the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

Interesting and comprehensive breakdown of Buddha pounds the mortar.

The initial attacks are so unrealistic that it renders the rest of it moot. Also worth noting how much he changes the form to make the applications work, considering the claim that the whole point of Practical Method is that the form is just like the applications.

Hmm, have to agree about the attacks. Actually, in the past I've had a few nice exchange training sessions with a dedicated student of Chen Zhonghua and regarding the use of body mechanics in contact with a partner/opponent I definitely had a favourable impression. But in terms of the type of attacks, the nature of the applications and how these puzzle pieces fit together in the video, I'm not convinced. A pity, because I have liked, or been intrigued by, a lot of things in videos by Chen Zhonghua.

Generally speaking: attacks (be they one strike or a series of strikes) for training/demonstration purposes can be slowed down a lot, as is often necessary, but can still retain a fairly realistic base. In the sense that if you speeded everything up again, it would at least be similar to what might actually go down in reality. That way you can (in an early phase) train applications that make use of mass and momentum and likely trajectories, even while doing it slow and safe. But not here as far as I can see.

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PS. The video was posted at the end of April, and the hosting instructor appears to be based in New York. But maybe the video was recorded a lot earlier, I dunno. I'm curious: is/was this kind of group training permitted in NY in recent months? If this had been in Germany recently and a corresponding video was posted on YT, then the organizer would probably get into serious trouble with the health and enforcement authorities.

Must be a beginners class? What they film is usually not this shallow.

Beginner or not, what's shown should still be viable. This is not.