Formosa Neijia

So I got a wake-up call. Always a good thing. Haha.

I was all ready to write part two of my post what xingyi guys from learn from taiji. I went to practice this morning thinking about it. I had a great workout. I really feel like I’m making progress lately.

I had noticed a guy about 50 feet away studying at a table while I practiced, but I didn’t pay him any mind.

At the end of my practice he came over, introduced himself, and asked if we could push. I’m feeling pretty confident lately (warning sign!) so I said yes. The minute we touched hands, I knew this guy had something serious. His hands were very heavy and I was thinking he might be a xingyi guy. Within 10 seconds he said, “Oh, you’ve done bagua for along time, haven’t you?”

Yikes! I hate it when people can do that. How did he know?

So I pushed and pulled as best I could but I couldn’t find any openings. After about 5 minutes, I stopped because I was getting tired. Again, this guy had really heavy arms. I asked him what he did and he confirmed that it was xingyi. He then went on to explain how he generated power in his branch of Hebei xingyi. This guy was very sunk into the kua. He sank into the kua more than other HeBei stylist I’ve ever met. He explained that this gave him greater power because he was able to then extend the power of his kua out through his hands. When I pushed hands with him, I was pushing and pulling his kua — no wonder I was tired!

He then went on to critique my power. He explained that I had strong legs and a strong back, but that my kua wasn’t sunk enough to connect the two halves of my structure. Thus, my power was being segmented. He then mimicked the way that I moved and let me put my hands on him to feel the difference. Then he showed his way. The relaxed power of this guy was immense.

He then offered to do some sanshou, which for some reason I agreed to do. I must have been very brave or stupid (probably the latter), but I did it.

This guy’s peng was intense. He simply had no holes in his structure to exploit. I tried to push, pull, wrap, beng, etc. but nothing really worked. At the same time he was coming at me with small circle xingyi appropriate for the format in a forceful but controlled manner. I was impressed by his self-control.

In the end, it was my zhan, nian, lian, sui skills from taiji that saved my life. He would have eaten me for lunch if I didn’t have those. These are the skills I talked about in the last post on this topic. I stuck to him like white on rice. I knew that if I didn’t, he would have beng’ed or pi’ed me into next year. So I stuck to him and wouldn’t let go. The result was that most of what he tried, I was able to escape. Barely. I could sense what he was about to do most of the time and I was able to get out of the way with footwork. But NONE of my offensive or counter moves worked on him.

Now honestly, if this guy had really laid it on, I don’t think I could have stopped him.

The reason is that his structure was just way too sound and too heavy. I couldn’t manipulate or control him. And this is one thing I think taiji guys can learn from xingyi — a powerful structure firmly rooted in the kua leaves few holes in offense or defense.

Like I said before, just another reason to cross-train the three sisters.