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xingyiman
01-29-2001, 08:29 PM
Does anyone have any of the Hsing-I videos by Gerald Sharp from Unique Publications? Care to give a critique of them? I want some opinions on them before I consider ordering them myself

Chris McKinley
01-29-2001, 11:24 PM
Well, first off, I'm not a XingYi man. Baguazhang and Taiji are the 2 internal arts I study. Still, I do have the videos and I am knowledgeable about both real combat and human biomechanics.

Sharp may or may not be able to actually use his XingYi in combat. One is unable to tell from the videos. 90% of the tape is devoted to demonstrating form sequences in solo practice. There are a small handful of applications, though these are both rudimentary and a bit "clinical". Sharp talks very little about XingYi as used to actually fight. From these videos, one might conclude that XingYi is somewhat similar to new Yang Taiji. That is, great for health, culture, coordination, etc., but only mildly useful in a real fight.

Good video production quality, fairly crisp form, native English speech, and non-esoteric explanations from Sharp are the best features of these videos. Infrequent, oversimplistic, and static applications with very little follow-through and no presentation of XingYi's devastating reputation in combat are the most glaring disadvantages. Give the same production quality to a real XingYi fighter and those videos would blow Sharp's away.

Still, a nice easy-to-understand reference set for those just beginning their study of an internal art. Probably useful for comparing and improving form practice

Al S.
01-29-2001, 11:33 PM
Greetings -

I have only one of the videos ("Power Training") and I think it's good. It covers some Standing Meditation, plus Xingyi Rou Shou/Push Hands. It also has a demonstration of his Animal Powers Fist form.

But I'm not a Xingyi player - I'm a Taiji player - so I can't comment on Gerald's Xingyi abilities. I found the tape useful however for my own Push Hands training. Gerald presents an "8 Doors" method for pushing that was very helpful. The tape is professionally filmed and the instruction is clear.

I'm biased, though, because I know Gerald and went to a few of his workshops a few years back. I've also pushed hands with him, and he's excellent at Taiji push hands.

Thanks,
Al

Al S.
CloudWater Tai Chi (http://www.cloudwater.com)

Brat
01-30-2001, 07:03 PM
I have Sharp's first tape on the five elements. Sharp is a Sanxi stylist from what I can tell, I'm Hebei. I tried to do Xing-i with some of the forms he was using and quite honestly I dont see how he gets any power in the strikes because with his sliding foot method it is almost impossible to keep your spine straight and your head erect.
Sharp trained under Wen Mei Yu so I'm confident he knows what he is doing. I would like the opportunity to train with him someday to see how he does things.