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I was thinking of purchasing some material (books/videos) from them to supplement my Ba Gua training and was wondering if anyone has any comments on YMAA's products.
YMAA Homepage
"To best condition the body you must first ignore completely how the body looks and focus rather on how it feels.
To condition the mind you must ignore how things appear or seem and focus rather on what they truly are."
Although I disagree with him at times he has some really good books worth having in your library. The Chin Na books are excellent! I have heard the bagua book is good too, but I don't have it myself. If you get it let us know.
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The Sifu in the YMAA Bagua book has a website, and it is in the "Hsing-i in Vancouver" thread.
If you don't get an answer you like to this question, don't run over to hsing-i.com and bad-mouth us. ;) We are doing the best we can :(
The books are good, but only if you do the seminars. I know someone who does the Chin Na seminars with Dr. Yang and he can lock you up good and tight very quickly. He told me to go to the seminar and then buy the book for a reference. There is a whole lot missing in those books which you need to know to make the locks work. My friend showed me 2 locks and there is a vast difference.
Dr. Yang might go over it better in his videos though, I'm not sure.
Although there are many styles, they all depend on the strong beating the weak and the slow falling to the quick. These are not related to the power that must be learned -- Taiji Classics
Stranger:
This is my post from hsing-I.com:
"I posted the same question on Kungfuonline.com, and was told that I am dreaming of meeting a wise old hermit tucked away in a hillside, etc. I was almost berated in a way because of my passion for the Tao"
If you consider this 'bad-mouthing', so be it. I asked a simple question on 2 websites. The first site (kungfuonline.com) made me feel as if my interest in the Tao was a bit 'overboard'. As I am new to Kung Fu, I appreciate the fact that this may be true. By posting on a smaller board like Hsing-I.com, I assumed I may be able to avoid the typical 'trolling' and get a little more insight as to whether the Tao te Ching was an integral part of most student's Kung Fu studies, or if I was, in fact, 'overboard'.
But 'bad-mouthing'? Just a mis-interpretation. Such is the internet. I was berated in a way, but that is not a badmouth, that is a fact. Also, maybe I needed the berating ;)
"To best condition the body you must first ignore completely how the body looks and focus rather on how it feels.
To condition the mind you must ignore how things appear or seem and focus rather on what they truly are."
Dr. Yang's books are very well written and provided a lot of information. I have three of them and would not hesitate to buy another if I wanted it. Nobody on this forum has ever questioned his credibility that I can recall. He provides, at times, direct translations from old Chinese documents that make sense to my western mind.
Hey, I was just busting your stones. I thought the little winking face logo would soften what I was saying. I wouldn't have tried to answer your question if I had thought you were being two-faced. Please, chalk it up to some good old fashioned ball busting, that might not have been conveyed well over the internet.
I've got a bunch of YMAA books, and I've taken a bunch of seminars and some classes at YMAA--and I would pretty much agree with what Water Dragon said. I don't think that there's anything specifically lacking in Dr. Yang's books, it's just that I think it's virtually impossible to explain a lot of the details and "feel" of CMA without personal instruction (and I believe Dr. Yang says this in a lot of his books)--I think books are best used for reference and reinforcing what you've been taught, and to help you understand theory better---as opposed to learning new things solely from them.
A couple points--Dr. Yang isn't a master of Bagua, so you might not find as much material on that art from YMAA. I would definitely recommend catching some of his seminars, though. Although Dr. Yang is well known for his chin na, I also think he is excellent at explaining and demonstrating the relationship of qi, li, hard jings, soft jings, hard and soft styles, etc.--with very practical illustrations and examples.
Dr. Yang does not teach Bagua, but YMAA did publish an Omei Bagua book. The sifu was Liang Shou Yu, the same as the one in the YMAA book on Hsing-i.