Splitting Fist video

[Apostol]

http://homepage.mac.com/stevefarrell/images/Splitting.mov

Found this on emptyflower. Well, it looks like he's doing it completely wrong. He doesn't pull back in the first movement (although that could just be in my school), and the hand motions are slightly wrong. Also, he doesn't turn around correctly (where you swim like a frog, and do the foot stomp defense).

[omarthefish]

You should go ahead and post this question on emptyflower where you found the clip. No one will flame you if you present it as an honest question.

"What's up with this clip? I'm new at Xing Yi but from what I've been taught so far it looks wrong because a, b, c.... :confused: "

But it looks pretty **** good to me. The only thing 'wrong' that I see is on his rear leg. His knee and toes are out of alignment. I've never trained Xing Yi but that's a basic principle of any MA and also one of human biomechanics.

Knee + torque = bad.

I'd suggest looking particularly at the end of each 'pi'. It looks sharp and his body looks pretty well unified. Every thing comes to a stop together. When your evaluatins other peoples gong fu, don't get too hung up on the details. Pulling back, hand motions, style of turing around....all just window dressing. What you really want to look for is the 3 harmonies, structural unity, power expression. All the stuff you mentioned varies too much from style to style, person to person and is just generally superficial stuff.

[Apostol]

Heh, I guess his style is just different.

I dislike the emptyflower community, by the way. They banned me for not being 21.

[cerebus]

Emptyflower's not for minors. You SHOULD'VE been banned.

I guess you dislike cashiers 'cause they won't sell you alcohol? You don't have to LIKE the rules, you just have to abide by them.

And if someone gets on EF and ACTS like an adult, no one is very likely to care HOW old they are. Maybe you shoulda done that?

[Apostol]

I noticed the chick on the front page but I only went to the Xing Yi section of the site.

...and actually, I told them I was 15.

But that's really retarded, what if you're 18? Even if they did have porn or whatever nonsense (which I never really found), you're still 18 and you're entitled to whatever you want.

And on a kung fu site? Isn't immorality disregarded in kung fu and martial arts? At least create another site.

[CD Lee]

Apostol said:


I dislike the emptyflower community, by the way. They banned me for not being 21.


Hey, don't write them off. I am a member there, and quite a few of us here are there as well. This forum is a bit off the mark, but KFO is my first love. Emptyflower, you get the real s****. Trust me, it has much more advanced members than on this forum. When you go there, you need to be humble and listen.

[Felipe Bido]

That Pi Quan is from Song Family Xingyi. Very different from what you've seen, Not wrong. Different.

You are not banned from EF. Your account got frozen for a while, but I don't see you in the banned group now.

It doesn't matter if you're a minor. Cerebus is right; act as an adult, and you'll be treated like one.

[Apostol]

I was just asking some help for my hsing yi, and they got all uptight about it. Don't jump to conclusions and blame it on me.

...and yes, they banned me all right. But my IP changes every two weeks, so now I'm back. They deleted all my posts also.

[Felipe Bido]

Originally posted by Apostol
I was just asking some help for my hsing yi, and they got all uptight about it. Don't jump to conclusions and blame it on me.


I think it was your 'STFU' that got you frozen.

And read again, you were not banned

[Felipe Bido]

LOL..Enforcer/Unmatchable...:p


Anyway, back to the topic.

An important point is this:

Xingyi forms have many variations from school to school. It depends on the region, the family or even what the original head of the family thought it'd be better for him, depending on his body type, natural skills, etc. There are many ways to do a form (There's even a Pi Quan form done with the head: To Pi Quan).

So, when watching a Xingyi form, you must pay attention to the principles, to know if the person doing the form is right or wrong. Even if the movements are beautiful, if the person doesn't keep the principles, the form is wrong.

Some of these principles are:

Six harmonies (right alignment, proper intention, proper unified movement or issuing of force, etc). The body moves as an unit. When one of the parts stops, everything stops. When one part moves, all parts move. The power concentrates in a small point and from there explodes, etc. I'm sure your teacher can give you more insight on this.

That Song Pi Quan form has 'cun jin' (Inch power). That's why you see his body is kept tight and it suddenly explodes and goes back. Song style also has the particular way to 'bounce' when it strikes. You can see it there.

Hope this helps.

[CD Lee]

Here is something cool he does as well. Notice his footwork and stepping. During the first sequence, he brings his feet close together in at the transition, but after he turns around, he varies the distance of the form by stepping all the way through during the transition. Subtle, but in a fight, you have to know how to work within a given distance.

[doug maverick]

as long as you follow the 6 harmonies, there really isn't a wrong way you can do xing yi. i've pi chuan done 20 defferent ways. my sifu always said your attack must change with the situation. besides i looked at that form a few times and i really don't see anything wrong with it, he has the right alignment and his fali looks pretty strong. maybe you haven't trained in xing yi for a long time so you don't know the defferent ways to use it, i spent my first year of xing yi just doing santi and pi chuan.

[blkbelt65]

I see nothing at all wrong. Are you sure it's just not different from what you train? Didn't you say you've only been training a matter of months and now you KNOW HOW ALL XINGI SHOULD LOOK??? I can see why EF banned you if you asked the same type of stupid questions there...

[Apostol]

Hey man, I can ask whatever the hell I please so just keep quiet. If you don't like it, don't post.

...and yes, now I realized that it's just another style/family.

[blkbelt65]

haha!! Kids are funny. Keep posting, I'm sure everyone's amused by your stupidity.... I know I am.

You wonder why your friends made fun of Hsingi..... It was the representitive they were making fun of, not the style.