I found this clip on blog the other day. Fun clip to kill some time with.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Xingyimax.com
To compare your version of Xing yi with others go here. You will see much variety in expression of the various flavors of Xing Yi.
http://www.xingyimax.com/
http://www.xingyimax.com/
Great Internal Martial Arts Blog
Western practitioners are often out at a disadvantage when it comes to studying the roots and principals of Traditional Chinese Martial Arts. We are often left to "oral histories" from teachers and friends. Unfortunately this can lead to a sort of inbred opinion regarding other style within a particular branch of the same martial art.
The guy that runs this website is translating articles from Chinese into English and publishing them on his site. Go check him out. Great stuff.
http://wulinmingshi.wordpress.com/about/
The guy that runs this website is translating articles from Chinese into English and publishing them on his site. Go check him out. Great stuff.
http://wulinmingshi.wordpress.com/about/
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Oak Barrel Half Marathon in 6 weeks
6 weeks until my next half marathon. Starting to feel good about my pace again. I took way too much time off after the last one and was dropped by my running buddies. Still using the Hal Higdon Novice plan. But due to the hill climb within the first 5 miles I have added some light sprinting just one session during the week.
No problems any more with calf soreness after making the changes in my stride and running posture.(see previous posts)
Update***
Finished the half in about 2:10. It was great cutting 10 minutes off of my last time. The course was much harder as well. It had one huge climb and many smaller hills. The last 3 miles of the course was flat but by that time I had not gas in the tank to take advantage of it. Shooting for under 2 hours next time. But with my wife in graduate school now it may be hard to find time to train for the next event.
Will be looking for some 10k runs to do instead.
No problems any more with calf soreness after making the changes in my stride and running posture.(see previous posts)
Update***
Finished the half in about 2:10. It was great cutting 10 minutes off of my last time. The course was much harder as well. It had one huge climb and many smaller hills. The last 3 miles of the course was flat but by that time I had not gas in the tank to take advantage of it. Shooting for under 2 hours next time. But with my wife in graduate school now it may be hard to find time to train for the next event.
Will be looking for some 10k runs to do instead.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Disappearing of Weapons in Chinese Martial Arts
Here a small sample of an article by Damon Smith about the study of weapons in Chinese Martial Arts. Anyone interested in weapons or chinese style martial arts would benefit from the reading.
It is interesting to note that the Manchu favoured the bow above all weapons, and they were originally skilled archers. The Chinese were also originally skilled archers, but in some circles, particularly those relating to option 2 above, anything Manchu was tainted with a hint of being a traitor or collaborator. This factor may well have led to a reduction of the use of the bow among ethnic Chinese martial artists. So while the Manchu military and their Mongol and Chinese militias continued the practice of archery and other weapons, the native "ingrained" martial arts population among the ethnic Chinese began to reduce somewhat the number of weapons studied and focus on those which could be easily concealed. Favoured weapons included smaller jian swords and dao type blades, as well as weapons which could be claimed to be for another use, such as the staff used for walking or carrying loads, or a shorter-than-battlefield-length spear with the point removed that could be claimed to be a staff. Straight swords (jian) were also often regarded as a symbol of social status and may have been overlooked by the authorities in cases where other types of weapons would not be acceptable. This might be likened to the practice of sword wearing at special events like weddings in a few European countries today, and indeed more so until very recent times. As a symbol of social status, the sword would be acceptable at such an event, but a bow would not be.
Thus, there was a tendency towards smaller size in the dedicated weapons and towards non-specialisation in the larger weapons among the Han. Use of weapons that could only be associated with the battlefield, such as various types of specialised lances, halberds, war-hammers and war-axes, began to disappear among the general population, if not among the Manchu military and associated units.
It is interesting to note that the Manchu favoured the bow above all weapons, and they were originally skilled archers. The Chinese were also originally skilled archers, but in some circles, particularly those relating to option 2 above, anything Manchu was tainted with a hint of being a traitor or collaborator. This factor may well have led to a reduction of the use of the bow among ethnic Chinese martial artists. So while the Manchu military and their Mongol and Chinese militias continued the practice of archery and other weapons, the native "ingrained" martial arts population among the ethnic Chinese began to reduce somewhat the number of weapons studied and focus on those which could be easily concealed. Favoured weapons included smaller jian swords and dao type blades, as well as weapons which could be claimed to be for another use, such as the staff used for walking or carrying loads, or a shorter-than-battlefield-length spear with the point removed that could be claimed to be a staff. Straight swords (jian) were also often regarded as a symbol of social status and may have been overlooked by the authorities in cases where other types of weapons would not be acceptable. This might be likened to the practice of sword wearing at special events like weddings in a few European countries today, and indeed more so until very recent times. As a symbol of social status, the sword would be acceptable at such an event, but a bow would not be.
Thus, there was a tendency towards smaller size in the dedicated weapons and towards non-specialisation in the larger weapons among the Han. Use of weapons that could only be associated with the battlefield, such as various types of specialised lances, halberds, war-hammers and war-axes, began to disappear among the general population, if not among the Manchu military and associated units.
Kuntaw Staff Drill
Guru Buzz teaching a staff drill. With just a few encounters I have had with Buzz he has helped me "find" stuff in my staff work. Many of the moves from my old staff form made no sense until spending about 5 minutes with the Guru. One drill that he showed us revolves around controlling the weapon. Here is the video (thanks to may friend Jeff) that he asked me to share. Obviously Rob was still getting the hang of it. He is a quick study though.
Video of Kuntaw Guru Brian "Buzz" Smith teaching at the Gathering
We had a great time hanging out with Buzz while we were there. He is one of the most generous, open and knowledgeable teachers that I have met. Guru Buzz will be teaching at a big Filipino Martial Arts event this May in Illinois. That has to be the first Staff Choke I have ever seen.
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