xingyi, taiji, bagua

I'm sooning moving and have found schools for all three martial arts in the area I will be going too. They offer Chen Style Taiji, Ying Yang Ba Gua and a Xingyi school (I forget the name of the specific style). I have never studied any of these styles and was wondering if anyone could give me a little info on the differences etc? Also is one of these better to start out with? Can you combine the learning of 2 (or even 3) of these?

Also, While I know school for these exist, if anyone can actually recommend any in Sydney, Australia for any of these styles I'd apreciate it. I know Chen Xiaowang lives in Sydney does he teach?

Any info would be great.

Thanks in advance

Sup Azure..

I would recommend training in 2 styles max only if you are familiar with one of the two already. So if you've already trained in chen taiji and want to continue, then choose taiji and possibly another one. I think it would be really hard to try and learn 2 new styles at the exact same time.

For instance, I have a school near me that teaches TT Liang's yang taiji curriculum and Wai Lun Choi's bagua, xingyi and liuhebafa. I had to decide what I wanted to learn. I already have a 2-3 year background in taiji and a 9 year background in wushu. In addition, I had been exposed to liuhebafa and bagua by my previous instructor and wanted to continue to train in liuhebafa. Then, since I had never done xingyi before, I figured that I would also try that, but there was a slight twist. They also taught applications to a bagua form that I had already learned and so i figured that i wouldn't really be learning the form again that i could take that too. So by my own count, I'm taking like 2.5 styles at once. The half b/c I had already learned the external form movement aspect of the bagua form.

I had almost considered cutting down to 2 total, but I tend to practice at least an hour on my own on my off training days so I figured that I could retain the info pretty well, but it's a lot to take in. U know, only "eat" what you can fit on a plate :)

A.

whoops.. forgot that you also asked another question. As for which one is better to start out with, I'd say the deciding factor in that would be the teacher. Go to each one and check out the class and talk to the teacher. It really doesn't matter what style you train in if the teacher is not that great. IMO, it's better to train with a good teacher. But if all things were being equal and if I had to choose one to begin with, I'd personally train in the chen taiji b/c I've always wanted to train in that style but can't find a suitable teacher for chen taiji in my area.

good luck.
A.

I'm quite certain you will be in for some loooong winded responses on the generalities of these 3 methods but in light of that here is a near correct example a teacher told me use a ball.

Taijiquan is like a Ball that will roll and bounce, recieving, redirecting and bouncing back force.

Xingyiquan is like a cannon ball, hard, direct and fas with force.

Baguazhang is like a ball of string, wrapping and unwarpping, tangling and binding in coming force.

Not a description in their totality but a good idea.

I like your analogies, lapis ;)

To me xingyi seems a nice progression from wing chun, and in addition to being a powerful fighting art, the basics are *so* useful for any other internal method you might like to pick up.

The Chen syllabus is often taught slowly (like, over a decade or more), so you might be able to learn that and another style comfortably, but I think you'll get much more out of a year or two in xingyi if you're willing to wait before moving on to taiji (and indeed you may never want to move!).

Good bagua is a little more difficult to find than good xingyi or good Chen, and I don't know who teaches the yin/yang style in Sydney.

A chinese friend of mine used to say (as it's own version of an old quote): "If a rock comes at you, and you want it to break using its own force, use Tai Chi; If you want to get around it and break it with a palm, use Bagua; if you want to get right in the middle and break it with a punch, use Xingyi..at the end, the rock will break, no matter what you use"


:)

Here's another saying from another Chinese guy (aka ME):

If you use any one of these 3 styles properly, you can break the rock any way you wish.

If he has a school near you (because he does teach) then join it straight away. He he conclusively recognised as a genuine lineage holder of a **** good transmission of Chen Family Taiji. He is one of the few Chen style Grand-Masters today who derseve his status and title. in my opinion.

Hey,

Thanks a lot for all your replys, apreciate the info. Sorry for the late thanks, my internet has been playing up.