Formosa Neijia

My personal martial arts journey

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Entries Tagged as 'Reviews'

Fountain DVD Review

January 6th, 2008 · 9 Comments · Reviews

This was my Christmas gift. I love this movie. It’s even better on DVD than it was in the theater.
The film hasn’t been changed in any way that I can see from the original release. This is not an updated version or director’s cut, and that’s really too bad. If any movie ever deserved it, [...]

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Styles in the Martial Artist’s Guide to Taipei

October 26th, 2007 · 4 Comments · Reviews

Some of the styles available in the Martial Artist’s Guide to Taipei include:
baguazhang
xingyiquan
taijiquan in the Yang, Chen and Chen Pan-ling varieties
tongbeiquan
piguazhang
mantis
long fist
bajiquan
SunBinquan
aikijujitsu
Brazilian jiujitsu
MMA
and many more!
The pics above are from the guide and show the sparring classes offered by some of the [...]

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Xingyi Neigong pt. 2

October 25th, 2007 · 12 Comments · Reviews

This is a continuation of the discussion I started with my review of Tim Cartmell’s Xing Yi Neigong. First off, I want to sing the praises of this book even more than I did yesterday. I thoroughly reviewed it today, and I think it’s the best book on xingyi out there. Of course, the reason [...]

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Xingyi Neigong

October 23rd, 2007 · 6 Comments · Reviews

Here are some quotes from this excellent book:
“The body connection, whole body power, qi development, and mind/body harmony that are forged during long standing sessions are vital in the development of xingyi internal power.” p. 24
“To ’sink the waist,’ the coccyx must be relaxed and slightly lifted, the yang qi will ascend toward heaven, this [...]

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Review of Mike’s training camp

October 1st, 2007 · 2 Comments · Reviews

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb7F20BZYU0
This is Mike’s video overview of the camp. It provides the longest, most detailed look yet at what was obviously a wildly successful camp. So this looks to be THE training to do in Beijing now.
In the sidebar for the clip, Mike is announcing next year’s camp from July 1-28, with one month or two-week [...]

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Review: Video Waza and Master Wong’s Combat Taiji

September 15th, 2007 · 8 Comments · Reviews, Taijiquan

There’s a new online video service that I’ve been checking out and I think you should, too. It’s called Video Waza and it’s a subscription service (US$15.00 per month) that allows you download and view as many martial arts videos as you want for each month of your membership. The selection is decently varied, with [...]

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Easyoga mat

July 24th, 2007 · 7 Comments · Reviews, Yoga/Daoyin

So I was in the market for a yoga mat recently. I’ve been slipping a bit when I practice at home. I did lots of research to find the best mats on the market. I tried to order some mats from the States, but almost no companies were willing to ship to Taiwan. In frustration, [...]

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Tim Cartmell’s New Qinna Book and a Competitor

July 22nd, 2007 · 9 Comments · Reviews

Oh dear. We have a situation.

This is Tim Cartmell’s new qinna book - a translation of the old 1936 manual of restraining techniques for the Zhejiang police department. What makes the Chinese edition unique is that it’s the first of its kind to offer jiu-jitsu style ground restraints. And I say “restraints” specifically because it [...]

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Taiji Zongshi — Master of taiji

May 3rd, 2007 · 9 Comments · Reviews

This was a great show! I loved it. This is the only show I’ve ever seen that really did go out of the way to include real Chen style in the fights.
The show is about a guy named Yang (get it?) that does a family version of long fist. But he’s not very good, and [...]

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Chen style apps and qinna

April 24th, 2007 · 7 Comments · Reviews

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Qu56Se2rnY
This is a clip of Chen Er-hu doing his thing against an unfortunate student. It comes from this VCD.
The good points of this VCD are that he does show many methods on the discs, but most of the first disc is taken up by him and his student demoing laojia yilu and erlu. This was [...]

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