Formosa Neijia

There seems to be some confusion in certain circles about peng the jin and peng the posture. Both can be translated as “wardoff.”There are eight basic jins (powers, skills) in Yang style taiji, with peng being the first and arguably the most important. Peng jin is a quality that all your moves should have. You […]

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wQN6WklIHw
This is a great clip from a great series of push hands videos in the Yang style. I highly recommend all four, especially since you can get them in DVD format with English subtitles. I’ll review the series later.
First, I want to point out some stuff that is shown in the video. For the […]

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUTL85gnB5Q
It looks like another great example of Yang style through Li Ya-xuan’s line. Li’s book on spear is excellent. the best I’ve ever seen. It would be great to translate that one day. This clip shows their 56 spear form from Li. You’ll notice how complete it is — this isn’t just a bunch […]

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Num-zFlfY4
Lot’s of great stuff showing up lately on youtube and this clip just feeds my growing obsession with Wu-Hao style taiji. I love this style.
In this clip, we see Hao doing moving push hands in a restricted step method. We don’t see a lot of this kind of training on the net.
One thing that […]

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIu5jXXtKHY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5MSomZBYK4
This is the He style Zhaobao Taijiquan 趙堡太極拳 as taught here in Taiwan by Wang Jin-rang 王晉讓. The performer is Xiao Jian-sheng 蕭建生. For more info on his style, check here. I wrote a little about him in this previous post.

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So when did peng start meaning to use force against force?
When did it get re-interpreted as meaning the exact same thing as aikido’s “unbendable arm”?
I often get the impression that many people think that we’re supposed to be able to use peng to withstand any amount of force applied against it. If people push […]

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og2ZfY6sTtk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZd-lbALSYQ
This is the best version of Chen Pan-ling’s taijiquan on the net. None of the other videos that I’ve seen come close to Wang’s performance. If you click on the CPL taiji tab to the left and look at some of WSJ’s descendants, you’ll see that they have re-interpreted his taiji and practice […]

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpPPQCak5mI
Looks like everyone had a good time. Lots of training and performances in this clip. Early reactions seem to favor the bagua teacher as looking like one of the best in the clip. He does seem to have some amazing moves.
So for those of us that couldn’t make it, there’s always next year to […]

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I was very surprised to stumble across this link today. This is a Chen style school in Yokohama, Japan run by a teacher named Yogen Maruyama. And apparently, they speak English. That’s shocking, as you’ll know if you’ve ever lived in Japan. Unlike Taiwan, few Japanese seem to have an interest in learning English.
Anyway, this […]

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Brian Kennedy has an excellent intro to daoist talismans in the latest issue of Kungfu Taichi magazine. I didn’t know this whole article was up (ahem!). Here is part of the article to whet your appetite:
It was March of 2006. A pregnant woman and her unborn baby had been murdered. The Taiwanese police had […]

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