Xue Sheng
05-22-2006, 05:50 PM
Just when you thought it was safe... hello it's me again.
Life has settled down a bit, I’m back from China and appear to have time to do some posting again, not as much time as before, but some.
Since I was gone for awhile I should probably reintroduce myself.
My martial arts background: I mainly consider myself a CMA guy a Traditional Yang Style Tai Chi (taiji) person with Tung style influences to be kinda sorta exact. However I recently started training Xingyiquan again and I just started training Cheng Man-Ching Tai Chi. So that Traditional Yang label could change; only time will tell.
I started martial arts right around the time the movie “Enter the Dragon” was a brand new, so I am old.
My first martial art was Japanese Jujitsu; I do not know what style. I went from Jujitsu to Taekwondo, before Taekwondo was an Olympic sport, once again reinforcing the fact that I am old. The Taekwondo that I did had close in fighting drills and some take downs, point sparing was not the focus at that time, but it was an option.
After a back injury and some time out of martial arts I ended up in Taijiquan which I have done now for very close to 15 years.
My first Tai Chi/kung fu teacher (for 5 years) was more of a Wushu guy from China. In this school I learned forms, a lot of forms. Yang 24, a couple of Yang sword forms, Wu competition form, Chen style forms, a form of Chen that he called Shandong Province old style Chen that was amazing, Chen style push hands, Xingyiquan, Baguazhang and a bit of Shaolin Long fist. I spent more time on Yang style, Chen Tai Chi and Xingyi than anything else. This school did give me the opportunity to do a lot of sparing outside of the regular class, which was a very good experience. There were people from multiple styles at this school, Aikido, Judo, Taekwondo, Kempo, Various kung fu styles, etc. Those of us that were not there for just forms were allowed to spar after class and I feel, from this experience, that cross style sparring can be a great addition to anyone’s training. Unless of course you are sparing a traditionally trained, long time, Southern Mantis guy then it’s just a great way to get beat up.
I trained very briefly with Yang Jwing Ming in push hands and Qin na during my time at my first CMA school. Also a brief flirtation with Wing Chun and Kendo, but not enough to amount to much nor say I really trained in either. I was looking for more than just the Wushu stuff at that time and that lead me to a Traditional Yang style teacher.
I studied Traditional Yang style for 11 years with the same teacher. My teacher's teacher was Tung Ying-chieh and sifu Tung’s teacher was Yang Cheng fu. I recently left this school due to a difference of opinion with my sifu. He decided to teach Tai chi for health and I was happier with his original teaching of tai chi as a martial art, including Qi Gong as well as other health aspects, it was a friendly split. Most unfortunately he can get more students if he does not include applications, push hands and freestyle push hands.
I recently switched to another teacher that teaches Cheng Man-Ching style of Tai Chi and Xingyi. I have also been doing a bit of “very traditional” training in Sanda (police/military version), but I will have to make a decision very soon as to what to keep and focus on. Tai Chi will stay and either Xingyi, Sanda (Sanshou) or both will have to go,
So far I rather like the Cheng Man-Ching style.
Longer than my first introduction, but there is a method to my madness and this may come in handy latter.
Xue Sheng
Life has settled down a bit, I’m back from China and appear to have time to do some posting again, not as much time as before, but some.
Since I was gone for awhile I should probably reintroduce myself.
My martial arts background: I mainly consider myself a CMA guy a Traditional Yang Style Tai Chi (taiji) person with Tung style influences to be kinda sorta exact. However I recently started training Xingyiquan again and I just started training Cheng Man-Ching Tai Chi. So that Traditional Yang label could change; only time will tell.
I started martial arts right around the time the movie “Enter the Dragon” was a brand new, so I am old.
My first martial art was Japanese Jujitsu; I do not know what style. I went from Jujitsu to Taekwondo, before Taekwondo was an Olympic sport, once again reinforcing the fact that I am old. The Taekwondo that I did had close in fighting drills and some take downs, point sparing was not the focus at that time, but it was an option.
After a back injury and some time out of martial arts I ended up in Taijiquan which I have done now for very close to 15 years.
My first Tai Chi/kung fu teacher (for 5 years) was more of a Wushu guy from China. In this school I learned forms, a lot of forms. Yang 24, a couple of Yang sword forms, Wu competition form, Chen style forms, a form of Chen that he called Shandong Province old style Chen that was amazing, Chen style push hands, Xingyiquan, Baguazhang and a bit of Shaolin Long fist. I spent more time on Yang style, Chen Tai Chi and Xingyi than anything else. This school did give me the opportunity to do a lot of sparing outside of the regular class, which was a very good experience. There were people from multiple styles at this school, Aikido, Judo, Taekwondo, Kempo, Various kung fu styles, etc. Those of us that were not there for just forms were allowed to spar after class and I feel, from this experience, that cross style sparring can be a great addition to anyone’s training. Unless of course you are sparing a traditionally trained, long time, Southern Mantis guy then it’s just a great way to get beat up.
I trained very briefly with Yang Jwing Ming in push hands and Qin na during my time at my first CMA school. Also a brief flirtation with Wing Chun and Kendo, but not enough to amount to much nor say I really trained in either. I was looking for more than just the Wushu stuff at that time and that lead me to a Traditional Yang style teacher.
I studied Traditional Yang style for 11 years with the same teacher. My teacher's teacher was Tung Ying-chieh and sifu Tung’s teacher was Yang Cheng fu. I recently left this school due to a difference of opinion with my sifu. He decided to teach Tai chi for health and I was happier with his original teaching of tai chi as a martial art, including Qi Gong as well as other health aspects, it was a friendly split. Most unfortunately he can get more students if he does not include applications, push hands and freestyle push hands.
I recently switched to another teacher that teaches Cheng Man-Ching style of Tai Chi and Xingyi. I have also been doing a bit of “very traditional” training in Sanda (police/military version), but I will have to make a decision very soon as to what to keep and focus on. Tai Chi will stay and either Xingyi, Sanda (Sanshou) or both will have to go,
So far I rather like the Cheng Man-Ching style.
Longer than my first introduction, but there is a method to my madness and this may come in handy latter.
Xue Sheng