GreytoWhite

I foresee a LOT of Systema pushups in my future.

What city do you live in the southwest? Some teachers do not have Google friendly contact information.

One must remember that in the academic world one's degree credentials are similar to stating one's lineage. It's incredibly important to these people as many times it is their life's work and their ticket into certain circles. Do not judge a book by its cover, I have met some wonderful people who are doctors in their respective fields who respected my intelligence even though I only have a GED.

This is one of the best Yang taiji performances I have seen on the Internet in some time. You know what he teaches his students first? Xinyi Liuhe. http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/DeFNUkiX8HY/?qq-pf-to=pcqq.c2c

I am speaking strictly from my own experience here ChiDragon - I do not practice form and I have jin. I have never in my life learned an entire martial form. What I practice are the 'auxiliary' exercises that I occasionally link together some movements in series of four or five. I sometimes move slowly in practice to examine tension along planes of movement or for postural transition to check my structure. Otherwise I want to be able to USE what I am learning and working on and in my opinion it is much harder to do these exercises at speed with structure than it is to do them slowly. I have used it. I've fought tattooed criminals, I've inadvertently bounced friends into walls, left red hand prints from the gentlest of strikes, cracked concrete stairs with gentle strikes, and one of my favorites is to punch and kick street signs to watch them shake for minutes. These exercises are not strictly for advanced practitioners but rather it is the carry water, chop wood paradigm. If a teacher is truly invested in developing his student these will be the first things he teaches and the student would practice this the rest of his life regardless of how many forms he had under his belt. Anyone can show off a form in public, the exercises were the best kept secrets and not taught openly until the past few decades. Are you familiar with the internal art of Ziranmen? Originally it was no forms, just exercises and the later practitioners learned other styles' forms to counter their moves. My Chen shi teacher saw early on I was more interested in building a different body than learning a form, I wanted to walk and move with power again. So what did I get? A Yiquan-inspired taiji instruction. Mainly zhan zhuang, silk reeling exercises, Shaolin jibengong (the most important base to any gong fu student), some of wing chun's Siu Nim Tao and Biu Jee to learn differential tension, and a few patterns of push hands. His words will always influence my practice. "I practiced Yang style for fifteen years at first just to fix my back. Later I wanted to fight but my teacher couldn't fight. He tried to say it was only for advanced students. Fuck! I've been practicing for almost a third of my life but I never could figure out how to use this shit. Then I learned Shaolin and wing chun. Wing chun is good for fighting. I met Chen Xiaowang, talked of my ancestral lineage for my art, he talked of his. He showed me how to apply breathing and fa jin. He said his Chinese disciple would teach me the good shit and she did. Forms are only for those who are committed to the style, to preserve it, to make it look like the brand of car you are driving around. What you want is the engine behind the art, learn this and you have gong fu. The forms are only submission."

Yang Shaohu's Fast Form

I can only aspire to this gentleman's integration of his art into his body. This is from a village near of Chenjiagou and is very obviously related to their taiji cannon fist. Here are some great examples of auxiliary exercises in Hulei (Sudden Thunder) taiji to train jin. Far more effective than endless form practice.

I had originally written a much longer response but fat fingered a keyboard shortcut. *sigh* I agree with steve in that the issue boils down to how one understands the nature of jin. ChiDragon, it is you whose posts I have trouble reading. Mainly because there are holes in your experience and rather than admitting humbly that you may not know you pontificate about training methods which you have not experienced and apparently do not have "the eye" to see the purpose. Each art has its own methods and training, you do not even have the full experience of training your own art which REQUIRES push hands to develop jin properly. Taiji and any other martial art require a training partner or a skilled opponent for one to progress. Yes there are things you can do - hanging from a pole, slowly entering and then leaving a pool, zhan zhuang in neck high water, tree striking, wall striking, bosu balls are very versatile, resistance bands, pole shaking, staff work, rope shaking, but none of these things have their own intent or skill. This video breaks down just what these Xinyi Liuhe exercises are for and if you doubt the art's training methods the fellow's skill should be apparent here as he breaks it down,

Thankful for the block function in this place otherwise I probably would have been too frustrated with the misinformation in the thread. Here is an example of quick movement used to build the kind of body and jin one needs for neijia.

GMP is in Britain, I imagine that the taiji culture is a little different. Yoga class and/or Wiccan group would probably be the best bet here in the States but the latter, in my experience, is usually full of people who enjoy the roleplay aspect of learning the rituals than the actual practice.

Zhan zhuang is a very generic term and there should be many teachers in Taiwan for you to learn standing. I think He Jinghan is in Taipei.

It's good to remind oneself of what that energy is actually intended and attaching importance to retention can harm you. If you can find a fellow practitioner for a partner even better.

It's nothing to give your attention usually sensations and minor hallucinations are best ignored. This is why you need a teacher, a lot of times these things mean nothing and are like mile markers along the highway - good if you're broke down but otherwise just little signs as you travel.

Go get laid.

His experiences on the retreat had me laughing.

Allen Pittman has been practicing bagua longer than I've been alive. http://apittman.com/blog/east/ba-gua/articles

Su Dong Chen is a Gao bagua and xingyi practitioner who also has extensive training Japanese arts as well as many years of Feldenkrais work under his belt. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClAfu67Ol8OfUWRdkzTAK7A

He Jinghan is from an alternate Yin Fu lineage of bagua. His lineage is Dong Haichuan > Yin Fu > Gong Bao Tian > Gong Baozhai. It is said by the folks from Xie Peiqi's lineage that Gong Bao Tian was taught their Monkey style and received the fullness of Dong Haichuan's qing gong. Others speculate he may have already had qing gong skills from prior practice. Any way you look at it there is definitely more of a Lohan influence in the Gong Bao Tian lineage. http://www.baguaquanlessons.com/

In the Gao bagua and xingyi syllabus the Tien Gan exercises are key to developing power.

The Dong Haichuan > Yin Fu > Men Baozhen > Xie Peiqi lineage has some great video material up on YouTube. Introduction to Daoyin Penetrating Palms is the basis of their system. It is the external to internal to which one adds character by learning the animals. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSH26xa5a3YOmTQUSf5lNGCA_qFh4z5fY The Lion system is the first animal taught in this lineage because it is the quickest route to muscle and tendon changing within their curriculum. This lineage claims that the majority of Cheng Tinghua's training with Dong Haichuan came out of the Dragon system. The Bear system is said to be based on the same material as taijiquan - the Shisan Taibao. The Phoenix is said to be great for people with long limbs but Xie Peiqi himself was only 5'6". I've never seen any of this particular system demonstrated in person, don't know as much about it as I'd like.

I have used Google Voice for some time. As far as an Internet only phone goes, what good is it in an emergency without WiFi?

I can't see any images there. :/

Thank GMP, listening to the audio book.

While the Pa Kua Chang Journal is no longer in publication it has just about as much information as you could want on the art. http://pakuachangjournal.com/