Bagua

Went along to Bagua training on Saturday something I've missed for too long due to the trains not running properly.

It was very interesting, some of the group had just returned from Beijing having trained with He Jinbao. What has been the focus in recent years has been training in the Lion System of Yin Style Bagua, which would lead to the most development and is (supposedly) the easiest to pick up. However this focus seems to be shifting now hopefully culminating with us being taught some of the Unicorn System (the most Yin of the animals).

What we were learning on Saturday was a 4 move sequence with a backstep. Starting with a rising sweeping strike, slapping down a block and then followining with an inward sweeping strike. This is also blocked which then leads to two different transformations (very Yinish) which flow with the back step to follow up with another inward sweeping strike, finishing with a capturing chopping strike at neck height.

The two different approaches to the block really show the different animals character one just moving around, the other flowing and wrapping (from the snake system). Anyway this June promises to be interesting!

Wing Chun Training

Finally got to do a bit of free style to another student last night at Wing Chin, am still finding a tendancy to step around but by the end of the session I seemed to be getting the hang of holding the inner gate and planting some strikes.

I can already see hundreds of applications for circle stepping and can't wait to put it into practice at my next bagua sparring

I also got on DVD yesterday Wing Chun the tv series starring Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung, I've been really enjoying it. Nicholas Tse the supposed main character is very annoying as the angry teenager but other than that its a good series really showcasing Wing Chun Training in several scenes. Worth checking out

Problems

I have encountered a problem with my Wing Chun training recently, my previous training in Bagua has always trained me to react in a certain way, usually in block and stepping to the side with the idea of flanking the opponent. However although this idea is applicable in Wing Chun their idea of holding the center line and striking through it seems quite weird, its obviously something I'll have to work on!
I recently got a book called Wing Chun by Yip Chun and I would highly recommend it full of his thoughts on the ideas and practice on Wing Chun as well as pictures of the Master himself its well worth checking out

Warriors Two

I have recently taken up Wing Chun, down at my local gym. I've done other southern shaolin styles before such as Hung Gar and Fujian White Crane, but Wing Chun seems to be totally different.

The first thing that struck me about it was its simplicity control the centre line to domintate your opponent. Also the shortest distance between two points is a straight line so thats what you hit down and first before your opponent.

Wing Chun was obviously made most famous by Bruce Lee who first brought the world's attention to chinese martial arts, a pupil of the legendary Ip Man, Lee studied Wing Chun for many years before developing his own style of Jeet Kune Do (more correctly Bruce Lee's Way of Jeet Kune Do). As such Wing Chun has had depections on the screens of Hong Kong cinema, probably the best movie showing true Wing Chun is Warriors Two starring Samo Hung and Leung Kar Yan. This film shows the true nature of Wing Chun with some brillant training scenes and fighing, rarely it also shows the long pole and the butterfly knives.

Also of note is some superb spear work by one of the movies bad guys. There is also some good Iron Wire Fist shown as well as Monkey Style

On the whole welll worth checking out

My Journey

Hi All

I shall be using this blog to chart my journey through the mysteries of Kung Fu and life.

I love chinese culture and films so I shall also be posting my thoughts on theses as well as I progress

KungFuMaster