Hello!

I have recently learned the Sun-style taiji sword from Sun Jian Yun's vcd. Since I do not understand Chinese, I wonder if anybody here is familiar with the Wing Lam videos in English. Is the sword tape any good? I am interested in learning the names of the movements as well as watching a practitioner outside the family perform it (the movements are shown both by Sun Jian Yun and Sun Peng on the vcd, but since they do some movements different from eachother, I would like to compare this to a more consistent source. Of course the original family material is the best, but you surely catch my drift. And please do not tell me to get a real teacher. As a matter of fact, I am looking for one, but Sun-style teachers are rare indeed in Sweden. In the meantime, I intend to study from alternate sources.
Kind Regards /Thomas

If I were in Sweden I'd find someone to teach some Viking sword arts instead!

Thomas;
I taught myself the Sun-style sword form from WingLam's video and have not seen the vcd you mention. Where did you buy it, if I may ask?

From what I have seen on video Wing Lam seems to have a functional understanding of the Sun-style compared to most others who have produced Sun-style tapes/dvds in North America and it certainly comes across more persuasively than his hsing-i and pa-kua tapes.

I found the Sun-style sword form intriguing but the amount of space it takes to practice, as Wing-lam demonstrates it, made it hard to practise indoors as is often necessary in my part of Canada (ie; the old saying "ninth months of cold weather, three months of rough sledding" is often appropriate in Ottawa).

I practise a simplified, shortened version of the long set Lam for my own pleasure; partly to fit the training space that I have and partly because I found some of the postures to be "problematic" from my limited experience with the martial use of the sword in the Yang-style and pa-kua.

I might add that some of the applications that he shows would only work in a classroom setting; but the same could be said of many such demonstrations. The jian is not an easy weapon.

Meynard:
I would agree with you on this except that Viking "masters-at-arms" are rather rare, even in Scandinavia, although I suppose you might learm something by studying the old cartoon strip "Hagar the Horrible".

On the other hand, I seem to remember an article a few years ago in one of the US martial arts magazines on some American with a Swedish last name who was dressed in furs and armed with an axe and shield in some of the photos who claimed to be teaching the long-lost weapons arts of his ancestors. Over the years I have also read articles in US martial arts magazines on the resurrected war/martial arts of the Plains Indians, the ancient Eygptians and the ancient Greeks. Seems that a little martial arts skills -- and a vivid imagination -- can sometimes lead you to a time-machine...

Maybe you can actually study some medieval swordsmanship from the guys at HACA. They don't dress in fur or something silly. They're serious about the western sword arts.

U.S. martial arts magazines cater to children and fantasy martial arts wannabees. Why would you even bother reading that kind of trash? The only MA mag I read is Grappling and Journal of Asian Martial Arts.

Meynard can read I'm shocked! By the way who gives a damn what you read or think. Who wants to read your puerile, pugnacious opinions anyway.

Maynard -- I don't study grappling so I haven't read anything in that genre. The commercial martial arts magazines are rarely informative but sometimes entertaining. The Journal of Asian Martial Arts is certainly one of the best around but is hideously expensive in my part of the world and often devoted to systems I have little or no interest in.

Ah -- I haven't met Maynard but his martial observations and opinions are often interesting, unlike postings that just criticize someone else's personality and/or comments.

I, for one, enjoy Meynard's Musings. And I suppose I'd even venture to say I frequently give a damn about what he reads and thinks.

He's a damn good fighter and to me- and the fact that Meynard entered and won a stick fighting competition with no previous stick fighting training- that impressed the crap out of me.

Meynard can't even answer for himself.

Cowards that can't even post under their own name are hardly deserving of my attention.

I got it anyway. How does it feel to be sniped at Meynard? Something I hear your quite good at. Also I hear your very good at talking smack about other IMA. If this is true who is really the coward.

I enjoy a good verbal spar as much as a physical one, and you can learn alot about the 'art' of fighting and your own character, but in both cases the experience is soured if one or more participants are out to malisciously attack the other/s, usually on account of them taking themselves and/or their opinions far too seriously.

Misunderstandings and mistakes, however are part and parcel of life.

Babin, I am very well acquainted with that kind of weather up here. I also am used to practicing in small spaces. I was very fascinated by the odd stepping methods in the form, making it quite unique. Maybe I will check out the Lam video. Sun Jian Yun's vcds can be found either at Plum Publications or Hiquasports.com, if I recall correctly. Maynard, vikings, really...
Come to think of it, even though you have posted three times on this thread, you have managed to entirely avoid the subject. Cheers to the work of a true lingonberry brain. There you go for cultural exchange - a genuine Swedish insult!

Thomas...

I have the Lam Sun series... You may want to avoid spending your money on it. I don't want to throw the guy under the bus, but well, his tapes are bad. The rudiments of the form are there, but the quality of movement is terrible. Lam is not an internal fighter. It shows. In one of the early Sun forrm tapes he actually has some of the footwork wrong, then it's corrected in a later taping.

I feel your pain though, there is very little available on Sun style.. so you may have to just get what you can now and hope Tim comes up to Sweden next January.



Meynard, Sorry, but I have to correct you. You said that Ah or But or Whomever it is was a coward for not posting under his own name. Unfortunately, he also repeatedly uses ad hominem arguments instead of debating ideas or concepts. Therefore, to be technically correct, he is a Stupid Coward.

Sweden! All I need is an invitation.

Get drunk grab a sword and go berserk then you have mastered the viking sword art. hahaha.
Hello Thomas i too live in Sweden and would like to learn Sun-taiji, but as for my taiji training now i stick to my Yang-style.
One of my taiji/ yiquan instructors has a collegue
in Amsterdam that i belive practice the Sun-Style.

I always find it very strange when people laugh at viking sword arts, or english martial arts or whatever. There's plenty of literature suggesting that European people had very well developed weapon, and unarmed arts. Whether there is anything like what was practised 300-1000 years ago in Europe still being practised today is another matter.

as to alcohol and swords, viking or otherwise

here's a quote from a Luo De Xiu the morning after a very pleasant evening celebrating my birthday in Brittany

'never play with swords when you're drunk, especially in the dark.'

I'll remember that one long after the scars are gone ;-)

Some play drunk with a sword in the hand :-)

I have the higest respect for the martial arts or
alomost anything else in my contrys history :-)

Thank you Robert for the warning. I have now found a Sun-style teacher in Sthlm. It's not very far from were I reside, so I will surely sign up for training this autumn.
T. Rick, you really from Sweden too? Yay! Where from and for how long have you been practicing?
Tim, in our group, there is only me...but I'd like to invite you for a cup of tea. A bit far to go just for that maybe, haha! Sweden is very nice, although it might be very cold and dark in January.

Hello Thomas
In live in Malmö and have practiced taiji (Yang)and yiquan since 1990.
Before that i was into karate (Shotokan).
So you found a Sun-style teacher in Sthlm,
that´s interessting, can you tell me more?
My current Yiquan/Taikiken teacher teach one weekend each month in Sthlm.
So i go there a couple of times a year.

T.Rick, the Sun-style teacher is Yanji Wang. So far, I have only spoken with him over the phone.
When you say Yang, which lineage do you mean? Tung or YZD? Before I got acquainted with my present style, I practiced with Klas Larsson in the Malmö/Lund vicinity. It's a good school, I think, but a tad too far away. Who's teaching yiquan/taikiken in Sthlm?

Thomas, i looked at Mr. Yanji Wang´s website and he seems to know alot about the major
internal styles.
I have studied the Cheng Man-Ching version of the Yang-style with Mr. Hannes Maas and
Yang 24, 40 with Mr. Ge Wang.
Mr. Marshall McDonagh teach Yiquan/ Taikiken.
Wath is your current style ?