Mike Kaniewski: Pi Quan

[Josealb]

ME thinks all you see when you see Luo train, is training. When applying im pretty damn sure none of us would say "oh, he rose his back shoulder a bit and he rocked back and forth before the kou". All of us would just see the BOOM, man down. Like with any other extra skilled guy.

Just training. The step, the twisting, the spirals, spinal wave, compression/expansion, all the good stuff. I don't see anything weird with it.

Don't know about the other guy.

[Josealb]

What style do you do? Do you have any youtube videos up? I'm just curious because this sounds more like the Shanxi style I learn than most that I see online.

Graham, you got some new clips up, killer soundtrack and all. Care to share?

[GrahamB]

But anyway, since you asked, here's one example - the way our style does it we don't draw both hands back towards the Dan Tien area at the start of Pi Chuan, like a lot of other styles do. Instead we do a very minimal Kou Jin (you can't really see it if you don't know it's there) then straight into the primary fist.

What style do you do? Do you have any youtube videos up? I'm just curious because this sounds more like the Shanxi style I learn than most that I see online.

Click on my name and visit the YouTube page it links to. Prepare to be underwhelmed

[Toby]

Hm, I was hoping for a demonstration of pi chuan so I could see what you'd described . Anyway, I see you're a Hebei stylist too so we're likely very different. But thanks and no, I wasn't underwhelmed .

[GrahamB]

You Sir are too kind. There's a few 'action shots' of Pi Quan in that clip, but if I get time I'll shoot a Pi Quan (form) or two, but I don't think it will look like Shanxi style, no matter how minimal we do it. It'll still have that good ol' Hebei THUMP and less of that Shanxi SNAP CRACKLE AND POP.

[kreese]

Graham and Mix - thanks for sharing your views. Pi Quan is such an interesting practice because it can serve several different functions in training.
When you say "kou", is that the same word as in "kou bu", the hooking step of bagua? Anyone happen to know the (traditional) Chinese character?

[GrahamB]

I don't do Bagua, but I meant "hooking" in English. In XingYi it's not necessarily a step, but you do usually do it with a step, so it could be the same thing as Bagua's step. It's a Jin. It's one of the four fundamental defensive methods of XingYi (as I understand it), and means to "hook" the opponent's attack into a disadvantageous position.

[fuga]

The youtube video of Luo showing pi chuan shows one way of playing pi chuan. I was able to attend a seminar of his earlier this year and when he showed pi chuan casually it was not as big. Then he proceeded to show more pi chuans, each imbued with a different animal flavor to show how one could put different energies in pi chuan. Coolest stuff I have seen in a while. And expanded my training horizon.

-pete

[nianfong]

graham = a bit of a hooker.

[GrahamB]

graham = a bit of a hooker.

The cultural reference may be lost on you