most people go from the CPL form to studying Bagua and hsing i, as theyre considered more advanced study...THere arent but about five teachers in this country, it seems, who teach the Chen Pan Ling...and youre wise to look at the combat applications of this form...espescially how it works with the ba gua and hsing i for dealing with multiple opponents on multiple sides and multiple planes...you say youre in texas??? who's youre Sifu???
I think there are two lines of CPL in the US...one from General YW Chang in New Orleans/Alabama, the other from Sung Kai Sifu- a teacher who brought the form from Taiwan...
Some of his students started the Rochester Tai Chi Center in NY, my teacher also learned from Kai Sifu
If you are in TX it may be the form closer to the one in the textbook disseminated by Gen Chang (who died last year)
You need to order the textbook from amazon.com or straight from the Chen Pan LIng website
http://bliltzdes.com/cpli/
Otherwise I think we are very lucky to have this style of kung fu and much respects to Master Chen for the wisdom imbued in this system...
what BGZ/HIC ideas do you see in the form? lets start a discussion of that aspect w/ an underlying discussion on applications...