by JessOBrien on Tue Sep 06, 2011 11:40 am
Hi all,
I haven't seen the Hsing-I videos yet, but they are just tapes of the classes we had here in Berkeley. You may recall me posting something in the Events section over the last few years, when he offered classes on Hsing-I elements, and these tapes are the result. The sessions were fun with lots of good training exercises, but as with all things Kumar, may not be to everyone's taste. I liked the classes though and they contributed to my development in terms of IMA skills and sparring. He has spent a lot of time and effort researching Hsing-I.
As for pricing, Kumar has always been expensive and always will be. Not much more to say on that.
As for the Ba Gua and Tai Chi book, it was not his best book.
As for the marketing and such, this is not my area of interest. I am just a student of the arts and I study Hsing-I and Ba Gua when I can. Kumar's classes have always been enjoyable and fruitful for me, and always worth the dough. The marketing side of things is irrelevant to me. When class is offered, I go and I train. Then I practice. I can see why it turns some people off, but there are others who really relate to the way this is being presented. I really have no opinion, as long as there are classes to go to. Tapes, books, youtube etc are fun and can be inspiring, but I personally don't gain benefits from anything but in person training.
Ed, his book on Power of Internal Martial Arts was the best one and is always inspiring. In terms of actual training, he is the most detailed teacher I've ever had in terms of chi and mind training. He could care less about forms and techniques. If you don't have Pi Chuan down to perfection, and can execute it on the spot against full power attacks, don't even bother to ask about Tsuan Chuan, you'll get yelled at (as I have been so often). The forms don't matter to him whatsoever, the spirit, the energy, the mindset and the basic/bitter training that create the gung fu of the form are what he is after and what he teaches. This isn't everyone's cup of tea by any means, but I do think that if you like IMA it's always worth a visit at some point to see him in action.
In terms of the animals, he has taught those privately, but to him they are all just variants of the main course, the five elements. To him there are a million plus ways to express the elements and once you can manifest that to some degree, the animals are easy and simple. In terms of weapons, he does not teach any weapons training in any of his martial arts whatsoever.
Anybody with specific questions let me know, I was at all the classes that are on these tapes, so lemme know if there is anything you want to know in specific. We are gonna have a class on Pao Chuan and Heng Chuan in November in Berkeley if you wanna come check it out.
Jess O