the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

Just thought there might be more people out there interested in this stuff.

Here's a link to a youtube video from a Taiwanese news broadcast on Bagua/xingyi and the Yizong association in Taiwan, with heavy emphasis on Luo Dexiu and his students as well.



http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=fz4zF3oBg38

I also threw up a little more information in my blog on the video as well as one of the partipants in it, Lin Guozheng. Lin Guozheng is one of my seniors and has been studying this stuff for decades. He's real good, although, typically, most are "quieting" stuff down for video.

Blog link: http://blog.zongwumen.com/

Best,
George

i'll have to check out your blog in depth later...

Awesome. Thanks, George!

Cool! Nice to finally see Lin Guozheng (I think). He the one with the glasses?

I got to spar around a bit with Lin after class when I was over in Taiwan recently - he is scarily good! He's also a genuinely nice guy with a wicked sense of humour. I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of him though I know he was a classmate of Aarvo's back when he was in Taiwan and I think he's also trained a bit with su dong chen. Anyone translate what's being said?

haha! Awesome vid! translation welcome. Fun stuff.
Thanks George.
-Jess O

Great stuff. This is the lineage! Glad to see that there are other senior Hong Yixiang alumni still doing their stuff; one can get the impression from YouTube (is there any other reality these days...?) that the only chap left in Taiwan is Luo.

Lin is actually Luo's guy, I think, although he might have studied with Hong laoshi. Geo might know.

Lin is one of Luo's senior students He did other martial arts before that, but I dunno what. He's one of Geo's martial arts heros, which is saying a hell of a lot. I've heard some cool stories about him.
J

Mr. Lin has mentioned studying TKD, Muay Thai, and Aikido, among others.

Yeah, I think George said he was the one called "Little Luo."

Here's a rough translation:

Chen Qizhou has been practicing martial arts for the last 40 years. He encountered martial arts as a child when he was weak and sickly. As he walks, he practices the 8 movement lianhuanquan in accordance with the posture and his movements contain jin in softness. He believes martial arts has lots of sayings, which originate from ancient poems.

Chen: The martial arts I practice like xingyi and bagua – their books are from the era of Jiaqing Emperor during the Qing Dynasty and have lots of old sayings. Most of the writers would write with 7 words or 5 words which would turn into chants/songs.

In order to promote martial arts culture, Chen and other like-minded disciples founded the Yizong Martial Arts Association, which includes xingyi, bagua, and weapons. Among them, bagua sticky hands was one of the practices taught by Chen’s grandteacher Zhang Zunfeng, who arrived in Taiwan in 1947.

Luo: It emphasizes sticking and the body’s nine joints, which can be rearranged into one. Or it can be split into 9 individual units and used to control the opponent. This is a higher level of training.

Lin: Most martial arts are external with the jin path on the outside, such as external martial arts and shaolin. Internal martial arts are different and emphasize the internal with emphasis on yi and shen. Shen is from jingshen (spirit) and you use your yi to control your body and muscles and use your yi and body combined in your movements.

Li Chunsheng, the top disciple, has planted his martial arts in Yilan and combined different systems, allowing traditional martial arts to flourish. He received the government’s support to form Taiwan’s first Martial Arts Center.

Li: About 20 years ago, we already combined them (martial arts) together and organized a Guoshu Committee, so we don’t differentiate between different systems.

Through the hard work of the students and exchange, IMA has attracted students from countries such as the US, UK, Germany, and Israel who have come to Taiwan to learn. The first lesson is to respect the (martial arts) culture of those before.

Luo: Martial Arts have been passed own through hundreds or thousands of years of experience. It’s not from a single teacher, but has been passed down, so what you have to respect is something that is hundreds of years old.

Chen: Chinese traditional arts are an essence of culture. Learning martial arts makes you feel like you are continuing the tradition from the ancestors. Sifu says that learn martial arts is not about beating people, but for learning wude and cultivation. So these (martial arts) from our sifu we try our best to keep going.

Although they come from different walks of life, during time off, they often congregate at Dadaochenghepan Park to exchange martial arts.

(Chen sings song about nature)

tastydurian,
Thanks for the translation

George,
Thanks for puttin that up!

Thanks for posting this. The link on your blog to the article on postural deviations is also very informative.

Durian,
Jianmin kicks serious ass. Im playing that.