Formosa Neijia

My personal martial arts journey

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Entries from February 2007

General Gao Fang-xian and SunBinQuan

February 11th, 2007 · 12 Comments · CMA history, Mantis/long fist

This is General Gao Fang-xian 高芳先, who was described by Robert Smith in Masters and Methods as a master of Northern Shaolin. General Gao has quite a bit of history behind him as he was a hero of both the War of resistance against Japan and World War Two. This picture may give you some [...]

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Brian on the butterfly knives

February 10th, 2007 · 5 Comments · Off topic

This is popular author Brian Kennedy doing his thing with the hung gar butterfly knives back in the day circa 1978. Looking pretty sharp, don’t you think?

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Roy Harris on being a good instructor

February 9th, 2007 · 6 Comments · MA as business

The following is an article written by Roy Harris, of BJJ fame, about being a good instructor. I’m blogging the whole thing because Roy has a lot of teaching experience and he lays out his few points well. Honestly, I think not enough MA teachers really care how effectively they are teaching, but then again [...]

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A victim of reverse breathing?

February 8th, 2007 · 11 Comments · Qigong

This is a recent post from Taiji@Stagmont:
Formosa Neijia’s post “Dangers of Reverse Breathing Qigong” has thrown up some interesting feedback from someone I know (let’s call him X).
X who is in the medical profession has been practicing some san shou which is made up of xingyi, shaolin and what have you for a few [...]

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Chen style original forms

February 5th, 2007 · No Comments · Chen taiji

I can’t thank Bob enough for typing up these articles that were originally published in the Chen Journal back in the day. That journal must have been something. Everything that I’ve seen from it so far has been great. This article talks about the original seven forms that were practiced by the Chen family before [...]

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More pics of Han Qing-tan and T.T. Liang

February 5th, 2007 · 7 Comments · CMA history, Mantis/long fist, Taijiquan

Here are more photos taken by Curtis Adkins in Taiwan around 1962. (First post here.) I have posted some of his comments regarding training during that time so you can get an idea of what it was like then. Once again, I can’t thank Curtis enough for allowing me to host these photos. Enjoy.

HQT taught [...]

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Which IMA style is superior?

February 4th, 2007 · 11 Comments · Bagua and/or xingyi, Taijiquan

Here’s a nice story that explores this topic from Mike Martello:
Three masters, one each from HsingI, Taiji and Bagua are all walking down a valley road small while talking about which style is most complete, they all have their opinions and are open minded of course (sarcasm here)….
A ways down the road [...]

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Hong Yi-xiang

February 3rd, 2007 · 1 Comment · Bagua and/or xingyi, CMA history

Rare pic of an impressive punch by an impressive guy. No wonder people thought of him as a bear, eh?

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Forms, fighting and rythym

February 1st, 2007 · 6 Comments · Theory

This is a long quote on the practicality of doing forms to a set rythym, and the true uses of such training. The page I took this from is a bombshell of sorts for telling it like it is about Japanese martial arts, or just MA in general.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it [...]

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