Hi Tim.
Great website you've got here. Out of curiosity, how was your Xingyi class organized (when you were a student) in the orient (eg. how long were the classes, how many times a week, and do you teach the same way you were taught)? How long did you spend studying Xingyi(years)? Sorry for the bombardment of questions.
Thanks.

Thank you SysOp for moving this question to the right place.

Al;
I'm glad you didn't mind that I moved and renamed the topic for clarity. We receive quite a few posts that just say A question for Tim. Renaming hopefully stops duplicates of the same question.

Hi Al,
I practiced Xing Yi Quan with my first teacher about four nights a week. Classes followed this basic pattern: about an hour of warm ups and conditioning (joint exercises, lots of variations of push ups and ab exercises, basic strikes, kicks and body movements in place), then rolling and falling, next we would review and practice forms for about 45 minutes to an hour, then techniques and sparring for about the same length of time (classes were about 2 and a half hours long). Sometimes we would practice techniques more and free spar less, depending on if we were preparing for a competition or not.
My Xing Yi Classes are only an hour and a half, so we spend about forty five minutes on conditioning and forms and 45 minutes on techniqes and sparring.
I spent about six of the eleven years I was in Taiwan and the Mainland studying Xing Yi Quan with my teachers "full time." The last five years or so years in China, I concentrated more on the Ba Gua Zhang in my own study, and vistited my Xing Yi teachers on occasion and taught Xing Yi Quan in my own classes.

Wow. Thanks for the thorough answer. How applicable are the Xingyi techniques? I have seen some techniques done in other martial arts, and they seem kinda unrealistic because the likelihood of anyone to do any of them under pressure is not good (most people start to brawl).
Thanks

You must have liked Xingyi alot to stick with it for 6 years.

PAN GEN

Tims' Nei Gong book mentions this three step exercise. Anybody know of books or videos where this is shown?

Hi Mark,
I beleive Joe Crandall has translated an article about this on his Smiling Tiger site.
Buddy

One of the things that first attracted me to the Xing Yi Quan was its practicality. All of the techniques are straightforward and efficient. When I fought full contact in Taiwan, I won using primarily Xing Yi techniques. I think that most martial arts have alot of good stuff, the problem with most styles is not lack of technique, it's unrealistic training methods (ie, they don't spar against resisting opponents or are limited to specific ranges of fighting).

Tim (or anyone with experience),

You said you would do various push-ups and
different ab excercises as part of your typical
Xing Yi workout. Do you have any general
guidelines for doing strength training
(in the typical Western sense of the word) while
trying to learn internal styles (i.e. Taijiquan)?

I've been learning zhanzhuang and GM Feng Zhiqiang's 48 form for a little less than a year,
and I have cut out all weight/resistance training
in order to develop relaxed power. My flexibility
and tendon strength has improved, but I feel like
my muscles are getting weak. Any ideas?

Thanks.

My weight training interferred with my 'looseness'. That was when I was doing weights two or three times a week. I spread the same program out over four days and didn't get the same stiffness any more.

David,
I recently started a bit of weight training and found that it gave me greater strength, but after a while my muscles had "learnt" to slow down and tighten at the end of my extention. I realized that if the muscles learn to clamp up that quickly, that if I suplimented my weight training with what I beleive is called plyometrics, I could balance out the effects of the weight training. So now in addition to lifting free weights, I also throw a medicine ball against a wall (powered from the feet sequentially up the body to the hands) and when it returns I catch it, but load the weight of the ball into my feet ( by relaxing the weight/pressure down my body) and back up again.
Then the same routine with single hands, making sure all the time to use similar whole body motions to the ones I wish to perform for strikes etc.

I also realized that this is practice is not disimilar to the testing of postures I did for foundation work in Tai Ji classes. As long as one stays relaxed and co-ordinated the practice only misses out on sensitivity and timing.

The result of My investigation into weight training is that I have increased my strength without compromising softness.

It works with heavy bags also.

My veiw is that as long as your foundation princibles are sound you can modify all sorts of "weaston training" to suit your needs.


Have fun.

Windwalker

I did a little searching around and found out that
this topic has been covered many many times on this discussion board.

I think I'll try body-weight oriented exercises
and see if that causes too much stiffness...I
think the key is to not over-do it.

Thanks for the responses.

Hi Tim, While you were in Taiwan, did you get a chance to see any of Huang Bo Niens students or son's students , performing their Hsing I? If you did , did you find it similar to what you were taught? Thanks, Mark

Hi Mark,
I visited with Huang Guo Chi (Huang Bo Nian's son) several times. He demonstrated some of his Xing Yi, but it was the stuff he learned in the Central Martial Arts Academy in Nanjing when he was a young man. It was fairly standard looking He Bei style Xing Yi Quan. I'm not sure how it compared to what his father practiced and taught.

Thanks Tim,actually it was Huang Bo Nien who taught at the Academy, my teacher learned from him there. I was curious if it was similar to what you had learned, especially the 5 fists. I know the animals differ somewhat between Huang and what Sun Lutang taught there. Thanks again, Mark

Weight training or strength training (more appropriately) should not hinder your speed or flexibility. If it does you are doing it incorrectly. Proper strength or resistance training should help you increase your flexibility as well as prevent injuries. I would suggest that anyone desiring to learn how to do strength training correctly look to Charles Poliquin for methods. His website is at www.charlespoliquin.net I have personally attended three of his excellent seminars and applied his principles with great success. There's s reason he gets paid in excess of $400/hour for training

Yes he gets that because people are willing to pay. I salute his work ethic and ability to market himself.....The quote goes something like...no one ever got rich overestimating the intelligence of the American Public. God Bless America!

Correct strength training will improve your speed and flexibility... yes, but whether it improves your Xing Yi above and beyond what normal or traditional methods do is more relevant.

General conditioning and maintenance excluded, i would argue that the important principle here is specificity, and in that case nothing beats spear/pole training, five elements spear/pole training in particular.

The problem is if you ask... they are all correct