ba ma da bu in seven star?

[taichi4eva]

When I was in Michigan, I got the chance to observe a Tai Chi Praying Mantis Class in Grand Rapids. The teacher's name was Lee Hoa Yen. He told me that the curriculum he teaches consists of ba ma da bu, gong li quan, beng bu quan, and two ba zhou forms- upper and lower.

I was particularly interested in the ba ma da bu form because it trains the fundamental stances. I was wondering if seven star mantis had a version or a form that observed simple transitions from stance to stance.

Thank you.

[mantis108]

Sifu Lee Hoa Yen, is one of the direct students of GM Chiu in vietnam. I am glad that you have a chance to meet with him. I hope you have fun trying out the class.

The Ba Da Ma Bu (8 basics stances) in CCK TCPM is quite unique although clearly it came from the Greater Meihwa tradition. BTW, I have clip of that on my site. I have not seen other mantis styles that has the 8 basics stances as sort of a mini form. But then the mantis community is pretty big. So I wouldn't doubt that somewhere someone would have similar training idea.

I have seen an article featuring Yuen Man Kai (sp?) that has 7 star's stance sequences which is pretty interest but I don't think there are put together as form per se.

Warm regards

Mantis108

[yu shan]

Shifu Scolaro taught me our ba da ma bu in a sort of mini form. It has a nice flow from one stance to the next. I also learned a nifty way of training these stances in which the stances are presented in sort of line exercise. If my memory serves me, my kf uncle Shifu Kevin Brazier created this one to teach children. It also has a very nice flow to it and makes sense. I can see where it would appeal to kids, it is sort of fun. While in Wah Lum, I learned there 8 basic stances, they to have a system. Out of the 8, I have wondered about 3 of them. (1) bye ma = crushed horse stance (2) gwai ma = kneeling horse stance (3) woo dip ma = butterfly horse stance. I have never seen these in any other pm style, but I could be wrong.

[K.Brazier]

Hi Jim,
That set of stances was created ny Shifu, not me.
My favorite ones are the 7*, as my shifu calls it and the Taiji PM version.

I like the taiji version becuase it is arranged in 4 groups of 2.
So each two moves work together as a mimi combo.

But I think Robert's shifu Zhao must have taught it more than one way becuase I noticed that Robert's verson was slightly different.

I mentioned to my Shifu that Robert did it a little differently and Shifu said that one of the senior students, who himself was much older than my shifu, had taught him this way and he hadn't modified it.

Luan Xingfu had a group of only 5 stances.

[mantis108]

I kind of agreed that the Ba Da Ma Bu today might be done differently than say back in the 70s or earlier. I have seen other senior students of GM Chiu that do it differently than the way we do it in HK. I believe Shrfu Shr met or trained with an old student of GM Chiu piror to his visits to HK? I came to learn from GM Chiu during the late 80s. So there is possibly a gap there.

Anyway, I believe that CCK TCPM used to be done in pairs as well. But somehow after 1970s, it was changed to the present format which is 2-2-4. I also believe that some of the solo fundamental exercises ie Lu Shou tong chui are merged with the stance training and became the Ba Da Ma Bu that we know today. It may be to speed things up as classes in HK tends to be shorter like one and a half hour or an hour depending on the individual's schedual. Personally, I perfer 2-3 hours of training session and take it slow and steady. Most of us hang arround the Kwoon anyway. But I find that way that GM Chiu designed his classes is really quite efficient for short class time to match the hectic pace of HK. So...

Warmest regards

Robert (Mantis108)