by Bob on Wed Nov 05, 2008 8:38 am
I think it is always good to remind those who continue to see baji through "rose colored glasses" that when Liu was at his baji peak, 20 years old, a 40 year old Liu He Praying Mantis Master, Ding ZiChen, knocked him down 3 times, so goes the story---
It seems obvious to me what should be learned by lesson of defeat:---Master the style that defeats you [it was Zhang Xiang Wu who made the arrangements for Liu's disicpleship in Liu He Tang Lang Quan.
One particular wish is the desire to see more shuai jiao elucidation and emphasis---in our system, xiao baji jia is also known as xiao baji shuai jiao jia and I have seen a couple of the shuai jiao applications demonstrated in this form and even walked through a few but I don't know of anyone who has really focused on the shuai jiao aspects of the system and that, to me, is sort of being baji incomplete.
Also, in the actual applications of baji, the horse stance is done away with in the upper levels---let go of, and a stance which is half horse/half bow is used---similar to a Yang's taiji footing [at least the way I understand Yang's taiji].
All of my Liu Da Kai is played in a half horse/half bow and I this becomes optional in the da baji. The only place I have been told to keep it in is the xiao baji jia postures that incorporate [not every stance in xiao baji is a horse stance].
Even in the moving one punch, as shown in Liu's clip, that stance eventually changes to half horse/half bow and in most of the applications we practice on the shield/bag we don't use the stomp. But this is simply my experience and it differs from others and no claim of being the authority on baji [even in Wu Tan system] is being made on my part--so, don't take my comments as Wu Tan(g) and/or baji gospel. LOL
Like Omar, I have found the basic training in baji to be very complementary to both my Chen and Yang's practice--I still think the "internal" aspects of the da qiang training are understated and often mistaken for raw forced power.
If I had to do it over again, i.e. younger, I would have taken my Sokol's wrestling/boxing instruction more seriously and probably used baji training as a refinement to what I had already learned.
Good luck Kurt with your training and development!
Last edited by
Bob on Thu Nov 06, 2008 4:52 am, edited 4 times in total.