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Showing posts from January, 2010

Bagua vs Grappling

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A lot of students who practice the internal arts ask me about what techniques are best used when facing grapplers. Of course there is no one movement solution because grappling is alive and many factors can change what would be the most effective solution. But here are a few tips I have found useful for my training. First you must have a proper root before trying to use any techniques, defensive or offensive. This comes from practicing strikes and blocks from a low and agile stance. In Bagua we say, "When you are moving you are like water, but when we stop we are like a mountain." These means we must be low and fast at the exact same time. If you haven't trained your stances enough you will find yourself exausted in just a few minutes. When someone shoots in on you they have to have their base lower than your own. If you can train yourself to always have a lower base than your opponent while being able to strike and evade then you have already one half of the battle. Seco

為何是功夫?!

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每天,起床後第一要做的事,就是得練拳,不管天氣多寒冷,或下大雨,身體不舒服的種種情況下,我還是非得練不可,已經這樣持續了26年,但是學的再久,功夫始終是學了一輩子還是學不完的東西。最近朋友問我:你為何要自己辛苦的練習這樣已退了流行的運動??尤其在這個時候根本賺不了錢 小時候,練拳是爸爸的要求,我跟我兩個哥哥都要練習功夫,之所以要學功夫,是由於我們以前住的地方因為有嚴重的種族歧視的問題,黑人常受到欺負,所以先學會保護自己必然是重要的。當我在12歲的時,已經實戰了十來多次,所以,就因為我在如此在不安的社會,使我可以在每一次的打鬥經驗中得到其中的技巧和重要性,當我慢慢長大後,雖然還被看不起了,但我還是很自信的,因為功夫是讓我的腦中和精神,以及動力都變的更堅毅而強壯,我長大後才得以看清楚這些武術的深奧內涵,打敗別人是很簡單的事,但打敗自己的缺點,是每天都要經歷的過程,這原來才是生命中最難克服的戰局吧! 因為有了這個''武''的基礎,讓我能排除了在我生命中所有的疑難雜事,我不畏懼我心中所有的主意想法,無論在寫歌拍戲抑或表演,都能利用武的精神面對,一開始有人單挑我會說:我根本不怕你!,接著一群人,我還是會說:我不怕你們!我不怕這些人,我不怕自己的缺點,我更不怕失敗,因為失敗是自己承認了自己失敗,才算是真正的失敗,就算失去了工作,跟女朋友分手,考試不及格,都是個新的挑戰可以有機會讓自己變的更強,更了解真相,最重要的是功夫是如何的給你無窮的自信,方向,或是別人眼中遙不可及的夢想,這是榮華富貴也無法買到的高尚心靈,不只是成長也增長了智慧,如此珍貴的一切都是功夫賦予給我的力量,這才是我想要把武術帶給每一個人的最大原因!

Commitment

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The hardest part of training Bagua is the amount of information and movements that must be practiced and memorized until they are effective. If I spend everyday thinking about all 8000 movements, weapons, power development and new research that needs to be done it can begin to stress me out a bit. Mapping out a plan with thousands of tiny pieces seems like an insurmountable task. On the other hand no matter how complex something may seem, it is at the same time very simple. Just the same as love, sometimes looking at things through a microscope can actually take you out of focus. In the end Bagua is just a combination of circles. Making a circle around your opponent, a circle with in your hands and your body, a circle with your qi . Of course a circle has 360 degrees, angles, etc. But what is the point of making things more complex than what they actually are? My master's father once said, " If you practice walking your circle making a thousand revolutions a day, for a thous