baji/pigua with no BS or hidden agendas.

I am glad to see others also coming out in a relatively straight forward manner, SPJ, He Jinghan, Mo_Ling, Johnny Wang and many others. It is the only way to preserve the traditional art in the long run.

[Shenquan]

Cool clip! I am a baji practicioner/enthusiast myself and have to say that master Yang is a high level expert. I don't study Liu brach baji but I can see there are many similarities between Liu and Changchun branch (they both come from Li shuwen so I shouldn't be surprised I guess).

For Bob
Sad to hear that when it comes to training few people get interested in a style which has no flashy moves. I do believe baji is a very good style that can give a lot to any serious student (if taught correctly of course)

[kreese]

Bob - what are are you guys doing to put your bajiquan out there for people to see? I don't see how a fight-oriented public these days would scoff at a live demo of Da Powah of Bajiquan. You will always have those who drop at at the first hint of hard work, but there are plenty of young people working very hard at their respective fight games. They just need to see the benefit of the traditional training or else it will just seem useless to them. The days of secrets are turning into the twilight of extinction for traditional CMA.

[kreese]

Posting this because it is simply awesome. ATTN: Chen Taijiquan heads - here's some real pow-pow-pow for ya.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKrl1mC7qbw

[Bob]

Kreese:

If I had my druthers, I would tell someone coming in that really wanted to fight to forget about baji---too much hype around the system. I would have them to pick up some high school wrestling and a bit of boxing---then they might have some confidence in what they can do regardless if they train baji [if they can pick up shuai jiao or some judo that is fine too]. Once they got that out of their system, then I would see if they were really interested in training in baji. They can focus now instead of constantly testing themselves as to whether the baji they are learning can be used in a fight or the ring.

We tend to get everyone started in praying mantis and I now appreciate why we do that---clean, sweet, in 6 months you add on to what you already have and there is enough there to take care of yourself by and large. Yeah, I know, if you meet up with a mma then we can see how little a mantis praying mantis or baji practitioner really has. Well, you just might be surprised a bit---not every mma is a champion fighter, however, that is why I recommend get a basic feel from wrestling and boxing. We have had a couple of wrestlers train there through the years and that impresses me. I had a bit of wrestling in high school and wish I would have gotten more. They impress me and they also make good baji players.

As my worn stories go, a lot of my earlier kungfu brothers were bouncers in relatively tough bars and they are very practical in their fighting skills. One of my old brothers was an ex-marine who only wanted taiji but when he got in a fight outside of the bikers bar in Youngstown, he used some praying mantis hook strikes to get him out of the fight. It bought him enough time for him and a friend to get away from 5 bikers after hitting a couple. Strategy is everything.

So, yeah, I think baji training, from the ground up is pretty good but if a student is concerned about having a basic foundation for fighting, a little boxing and wrestling will go a long way and they can erase the doubt as to whether they can take care of themselves in a fight and stop obssessing over whether baji will make them invincible. We even sent a couple of guys to Scott Sheeley in Colombus to help prep them for the ring---

I am pretty convinced that fighting, beyond basic condiitioning, is 90% heart and 10% system and most people are not sociopathic enough to make really great fighters--the kind that go for the kill. Those are the ones to fear most in a bar or on the street---the sociopathic fighter.

We will see what the future holds for fighting---after 45 or so, you hire a lawyer and/or, at least in Ohio, you get your conceal and carry permit---then no matter how bad a martial artist might think he or she is, regardless of their system, they enter into the presence of the great equalizer and believe me, there are a number of people I have met who are just itching to pull the trigger on someone---being attacked by a well-trained martial artist is the perfect defense in their mind. LOL

Later

[D_Glenn]

You may notice that in this vid, that release of the power is near and toward the end of posture suddenly, the power goes from dan tian toward 4 limbs. most people just noticed the feet are stomping and make loud noises, but watch the hands, elbow, knees etc too.

GM Liu once said that Ba Ji stresses Kao Jin. I used to interprete that Kao is only referring to shoulder, back, chest etc the wide area. only after some time later, I realized that what he meant was that, there may be Kao on elbow, knee, fist and palm etc.

Kao simply means we get close first and may be body contact first then suddenly release the power.

So I told my friends that look at this vid. TY has shown the explosiveness or bao fa li and also lots of kao jin in all of his moves/posture.

Nice description of kao. Like CJ.Wang said "...It also carries the idea of leaning onto and relying on someone or something ..." which is also true since release of power happens at the same time as the front foot landing, so in kao there is the initial 'hit' which is with the weight of one's own body as the opponent is for a split-second acting as one's 2nd foot, then fa/release as the front foot lands.


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