Started this evening. All Santi shi and foot work.
Like all styles of Xingyiquan you need to stand in Santi Shi, it helps develop power and teach connections. Different styles get into santi differently, Wudang starts different than Hebei and both are a little different than Shanxi. Even within Hebei I have had teacher teach the first moves to santi shi differently. Also the stance can vary a little, with the biggest difference I have seen is Shanxi, the santi stance was just about 50/50 weight divided between front and back foot, but then that may have just been that teachers take on it. Generally it is 60/40 or 70/30. Also hand positions can vary slightly from style to style in Santi Shi
Old day they would hold santi hours per day per side. Frankly I think 30 minuted per side is a good time. Currently I am far from that, and even at my peak of XIngyi I ws only at 20 minutes per side. Goal now is 30, I am at about 6 minutes and I cant hold it for more than 2 minutes with my right arm forward due to my shoulder issue
But footwork is the major difference between Hebei, Shanxi and Wudang. My experience is that in Hebei and Shanxi there are about 3 different moving patterns going forward and 3 going backwards. Wudang has several, and I think this makes it more applicable to actual SD. Wudang will also go in multiple directions with footwork. There is even footwork that is similar to the advancing step in JKD, but in Xingyiquan it is back weighted not front weighted like in JKD.
But if you read Di Guoyong's first book on XIngyiquan he gets into a lot of training that was traditional that many do not train today. The only style I have trained that coes close to this is Wudang
This week will be all about foot work and Santi Shi for me.
Di Gouyong in Santi Shi (Hebei style, but also believe he has called it Shang style)
