I’m glad to see this. More info about Peter Ralston’s system is a good thing. The blog has a link to his new wikipedia page.
Lots of interesting tidbits there, more than I’ve seen in his books. The details about his training are much more specific, allowing you to trace his influences. The back story on his winning the tourney here in Taipei is very interesting — especially the part about him also winning a team trophy. Enjoy.
There’s some great discussion going on in the thread below the post a statement from the Yang family. What is troublesome is that the statement is all about who has “the true form” and how oh so terribly important that supposedly is. The function has simply been replaced by the form.
This happens too much in taiji. Who cares who has the most authentic form? Is this an antiques show or what?
Authentic forms are great because of what they do FOR you. They change your body and allow you to begin grasping the taiji principles. All authentic forms are to be valued and heavily trained. But skill at the form is a far cry from the function of the taijiquan. You could have the best form on earth and still suck at the function. It’s the function of the art that counts. Not a form.
The measure of correct training is what that training produces. If a form and related training produces someone that can function, THEN the form should be seen as authentic and worth doing. If the form and related training produces no one that can function, then that training is worthless.
So when people produce statements CLAIMING how great they are rather just SHOWING people how good they are, then we know something vital has been lost.
My teacher Chen Yun-ching is in the June edition of Inside Kung-fu. If you hurry, you can catch the article, which is excerpted from Jess O’Brien’s book Nei Jia Quan, 2nd edition: Internal Martial Arts.
In the article, Chen laoshi brings up some interesting points. One of them is that push hands should be thought of as ting shou — listening hands — instead. The idea isn’t to push the other person but to practice listening skills. Sticking, adhering, and following are the skills to train, not pushing per se.
He also mentioned a letter from Wang Shu-jin that clearly stated he learned his taiji from Chen Pan-ling. I’m glad that got cleared up. Some propaganda was getting a bit annoying. His description of Wang’s training was interesting. Especially that Wang’s ability to take punches was just a natural outgrowth of his training.
His insights into training different styles, the relation of BGZ to the Yijing, and other points were quite interesting, but I’ll leave those for you to appreciate in the mag.
Michael over at the shuaijiao.tv blog asked me to post this. Looks like solid training. Go if you can.
Li Baoru Shuaijiao Masters Camp
What to Expect
Expect to learn China’s oldest and most effective fighting art under the watchful eyes of Master Li Baoru, National Shuaijiao Head Referee and Master Coach Ma Jianguo, Team Tianchi Head Coach Zhou Quansheng, and Push Hands Champion Wrestler Ma Guogang.
This is a very special learning environment for the dedicated practitioner looking to take his Shuaijiao skills - or even traditional Chinese martial arts - to higher levels.
After 10 intense days of training along side China’s master coaches and athletes 2 times a day, you will have the option to test for an officially recognized Shuaijiao certification. For those up to the challenge, you can also compete in a local tournament.
You will be expected to keep to a tough spartan routine designed especially by Master Li to develop Shuaijiao practitioners at their own speed into Shuaijiao fighters capable of not only using their skills, but also teaching them to others.
Training facilities are some of the best dedicated grappling facilities in China if not the world, and if you have any energy left after 2 sessions you can work it o! with weights, swimming, track work, or you can simply relax with a professional sports-recovery massage
Even your days o! will challenge you with hiking and other interesting and active activities!
Places are limited, so book early
I wish the following dialog was more fictional than it is. B is practicing in the park when A comes up to him.
A: Hey, it looks like you’re doing Chinese martial arts.
B: Yeah, I been practicing for a few years now. I’m doing a style called xingyiquan.
A: Cool. Yeah, I thought so. I was looking to learn that style.
B: Well, I teach a little bit if you’d like to try it out.
A: Great! Which style of xingyi do you do?
B: Umm…I do HeBei xingyi.
A: Oh, that’s too bad. I was looking to do Shanxi style.
B: Well, I have a friend that does some Shanxi xingyi.
A: Oh yeah? Which substyle?
B: Uhh…I’m not sure. Shang style, I think?
A: Oh, that’s too bad. I’m looking to study Che style. Especially the X branch through teacher Y. Bye!
B: $%&*@#!!!!
Because of the youtube revolution and VCDs, many people have let the idea of exotic styles go to their heads. They think that just because something is out in video, the style is somehow legitimate and they can use their material martially. I have bought over a hundred VCDs from China. A handful show any applications at all. Of those, about three impressed me. Not good odds.
Many of these more exotic styles are totally worthless in terms of martial utility because they don’t have a large enough pool of practicioners to fully develop their martial usage. And yet, many people come to Asia looking for exotic styles “for fighting.” You can roll your eyes now.
If you want martial utility, you’d best study a large popular style that has been tried and tested out in the open. Secret and rare styles are totally worthless despite the propaganda otherwise because they’ve never been tested against a wide range of other fighting styles. How could they if they’re rare and secret? It just defies common sense.
Many Chinese styles bank on their exotic nature but it’s almost always illusion. Rather than look for something exotic, find the best teacher in a common style.
Being a fetishist isn’t going to help your martial abilities. Stick with what’s been tested openly and you can’t go wrong.
The reviewer is you. After all, who is “best” will be subjective. I would go dojo hopping and see everyone there is to see. Then you can make a decision. Start with the yellow pages and make a list of what interests you. Call them up and you’ll find out you can eliminate a few right away just by how they answer the phone. Just one visit to their schools will eliminate even more.
I remember one teacher that yelled at me and my friend when we asked one question after we stepped into his dojo. That guy didn’t get my money or my time. It’s sort of amazing how bad martial artists can be at basic business or even politeness. Whittling that list down won’t be hard.
To find the more secret teachers that aren’t commercial, go to your local martial arts store and ask the owner.
I did that in Orlando and got lots of names of backyard teachers. In San Antonio, the local aiki-jiu-jitsu guy graciously whipped out a pad of paper and listed about eight people with names and phone numbers for me to check out. He was so nice and knowledgeable in helping me out that I probably would have studied from him instead of the backyard people he listed if I had stayed there.
If you’re in a small town, the process is the same but do it for the nearest big city. That’s your best chance to find a good teacher. Don’t look beyond that because it’s too far and you’ll see the teacher too infrequently. Drive over on the weekends or your days off and learn. Roy Harris drove two and a half hours a day one way to train BJJ with his teachers. It can be done if you’re serious enough.
I get many requests for certain styles, some quite rare. And my advice is almost always the same: stop looking for certain styles and train with the best teacher, regardless of style, in your area.
I really wish someone had told me that years ago. I would have earned multiple black belts in styles like judo and aikido under great teachers and my taijiquan would be easily twice as good as now.
Many people turn up their noses at “common” styles and that’s a huge mistake. We often go (ahem!) around the world to get what we could probably get around the corner.
Looking for a great shuai jiao teacher but can’t find one in your area? Why not check out that ex-judo champ in town that has trained dozens of black belts? Want to study baguazhang but can’t find it near you? Why not spend some time looking at your local aikido teacher?
While these styles aren’t exact duplicates of each other, they are usually similar enough that you’ll likely get most of what you wanted anyhow. And you’ll be miles ahead of others if you ever do find that exotic style.
Good teachers are rare to find, so NEVER pass up a good one just because he doesn’t teach the exact thing you want. To a large extent, martial skill is martial skill. If you can use it, that’s what matters. What the name is hardly matters at all.
I was looking for something to review outside of class and oh boy, am I glad I chose this DVD set. This is one of the best DVDs I have in any style. What sets it apart is Swain’s presentation of the material. He covers a ton of throwing and ground techniques, spending about five minutes or less on each one. Not a long time, right? But the multiple angles and multiple repetitions is what does the trick. Swain does all the throws himself, no students do them except on a few of the ground techniques, and you get to see this master player in action. Then he does the move again and again from different angles, giving details all along the way.
The use of an overhead shot really helped. I don’t know why more people don’t do this. It makes all the difference. As do the close-up shots so you can see his grip. Great stuff for a visual learner.
The details he gives are the most important ones to make the technique work. He assumes you’ll know a bit of judo already, so he might not explain some of the terms or such. If you need that, see his Basic Judo.
This is a one-stop DVD in that it covers nearly everything. I watch it just for entertainment sometimes. As you probably know, most DVDs aren’t really entertaining but this one is.
Here’s an instructional sample:
If you want this DVD, try to get it from this guy. He sent me for free Swain’s Basic Judo and Basic Grappling DVDs. Both are really good, but the basic grappling one is excellent. It gives a lot of drills to use on the ground so you can train solo for mat work. It isn’t that long or comprehensive but is a great taste that leaves you wanting Swain’s Ne-waza DVD.
I can’t guarantee that he’ll send you those DVDs for free but he has the best price on the net for Complete Judo.
I would like to point your attention to a post written by Tom on large and small frame training. He put so many insights into it that I think it deserves to be looked at again. I see something new in it each time I read it. The comment section also shows what happens occasionally when someone doesn’t like what’s written.
Here’s a great quote from it, “In a bar or in a dark alley, I’d rather have Zheng Manqing than Yang Zhenduo (for one thing, he could probably hold his liquor better, and he knew how to use a knife).”
I had my first judo class in a long time tonight and it was taught by one of the old Taiwanese guys — one of the few left. Chances are some of you may know a guy or two like him: strong as an ox, nothing the least artificial about them, good-hearted, perhaps not too sophisticated, but total masters of what they do. He had his art coming out of his pores. I took one look at him and could tell he was skilled. He wasn’t built like your typical 65 year-old nor did he move like one. Physically very powerful looking with a big grin on his face.
He reminds me of a carpenter I worked for right out of high school. He was three times older than me, but fully capable of things that I could never do. I remember the day he broke a pair of pliers with his grip. Maybe they were old pliers. I don’t know. But he gripped them so hard they broke and I never will forget that.
That used to be common in the past where I was from. I remember shaking hands with old farmers back home and they almost broke my hand without even knowing it.
We just don’t have that any more. Our generation just doesn’t have that. We aren’t cut from the same cloth. Having him personally teach me tonight, I could feel the physical difference, the different quality, between him and I. Our bodies were different. Will I be that skilled at his age? Maybe but I doubt it’ll be of the same type.
So hats off to those old guys out there. Train with them and learn from them while you can. Because once they’re gone, we ain’t gonna get that quality back.
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