Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
To be honest I can’t say much about it, I was to busy doing everything else.
I was supposed to meet with an alleged long time Yang style guy. Once I got there his story changed a bit, he had said he had not done push hands in a long time, but after I arrived it turned to well my students do not want to learn push hands, I haven’t don it in a long time and I probably don’t remember. Bottom-line no push hands. I was supposed to meet with a Taoist as well, a friend of my Mother-in-law, out of town.
My mother-in-law did find a Buddhist guy that was considered a professional in Beijing martial arts that was a long time Xingyi and Bagua person, but I have to admit not being back in Xingyi all that long (1 month) and not speaking any Mandarin and he spoke no English, well you get the picture.
I did go to the parks a couple of mornings to check it out. There are tons of people doing Tai Chi in the parks and it was in Tien Ten park (Temple of Heaven) and this is where I lost interest in the main CMA I do (Traditional Yang style Tai Chi) I saw a couple of amazing Chen stylists as well as Wu stylists and some guys working on Tai Chi applications (I do not know the style) and I saw a Sun stylist, but since I do not know Sun I cannot tell you if he was good or bad, looked good to me that all I can say. But it was the Yang stylists that disappointed me. The majority of what I saw and what was being taught was 24 form for health only, no martial arts at all. This actually validated the guy I was suppose to do push hands with excuse. I learned 24 form 15 years ago and there is nothing wrong with it but it is not traditional and it is not what I want anymore. I only saw 3 guys, probably in their 60s doing traditional Yang Tai Chi, I only saw the end so I do not know how good they’re form really was, but they finished, started talking to each other and all lit up cigarettes and stood there smoking and talking. (Smoking is a major past time in Beijing), The talking part would have been ok, but I was not ready to breath the smoke at 7:30 in the morning.
The 2 guys that impressed me most were doing Shaolin Long Fist. Both looked very old, one was around 80 the other was around 90. If I could move as good as the 80 year old I would be happy. He was not as smooth or fast as some 20 somethings I have seen do the form but damn he had power and he could jump fairly well too. After he was done the 90 year old said something to him demonstrated a little bit and the 80 year old did the form again…. More powerful than the first time.
As for Tai Chi; Chen great, Wu Great, Sun fine to me, Yang very disappointing. Shaolin long fist, very impressive.
I did get a chance to talk to a martial artist on the subway, via my wife’s translation. He sounded as if he trained hard and knew his art very well. He trained almost everyday with his Sifu. I had done his style for 1 month a few years back so I did not sound like a complete idiot.
This martial artist was probably in his twenties and his art was……. Kendo
I am absolutely certain there are amazing martial artist in Beijing, if you go there to train I feel it is best to find a professional, like the Buddhist guy, and some in the parks were very impressive. I did see the guy teaching what appeared to be Tai Chi applications and he appeared to know his stuff. But as I said, I just lost interest after the park and stopped looking. But you truly do not have to look far, look at any police office or military person and they have been trained in Sanda/Sanshou.
I did have an interesting run in with 2 young Chinese martial artists in the Forbidden City. I was inside one of the buildings when I caught out of the corner of my eye 2 young boys playing at sparring. Kicking and punching back and forth, and they were not that bad actually. Then one of them, as his friend threw a spinning back kick, backed up turned and ran behind me. When the kicker stopped and went to continue his attack he stopped cold, looking roughly at my waist (he was not that tall), looked up at me, did a perfect Shaolin bow and then ran around me to start beating on his friend again. They ran out and I lost track of who won.
(Sorry to disappoint, but I truly did not do much if any CMA while there except for what I already knew, which I generally did very early in the morning. In Beijing, with the 12 hour time difference, I was a morning person for the first time in my life.)
I was supposed to meet with an alleged long time Yang style guy. Once I got there his story changed a bit, he had said he had not done push hands in a long time, but after I arrived it turned to well my students do not want to learn push hands, I haven’t don it in a long time and I probably don’t remember. Bottom-line no push hands. I was supposed to meet with a Taoist as well, a friend of my Mother-in-law, out of town.
My mother-in-law did find a Buddhist guy that was considered a professional in Beijing martial arts that was a long time Xingyi and Bagua person, but I have to admit not being back in Xingyi all that long (1 month) and not speaking any Mandarin and he spoke no English, well you get the picture.
I did go to the parks a couple of mornings to check it out. There are tons of people doing Tai Chi in the parks and it was in Tien Ten park (Temple of Heaven) and this is where I lost interest in the main CMA I do (Traditional Yang style Tai Chi) I saw a couple of amazing Chen stylists as well as Wu stylists and some guys working on Tai Chi applications (I do not know the style) and I saw a Sun stylist, but since I do not know Sun I cannot tell you if he was good or bad, looked good to me that all I can say. But it was the Yang stylists that disappointed me. The majority of what I saw and what was being taught was 24 form for health only, no martial arts at all. This actually validated the guy I was suppose to do push hands with excuse. I learned 24 form 15 years ago and there is nothing wrong with it but it is not traditional and it is not what I want anymore. I only saw 3 guys, probably in their 60s doing traditional Yang Tai Chi, I only saw the end so I do not know how good they’re form really was, but they finished, started talking to each other and all lit up cigarettes and stood there smoking and talking. (Smoking is a major past time in Beijing), The talking part would have been ok, but I was not ready to breath the smoke at 7:30 in the morning.
The 2 guys that impressed me most were doing Shaolin Long Fist. Both looked very old, one was around 80 the other was around 90. If I could move as good as the 80 year old I would be happy. He was not as smooth or fast as some 20 somethings I have seen do the form but damn he had power and he could jump fairly well too. After he was done the 90 year old said something to him demonstrated a little bit and the 80 year old did the form again…. More powerful than the first time.
As for Tai Chi; Chen great, Wu Great, Sun fine to me, Yang very disappointing. Shaolin long fist, very impressive.
I did get a chance to talk to a martial artist on the subway, via my wife’s translation. He sounded as if he trained hard and knew his art very well. He trained almost everyday with his Sifu. I had done his style for 1 month a few years back so I did not sound like a complete idiot.
This martial artist was probably in his twenties and his art was……. Kendo
I am absolutely certain there are amazing martial artist in Beijing, if you go there to train I feel it is best to find a professional, like the Buddhist guy, and some in the parks were very impressive. I did see the guy teaching what appeared to be Tai Chi applications and he appeared to know his stuff. But as I said, I just lost interest after the park and stopped looking. But you truly do not have to look far, look at any police office or military person and they have been trained in Sanda/Sanshou.
I did have an interesting run in with 2 young Chinese martial artists in the Forbidden City. I was inside one of the buildings when I caught out of the corner of my eye 2 young boys playing at sparring. Kicking and punching back and forth, and they were not that bad actually. Then one of them, as his friend threw a spinning back kick, backed up turned and ran behind me. When the kicker stopped and went to continue his attack he stopped cold, looking roughly at my waist (he was not that tall), looked up at me, did a perfect Shaolin bow and then ran around me to start beating on his friend again. They ran out and I lost track of who won.
(Sorry to disappoint, but I truly did not do much if any CMA while there except for what I already knew, which I generally did very early in the morning. In Beijing, with the 12 hour time difference, I was a morning person for the first time in my life.)
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