Sunman

A new article by Scott on the energetics of Xingyiquan's Bengquan.If the link dosen't work go to his site. http://cattanga.typepad.com/tabby_cat_gamespace/2014/03/liquid-lightning-the-clear-energy-of-xingyiquan-.html

The new book is now available in Kindle format.It makes a good companion to the DVD. http://cattanga.typepad.com/tabby_cat_gamespace/2014/03/kindle-edition-now-out-print-following-in-a-couple-days.html

By the time I finished my 25-30 min session I was feeling pretty whipped. Definitely felt the hard wave hit me, but not so much the soft wave. I think I may have some misalignment to work out before that will flow. I'll be looking forward to my next standing practice session. Same here.its certainly more demanding than the training I did in YIquan but in a strange kind of way its actually enjoyable and rather than being glad the session has come to an end I am finding myself wanting to go on a bit longer.Golden rooster is a real bitch. I had the same experience,the entire body vibrating,mainly after practicng ward-off for several minutes and trying to really soften and then doing the drop down/draw back.No soft wave though but its early days and I am happy with my progress so far.The fan out from the niwan also seems to help to get things flowing.Using the book I had real trouble locating the niwan point but with the fan out its become a real feeling rather than imagination.

Had the same myself.When qi rises it carries the stomach acid upwards,especially if you have a hiatus hernia or weak LES.I have a hiatus hernia,an old martial arts injury,and often find stomach acid rising with qi.Its hardly any different to the way that blood will follow qi. There is no need to play around with the breath when practicing zhan zhuang.Depending on the method its best to lightly rest the mind in the lower abdomen and let the breath take care of itself.

I had to purchase the DVD from Amazon.com as its not available in the UK.Postage was bit expensive but the low price of the DVD off-set that. Its a very good presentation and has certainly helped to clarify some of the concepts presented in Juice.Just a word of warning.Scott's standing method is seriously hardcore,in fact physically harder than Yiquan's combat post and Xingyiquan's san ti shi.I practiced Yiquan for many years and the "expanding post" presented in the book is completely different to the Yao lineage combat post.One of the problems with the Yao combat post is that it is far too easy to drift into a state of permanent tension as the method does produce feelings of power but probably not the kind of power that Wang Xiangzhai had.Somewhere in its transmission it turned into a pure isometric/dynamic tension practice. I have only attempted the expanding post a few times but its not that difficult to get the hang of.Once your weighting is correct and you remain fully relaxed the power will start to surge up as you expand.The feelings in the arms are almost indentical to those felt during the Edwardian flop exercise presented in Juice but greatly amplified. One thing that did leave me a bit perplexed was Scott's comment about a master being hit by a cart and the cart bouncing off him.I thought peng acted as a trigger force for the opponent's tension but how can a cart be triggered? Only a small thing but certainly food for thought. All in all a good presentation and certainly worth buying if you are interested in the true source of internal power.

My experience in Systema was mediocre,just a couple of years training with Systema UK,hence the reason I didn't mention it as one of my interests.I am training this afternoon but will reply to your points tonight when I have more time. Apology accepted.

I am not Meredith and have never met him.I live in the UK and am a private student of Dave Martin who was a longtime disciple of Sun Jianyun.If you email the guy in the clip I posted he will confirm who I am.My first post was an introduction some time ago.I will reply to your post when I have a bit more time.

I like Juice.The hypothesis certainly makes more sense that using a bio-mechanical model.The Chinese were using gunpowder when we were still clubbing each other to death so it shows that some exceptional indivduals were capable of thinking outside of the box.I find it hard to believe that such individuals would arrive at a crude mechanical model that was less effective than their external arts. What "Juice" has shown me is how much tension I have been carrying in my body.After a years practice,plus thirty odd years of prior practice in various arts,I have arrived at the point where "I" can do the key jangling exericse.I say "I" as it is a natural phenomenon that manifests once you reach a certain stage.it can't be trained,it has to be allowed to happen and the real key to it happening is relaxation.If anyone thinks that doing a form with the mind anchored at various locations in the body is easy then think again.its seriously hard work especially when you have to try and maintain an optimum level of relaxation.Once you get the hang of it it starts to feel good,kind of like an orgasm running through the entire body that goes on and on.Does it have any practical value in combat? Possibly for a few exceptional people who can take it to its highest level but that is true of most martial arts.Out of the tens of thousands who practice MMA only a very small percentage will ever fight in the UFC. My only criticism of juice is that Scott went in at too higher a level.Its a bit like the Visuddimagga in that it starts at a place where most people never get to.It would have been good if he added some pointers to getting really relaxed.There are many ways of teaching people to be relaxed.In Systema the tension was beaten out of us and that is one of the quickest ways to learn how to relax but I realise that such methods are not for everyone.Perhaps people would benefit from holding the press-up position for 15 minutes and then doing their form? As for having the rear heel planted on the floor,well take a look at this clip of a friend of mine teaching striking.He is a Wu style Taiji teacher and was also one of the hardest doormen in the UK with over 70 street KO's.He is also an academic who thinks deeply about what he does and if keeping the rear heel planted would have mean't a more functional technique he would have found it.Planting your rear foot in the ring makes some sense if you don't want to over extend with say a right cross but it dosen't mean to say its going to be more effective impact wise.When the heel is planted you loose the advantage of whole body momentum.Its a bit like putting the brakes on. http://www.woma.tv/movies/3Q/street-fighting-techniques-1.html Triggering an opponents tension is perfectly valid.Vladimir Vasiliev said he sees an opponents tension and hits it.That would explain why some of Vlads very short ineffective looking strikes have such a dramatic effect on the opponent.

Hello all, I live in the UK and practice Sun style Taiji,Xingyi and Bagua.My teacher is a former disciple of the late Sun Jianyun and I have trained privately with him for the last eight years.I have been practicing meditation and qigong since the late seventies and its been a lifelong interest.I have been reading the forum for some time and have found the discussions very interesting.